Brain connectivity
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While many previous studies assumed the functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions to be stationary, recent studies have demonstrated that FC dynamically varies across time. However, two challenges have limited the interpretability of dynamic FC information. First, a principled framework for selecting the temporal extent of the window used to examine the dynamics is lacking and this has resulted in ad-hoc selections of window lengths and subsequent divergent results. ⋯ Next, using a large resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral dataset from the Human Connectome Project, we demonstrate that metrics derived from dynamic FC can explain more than twice the variance in 75 behaviors across different domains (alertness, cognition, emotion, and personality traits) as compared with SFC in healthy individuals. Further, we found that individuals with brain networks exhibiting greater dynamics performed more favorably in behavioral tasks. This indicates that the ease with which brain regions engage or disengage may provide potential biomarkers for disorders involving altered neural circuitry.
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Human decision making in situations of inequity has long been regarded as a competition between the sense of fairness and self-interest, primarily based on behavioral and neuroimaging studies of inequity that disfavor the actor while favoring others. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments to study refusals and protests using both favoring and disfavoring inequity in three economic exchange games with undercompensating, nearly equal, and overcompensating offers. ⋯ Protesting of undercompensating fixed offers activated the network consisting of the right dlPFC and the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and midbrain in the substantia nigra. These findings suggest that perceived fairness and social decisions are the results of coordination between evaluated fairness norms, self-interest, and reward.
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Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome characterized by chronic pain without known peripheral causes. Previously, we have reported dysfunctional pain inhibitory mechanisms for FM patients during pain administration. In this study we employed a seed correlation analysis, independent component analysis (ICA), and an analysis of fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF) to study differences between a cohort of female FM patients and an age- and sex-matched healthy control group during a resting-state condition. ⋯ Weaker coupling between pain regions and prefrontal- and sensorimotor areas might indicate a less efficient system level control of pain circuits. Moreover, our results show that multiple, complementary analytical approaches are valuable for obtaining a more comprehensive characterization of deviant resting-state activity. In conclusion, our findings show that FM primarily is associated with decreased connectivity, for example, between several pain-related areas and sensorimotor regions, which could reflect a deficiency in pain regulation.
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There is evidence that the default mode network (DMN) functional connectivity is impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and few studies also reported a decrease in DMN intrinsic activity, measured by the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs). In this study, we analyzed the relationship between DMN intrinsic activity and functional connectivity, as well as their possible implications on cognition in patients with mild AD and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and healthy controls. In addition, we evaluated the differences both in connectivity and ALFF values between these groups. ⋯ Cognitive tests correlated to connectivity values but not to ALFFs. In conclusion, we found that DMN connectivity and ALFFs are correlated in these groups. Decreased PCC ALFFs disrupt the DMN functional organization, leading to cognitive problems in the AD spectrum.
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Subtle changes in motor function have been observed in individuals with prodromal Huntington disease (prHD), but the underlying neural mechanisms are not well understood nor is the cumulative effect of the disease (disease burden) on functional connectivity. The present study examined the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) connectivity of the primary motor cortex (M1) in 16 gene-negative (NEG) controls and 48 gene-positive prHD participants with various levels of disease burden. The results showed that the strength of the left M1 connectivity with the ipsilateral M1 and somatosensory areas decreased as disease burden increased and correlated with motor symptoms. ⋯ Short- and long-range functional connectivity disturbances were also associated with volume loss in the basal ganglia, suggesting that weakened M1 connectivity is partly a manifestation of striatal atrophy. Altogether, the results indicate that the prodromal phase of HD is associated with abnormal interhemispheric interactions among motor areas and disturbances in the connectivity of M1 with visual centers and the DMN. These changes may, respectively, contribute to increased motor symptoms, visuomotor integration problems, and deficits in the executive control of movement as individuals approach a manifest diagnosis.