NeuroImage
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Clinical Trial
Amygdala modulation of parahippocampal and frontal regions during emotionally influenced memory storage.
Considerable evidence from both animal and human subject research supports the hypothesis that the amygdala, when activated by emotional arousal, modulates memory storage processes in other brain regions. By this hypothesis, changes in the functional interactions of the amygdala with other brain regions during emotional conditions should underlie, at least in part, enhanced memory for emotional material. Here we examined the influence of the human amygdala on other brain regions under emotional and nonemotional learning conditions using structural equation modeling (SEqM). ⋯ To identify potential candidate voxels for SEqM, the functional connectivity of the maximally activated voxel within the right amygdala was investigated using partial least squares. A subset of regions identified by this analysis showing differences functional connectivity with the amygdala between the emotional versus neutral film conditions were then submitted to SEqM, which revealed significantly increased amygdala influences on the ipsilateral parahippocampal gyrus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during the emotional relative to the neutral film viewing condition. These findings support the view that increased influences from the amygdala, presumably reflecting its memory-modulation function, occur during emotionally arousing learning situations.
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Our objective was to investigate correlations between clinical motor scores and cerebral sensorimotor activation to demonstrate that this reorganization is the neural substratum of motor recovery. Correlation analyses identified reorganization processes shared by all patients. Nine patients with first-time corticospinal tract lacuna were clinically evaluated using the NIH stroke scale, the motricity index, and the Barthel index. ⋯ The whole sensorimotor network activation correlated with motor status at E2, indicating a recovery of its function when activated. Moreover, the activation pattern in the acute phase (E1) had a predictive value: early recruitment and high activation of the SMA and inferior BA 40 were correlated with a faster or better motor recovery. On the contrary, activation of the contralesional hemisphere (prefrontal cortex and BA 39-40) and of the posterior cingulate/precuneus (BA 7-31) predicted a slower recovery.