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Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain.3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging
Abstract
Modern neurosurgical concepts call for not only "seeing" but also for "localizing" structures in three-dimensional space in relationship to each other. Hence there is a need for a reference system. This book aims to put this notion into practice by means of anatomical and MRI sections with the same stereotaxic orientation. The purpose is to display the fundamental distribution of structures in three-dimensional space and their spatial evolution within the brain as a whole, while facilitating their identification; to make comparative studies of cortico-subcortical lesions possible on a basis of an equivalent reference system; to exploit the anatomo-functional data such as those furnished by SEEG in epilepsy and to enable the localization of special regions such as the SMA in three-dimensional space; and to apply the anatomical correlations of this reference system to neurophysiological investigations lacking sufficient anatomical back-up (including PET scan).
... The tokenized latents are then processed by self-attention within the time dimension to capture long-term temporal dependencies within electrodes. Using a novel positional encoding scheme, we then imprint the latents of each electrode with information about their 3D location in the brain, using their MNI coordinates, a standarized 3D coordinate system used to localize brain regions [Talairach andTournoux, 1988, Collins et al., 1994]. The spatially aware latents are then processed by another self-attention that operates within the electrode dimension to capture long-range dependencies across electrodes. ...
... To account for the inconsistency of electrode locations across individuals, there is a need to inject information about the spatial location of each electrode into our model. To do so, we used radial basis functions to capture the information about each electrode location in the brain based on its MNI coordinates [MacDonald et al., 2000, Talairach andTournoux, 1988]. We discretize the space of each coordinate, into n bins, with midpoints µ 0 , µ 1 , . . . ...
... However, the decoding performance gains provided by all positional encodings explored in this work are modest. Therefore, it would be worth exploring other positional encoding schemes, perhaps based on whole brain MRI images and/or brain atlases other than MNI [Talairach and Tournoux, 1988]. Justification: To the best of our knowledge, all claims made in the abstract and introduction are supported by our experiments described in section 4. Guidelines: ...
Deep learning based neural decoding from stereotactic electroencephalography (sEEG) would likely benefit from scaling up both dataset and model size. To achieve this, combining data across multiple subjects is crucial. However, in sEEG cohorts, each subject has a variable number of electrodes placed at distinct locations in their brain, solely based on clinical needs. Such heterogeneity in electrode number/placement poses a significant challenge for data integration, since there is no clear correspondence of the neural activity recorded at distinct sites between individuals. Here we introduce seegnificant: a training framework and architecture that can be used to decode behavior across subjects using sEEG data. We tokenize the neural activity within electrodes using convolutions and extract long-term temporal dependencies between tokens using self-attention in the time dimension. The 3D location of each electrode is then mixed with the tokens, followed by another self-attention in the electrode dimension to extract effective spatiotemporal neural representations. Subject-specific heads are then used for downstream decoding tasks. Using this approach, we construct a multi-subject model trained on the combined data from 21 subjects performing a behavioral task. We demonstrate that our model is able to decode the trial-wise response time of the subjects during the behavioral task solely from neural data. We also show that the neural representations learned by pretraining our model across individuals can be transferred in a few-shot manner to new subjects. This work introduces a scalable approach towards sEEG data integration for multi-subject model training, paving the way for cross-subject generalization for sEEG decoding.
... Two commonly employed reference spaces for this purpose are the Talairach space [41] and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space [42]. The former is based on autopsy images of a single brain, while the latter relies on MRI scans from a substantial population of adult subjects. ...
... In particular, the Talairach atlas [41,48,49] is renowned for providing detailed anatomical descriptions within the stereotaxic space, including delineations of Brodmann's areas (BA) [50]. The Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) [51] atlas is also a valuable resource for anatomical localization within neuroimaging studies. ...
... The MAV was adapted from the Pickatlas [25] and contains 22 atlases (Supplementary Table S1) [48,49,51,[53][54][55][56]. These include the MNI_AAL [51], version 4 of the "AAL_MNI_V4", the same as the AAL [51] of 116 segmented structures "atlas116" from the Neurofunctional Imaging Group, the Individual Brain Atlases Using Statistical Mapping Software (IBASPM) [57] of 71 segmented structures "atlas71", the ICBM [46] label "ICBM label" from the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, and the "Talairach Daemon (TD) lobe" from the Talairach Daemon [41,48,49]. found inside the selected folder (in the picture, the IED). ...
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive neuroimaging technique widely recognized for epilepsy and tumor mapping. MEG clinical reporting requires a multidisciplinary team, including expert input regarding each dipole’s anatomic localization. Here, we introduce a novel tool, the “Magnetoencephalography Atlas Viewer” (MAV), which streamlines this anatomical analysis. The MAV normalizes the patient’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space, reverse-normalizes MNI atlases to the native MRI, identifies MEG dipole files, and matches dipoles’ coordinates to their spatial location in atlas files. It offers a user-friendly and interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying individual dipoles, groups, coordinates, anatomical labels, and a tri-planar MRI view of the patient with dipole overlays. It evaluated over 273 dipoles obtained in clinical epilepsy subjects. Consensus-based ground truth was established by three neuroradiologists, with a minimum agreement threshold of two. The concordance between the ground truth and MAV labeling ranged from 79% to 84%, depending on the normalization method. Higher concordance rates were observed in subjects with minimal or no structural abnormalities on the MRI, ranging from 80% to 90%. The MAV provides a straightforward MEG dipole anatomic localization method, allowing a nonspecialist to prepopulate a report, thereby facilitating and reducing the time of clinical reporting.
... It stands to reason that the results of such studies can only be qualified as scientific, if the cortical areas, responsible for these activities, are determined. Initially, such determinations were provisionally performed by transferring the activated loci to a three-dimensional version of Brodmann's map, produced by Talairach andTournoux (1988, 1993). However, it soon became clear that this map does not provide the neuromorphological precision and accuracy for an adequate mapping of fMRI data (Geyer et al. 2011;Glasser et al. 2016b). ...
... It stands to reason that the results of such studies can only be qualified as scientific, if the cortical areas, responsible for these activities, are determined. Initially, such determinations were provisionally performed by transferring the activated loci to a three-dimensional version of Brodmann's map, produced by Talairach andTournoux (1988, 1993). However, it soon became clear that this map does not provide the neuromorphological precision and accuracy for an adequate mapping of fMRI data (Geyer et al. 2011;Glasser et al. 2016b). ...
The first, introductory part of this paper presents an overview of the long quest for a universal map of the human cortex, useful as a standard reference for all remaining studies on this brain part. It is pointed out that such a map does still not exist, but that systematic comparison of some recently produced 3D maps may well be conducive toward this important goal. Hence, the second part of this article is devoted to a detailed comparison of two of such maps, the multimodal MRI-based parcellation of Glasser et al. (Nature 536:171–178, 2016) and the myeloarchitectonic parcellation presented by Nieuwenhuys and Broere (Brain Struct Funct 228:1549–1559, 2023), with the specific aim to detect areal concordances between these two maps. In the search for these concordances, the following three criteria were used: (1) the relative or topological position of the various areas, (2) the relation of the areas to particular invariant sulci, and (3) the overall myelin content of the areas. In total 61 concordances were detected, most of which were located in the frontal and parietal lobes. These concordances were recorded in standard views of the two maps compared (Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8), as well as in Table 1. We consider these findings as a first step towards the creation of a unified, consensus (canonical) parcellation of the human neocortex.
... The Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) was used for brain tissue segmentation, and the DARTEL algorithm was used to warp the images to the standard Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space [54][55][56][57]. Subsequently, brain tissue masks for white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were resliced to a voxel size of 2.5 × 2.5 × 2.5 using FSL [58] to match the voxel size of the BOLD images for further functional image processing. ...
... ac. uk/ spm/) [57,62]. The recombined images were then warped to standard MNI space using DARTEL and smoothed using a 6 mm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) Gaussian filter kernel. ...
Background
Physical activity combined with virtual reality and exergaming has emerged as a new technique to improve engagement and provide clinical benefit for gait and balance disorders in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Objective
To investigate the effects of a training protocol using a home-based exergaming system on brain volume and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) in persons with PD.
Methods
A single blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in people with PD with gait and/or balance disorders. The experimental (active) group performed 18 training sessions at home by playing a custom-designed exergame with full body movements, standing in front of a RGB-D Kinect® motion sensor, while the control group played using the computer keyboard. Both groups received the same training program. Clinical scales, gait recordings, and brain MRI were performed before and after training. We assessed the effects of both training on both the grey matter volumes (GVM) and rs-FC, within and between groups.
Results
Twenty-three patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the active (n = 11) or control (n = 12) training groups. Comparing pre- to post-training, the active group showed significant improvements in gait and balance disorders, with decreased rs-FC between the sensorimotor, attentional and basal ganglia networks, but with an increase between the cerebellar and basal ganglia networks. In contrast, the control group showed no significant changes, and rs-FC significantly decreased in the mesolimbic and visuospatial cerebellar and basal ganglia networks. Post-training, the rs-FC was greater in the active relative to the control group between the basal ganglia, motor cortical and cerebellar areas, and bilaterally between the insula and the inferior temporal lobe. Conversely, rs FC was lower in the active relative to the control group between the pedunculopontine nucleus and cerebellar areas, between the temporal inferior lobes and the right thalamus, between the left putamen and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and within the default mode network.
Conclusions
Full-body movement training using a customized exergame induced brain rs-FC changes within the sensorimotor, attentional and cerebellar networks in people with PD. Further research is needed to comprehensively understand the neurophysiological effects of such training approaches.
Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03560089.
... Since the study was retrospective and based on old records, no informed consent was obtained. All regions of the globus pallidus, putamen, and caudate nuclei were selected individually in the axial reformate images that best represent the anatomy, without exceeding their borders, with an ROI determined by a senior radiologist (M.B.) [29,30] (Fig. 1). The nuclei of both sides were taken as separate samples. ...
... Histogram and fractal analysis texture analysis values obtained from ROIs have been previously described in the literature [23,25,26,30,31]. ...
Background: The neurobiological basis of delusional disorder is less explored through neuroimaging techniques than in other psychotic disorders. This study aims to provide information about the neural origins of delusional disorder (DD) by examining the neuroanatomical features of some basal nuclei with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) texture analysis.
... The Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) was used for brain tissue segmentation, and the DARTEL algorithm was used to warp the images to the standard Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space [54][55][56][57]. Subsequently, brain tissue masks for white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal uid (CSF) were resliced to a voxel size of 2.5 × 2.5 × 2.5 using FSL [58] to match the voxel size of the BOLD images for further functional image processing. ...
... Brain masks were extracted using FSL, and the images were coregistered to T1 images using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12, www. l.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/) [57,62]. The recombined images were then warped to standard MNI space using DARTEL and smoothed using a 6 mm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) Gaussian lter kernel. ...
Background
Physical activity combined with virtual reality and exergaming has emerged as a new technique to improve engagement and provide clinical benefit for gait and balance disorders in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Objective
To investigate the effects of a training protocol using a home-based exergaming system on brain volume and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) in persons with PD.
Methods
A single blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in people with PD with gait and/or balance disorders. The experimental (active) group performed 18 training sessions at home by playing a custom-designed exergame with full body movements, standing in front of a RGB-D Kinect® motion sensor, while the control group played using the computer keyboard. Both groups received the same training program. Clinical scales, gait recordings, and brain MRI were performed before and after training. We assessed the effects of both training on both the grey matter volumes (GVM) and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC), within and between groups.
Results
Twenty-three patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the active (n = 11) or control (n = 12) training groups. Comparing pre- to post-training, the active group showed significant improvements in gait and balance disorders, with decreased rs-FC between the sensorimotor, attentional and basal ganglia networks, but with an increase between the cerebellar and basal ganglia networks. In contrast, the control group showed no significant changes, and rs-FC significantly decreased in the mesolimbic and visuospatial cerebellar and basal ganglia networks. Post-training, the rsFC was greater in the active relative to the control group between the basal ganglia, motor cortical and cerebellar areas, and bilaterally between the insula and the inferior temporal lobe. Conversely, rs FC was lower in the active relative to the control group between the pedunculopontine nucleus and cerebellar areas, between the temporal inferior lobes and the right thalamus, between the left putamen and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and within the default mode network.
Conclusions
Full-body movement training using a customized exergame induced brain rs-FC changes within the sensorimotor, attentional and cerebellar networks in people with PD. Further research is needed to comprehensively understand the neurophysiological effects of such training approaches.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03560089
... The fMRI data were subsequently spatially smoothed with a 4-mm smoothing kernel and subsequently normalized to standard space using 2 Â 2 Â 2 MNI template (Montreal Neurological Institute) from SPM12. 36 ...
Background Compression neuropathy, such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), results in changed afferent nerve signaling, which may result in changes in somatosensory brain areas. The purpose of this study was to assess cerebral changes following unilateral CTS and to assess short-term and long-term cerebral effects of guided plasticity treatment using ipsilateral cutaneous forearm deafferentation.
Methods Twenty-four patients with mild-to-moderate unilateral CTS were randomized to treatment with anesthetic cream (EMLA) or placebo. Patient-rated outcomes were assessed using Boston CTS questionnaire and disability of arm, shoulder, and hand questionnaire (QuickDASH). Patients were assessed for tactile discrimination and dexterity. Cortical activation during sensory stimulation was evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3T. Assessments were performed at baseline, 90 minutes, and 8 weeks after treatment.
Results Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed that sensory stimulation of the hand with CTS resulted in significantly less cortical activation in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) than stimulation of the healthy hand. Treatment with cutaneous forearm deafferentation on the side with CTS resulted in increased cortical activation in S1 both after the initial treatment and following 8 weeks of treatment. In addition, QuickDASH and tactile discrimination showed improvement in the EMLA group over time.
Conclusions Stimulation of median nerve-innervated fingers in patients with unilateral CTS results in smaller-than-normal activation in the contralateral S1. Cutaneous forearm anesthesia on the side with CTS results in larger activation in S1, suggesting recruitment of more neurons, and a slight improvement in sensory function.
... It is important to note that normative connectomes are similar to anatomical reference atlases used in neurosurgical planning [66]. Both contain detailed information that may not account for the unique anatomy or connectivity of specific patient populations or individual patients [67,68]. ...
Computational methods and technologies are critical for neurosurgery in general and in deep brain stimulation (DBS) in particular. They increasingly inform every aspect of clinical DBS therapy, from presurgical planning and hardware implantation to postoperative adjustment of stimulation parameters. Computational methods also occupy a prominent position within the DBS research sphere, where they facilitate efforts to better understand DBS’ underlying mechanisms and optimize and individualize its delivery. This chapter provides a high-level overview of the various computational tools and methods that have been applied to DBS. First, we discuss the invaluable contribution of computational neuroimaging (primarily magnetic resonance imaging) to DBS, targeting and the role of postoperative methods of image analysis—specifically, electrode localization, volume of activated tissue modeling, and sweet-spot mapping—in precisely localizing DBS’ targets in the brain and discerning optimal treatment loci. We then address the growing field of connectomics, which leverages specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences and post-acquisition processing algorithms to explore how DBS operates at the level of brain-wide networks. Next, the search for electrophysiological and imaging-based biomarkers of optimal DBS therapy is explored. We lastly touch on the incipient field of spatial characterization analysis and discuss the ongoing development of adaptive, closed-loop DBS systems.
... Further, we used band-pass filtering with an eighth order Butterworth filter with cut-off frequencies of 0.009Hz and 0.08Hz (Fox et al., 2007). Data was coregistered to the anatomical scan and transformed to the Talairach space (Talairach, 1988). Pre-processing was conducted in BrainVoyager 20.6 and was similar to the pre-processing in Joubran et al., 2022. ...
Stroke is associated with damage to neural tissue and is the leading cause of long-term sensory-motor disability in adults. Dynamic balance impairments are one of the most debilitating outcomes of stroke, leading to increased falls and loss of mobility.
While the recovery of motor functions following stroke was shown to be affected by the initial brain damage, the ability to predict recovery based on neural markers is limited due to the involvement of multiple brain areas in dynamic balance, and the limited size of available datasets. We apply graph-theory-based neural markers to predict the
extent of recovery in the presence of a rehabilitative treatment and the passage of time
on a dataset of 21 subjects after stroke. We report that global features are more informative than local features, describing individual regions. We also report that recovery level is predicted more accurately (85%) than dynamic balance state (76%).
Our results demonstrate the feasibility of graph-based analyses on limited datasets and may contribute to clinical goal setting and to mapping the neural substrates of dynamic balance.
... The location of the two stimulation sites was automatically identified on the participant's scalp using the SofTaxic navigator system (E.M.S. Italy, www.emsmedical.net), which uses a set of digitized skull landmarks (nasion, inion, and two pre-auricular points), and about 40 scalp points entered with a Fastrak Polhemus digitizer system (Polhemus), and an averaged stereotaxic MRI atlas brain in Talairach space 49 . The average Talairach coordinates in the SofTaxic navigator system were transformed through a linear transformation to each individual participant's scalp. ...
A Right Ear Advantage (REA) is well-established in perceptual tasks but it has been found also during imagery. It is ascribed to the left temporoparietal activity for language, and it can be absent/reversed in some clinical conditions including auditory hallucinations. We applied 1-Hz repetitive TMS over TP3/TP4 (left/right language areas) identified through neuronavigation in 18 healthy participants, before administering a modified white noise (WN) speech illusion paradigm: a voice was presented at one ear, at the same or lower intensities with respect to binaural WN. In some trials the voice was not presented, but participants were anyway instructed to report in which ear they believed perceiving it in all trials. Results confirmed the REA both when the voice was present (perceptual REA) and when it was absent (imaginative REA). Interestingly, results suggested that the correct localization of the voice when the stimulus was ambiguous (presented at low intensity and “masked” by WN) was better when TMS was applied over the right/left hemisphere, in male participants with a low/high proneness to unusual experiences (e.g., auditory hallucinations), respectively. This interaction must be further explored to shed light on the relationship between hemispheric asymmetries and auditory hallucinations, in healthy and clinical samples.
... A keresés során összesen 3654 tételt azonosítottam, melyekből a PRISMA módszertan végigvitele után a metaanalízisbe 63 tanulmány került be. A vizsgálatba csak azok a tanulmányok kerültek be, amelyek a) egészséges felnőtt populáción; b) angol nyelven; c) fMRI képalkotó eljárással; d) megértést mértek (auditív vagy vizuális feladatprezentációval); e) teljes agyi elemzést (whole-brain analysis ) közöltek; f) az agyi aktivációs gócokat (foci; cluster ) és csúcsokat (peaks ) a két nemzetközileg elfogadott koordinátarendszer valamelyikében, vagyis MNI (Montreal Neurological Institute; Collins et al. 1994) vagy Talairach (Talairach-Tournoux 1988) ...
The aim of this study is to explore the neural basis of pragmatic understanding. I applied a coordination-based Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analysis. After a comprehensive study selection, 63 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Studies on metaphor, metonymy, irony, sarcasm, implicatures, speech acts, idioms, and proverbs were examined. The meta-analysis was based on data from 1204 participants, and 590 activation foci were identified contrasting figurative and literal understanding. Some of the activation foci correspond to specific structural hubs in the brain, such as the precuneus, superior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, insula, hippocampus, or thalamus. Additionally, among the identified areas, we also find nodes of brain functional networks (such as the language network or theory of mind network), including the bilateral precuneus, both the lateral and medial gyri of the frontal lobes, the superior and middle gyri of the temporal lobes, the amygdala, and the left inferior and superior parietal lobule, insula and cingulate cortex.
Keywords: neuropragmatics, pragmatics, ALE meta-analysis, metaphor, irony, implicatures, idiom, speech acts
... Further data preprocessing comprised spatial (8 mm full-width half-maximum isotropic Gaussian kernel) as well as temporal smoothing (high pass filter: 10 cycles per run, low pass filter: 2.8 s). The anatomical and functional images were co-registered and normalized to the Talairach space (Talairach and Tournoux, 1988). ...
Faces can acquire emotional meaning by learning to associate individuals with specific behaviors. Here, we investigated emotional evaluation and brain activations toward faces of persons who had given negative or positive evaluations to others. Furthermore, we investigated how emotional evaluations and brain activation generalize to perceptually similar faces. Valence ratings indicated learning and generalization effects for both positive and negative faces. Brain activation, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), showed significantly increased activation in the fusiform gyrus (FG) to negatively associated faces but not positively associated ones. Remarkably, brain activation in FG to faces to which emotional meaning (negative and positive) was successfully generalized was decreased compared to neutral faces. This suggests that the emotional relevance of faces is not simply associated with increased brain activation in visual areas. While, at least for negative conditions, faces paired with negative feedback behavior are related to potentiated brain responses, the opposite is seen for perceptually very similar faces despite generalized emotional responses.
... The nuclear caudate and putamen regions were selected individually in the axial images that represented the anatomy. The region of interests (ROI) that was determined by a senior radiologist (M.B.) and we ensured that the borders, based on the ROI were not exceeded [30,31]. Texture analysis values were described by previous studies in literature [13,22,24,32]. ...
Difference in Laterality of the Dorsal Striatum in Schizoaffective Disorder
... The nuclear caudate and putamen regions were selected individually in the axial images that represented the anatomy. The region of interests (ROI) that was determined by a senior radiologist (M.B.) and we ensured that the borders, based on the ROI were not exceeded [30,31]. Texture analysis values were described by previous studies in literature [13,22,24,32]. ...
Background: Recent research has demonstrated that the dorsal striatum is directly associated with the integration of cognitive, sensory-motor, and motivational/emotional data. Disruptions in the corticostriatal circuit have been implicated in the pathophysiology of psychosis. The dor-sal striatum was reported to show lateralized pathology in psychotic disorders. In this study, we aimed to analyze the laterality of the dorsal striatum with texture analysis of T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images from schizoaffective disorder (SAD) patients.
... Time-series analysis of the images was conducted using BrainVoyager QX 2.8 (Brain Innovation, Maastricht, The Netherlands) (Goebel et al., 2006). The time series were corrected for slice acquisition time, realigned with their corresponding T1 volumes, warped into standard space (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988), re-sampled into 3 mm isotropic voxels, motion-corrected using Levenberg-Marquarts's leastsquare fit for 6 spatial parameters, highpass-filtered for removal of low frequency drifts, corrected voxelwise for linear drifts, and spatially smoothed using a Gaussian kernel of 8-mm full width at half maximum Gaussian kernel. The generalized linear model (GLM) was computed from the z-normalized volume time courses. ...
Despite a growing literature, experiments directly related to attachment are still needed. We explored brain processes involved in two aspects of attachment, distress and comfort. Seventy-eight healthy adult males with different attachment styles (secure, avoidant, and anxious) viewed distress, comfort, complicity-joy and neutral images (picture database BAPS-Adult) in an fMRI block design. ROIs from the modules described in the functional Neuro-Anatomical Model of Attachment (Long et al. 2020) were studied. Secure participants used more co- and self-regulation strategies and exhibited a higher activation of the reward network in distress and comfort viewing, than insecure participants. Avoidant participants showed the lower brain activations. Their approach and reward modules were the least activated in distress and comfort. Anxious participants presented both higher activations of the approach and aversion modules during complicity-joy. In addition, comfort and complicity-joy were processed differently according to attachment styles and should be differentiated among positive stimuli to disentangle attachment processes.
... Data were registered to the structural MRI using standard procedures. Following registration, data were corrected for slice acquisition time, corrected for motion, subjected to linear trend removal and a temporal high-pass filter (3 cycles per run) to remove slow drift components in the signal, and transformed to Talairach and Tournoux (1988) template space. ...
Introduction
Cognitive models have proposed that behavioral tasks can be categorized along at least three dimensions: the sensory-motor modality of the information, its representational format (e.g., location vs. identity), and the cognitive processes that transform it (e.g., response selection). Moreover, we can quickly and flexibly encode, represent, or manipulate information along any of these dimensions. How is this flexibility in encoding such information implemented in the cerebral cortex?
Methods
To address this question, we devised a series of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments in each of which participants performed two distinct tasks that differed along one of the three dimensions.
Results
Using multivariate pattern analysis of the fMRI data, we were able to decode between tasks along at least one task dimension within each of the cortical regions activated by these tasks. Moreover, the multiple demand network, a system of brain regions previously associated with flexible task encoding, was largely composed of closely juxtaposed sets of voxels that were specialized along each of the three tested task dimensions.
Discussion
These results suggest that flexible task encoding is primarily achieved by the juxtaposition of specialized representations processing each task dimension in the multiple demand network.
... Although extensive research suggests a crucial role for cerebellar modulation in this context, there are relevant aspects to consider. Firstly, unfortunately, much of this evidence is indirect, as the cerebellum has not been adequately studied by older brain MRI protocols (Talairach and Tournoux, 1988). Indeed, this established atlas sets a standard for neuroimaging reporting, but it is tailored for the cerebral cortex and lacks validation for the cerebellum. ...
Mirror neurons show activity during both the execution (AE) and observation of actions (AO). The Mirror Neuron System (MNS) could be involved during motor imagery (MI) as well. Extensive research suggests that the cerebellum is interconnected with the MNS and may be critically involved in its activities. We gathered evidence on the cerebellum's role in MNS functions, both theoretically and experimentally. Evidence shows that the cerebellum plays a major role during AO and MI and that its lesions impair MNS functions likely because, by modulating the activity of cortical inhibitory interneurons with mirror properties, the cerebellum may contribute to visuomotor matching, which is fundamental for shaping mirror properties. Indeed, the cerebellum may strengthen sensory-motor patterns that minimise the discrepancy between predicted and actual outcome, both during AE and AO. Furthermore, through its connections with the hippocampus, the cerebellum might be involved in internal simulations of motor programs during MI. Finally, as cerebellar neuromodulation might improve its impact on MNS activity, we explored its potential neurophysiological and neurorehabilitation implications.
... We undertook our analysis voxelwise, in both 4 and 8 mm 3 resolution. A 'parcellation-free', voxel-wise approach minimises the risk of spatial bias arising from data-driven parcellation schemes (Desikan et al., 2006;Gordon et al., 2016;Lancaster et al., 2000;Talairach & Tournoux, 1988;Tzourio-Mazoyer et al., 2002) whose organisation may unpredictably interact with transcription patterns. To quantify generalisability across different resolutions, we replicated all models at both 4 and 8 mm 3 voxel resolution, equating to 29,298 and 3670 brain voxels, respectively. ...
The architecture of the brain is too complex to be intuitively surveyable without the use of compressed representations that project its variation into a compact, navigable space. The task is especially challenging with high‐dimensional data, such as gene expression, where the joint complexity of anatomical and transcriptional patterns demands maximum compression. The established practice is to use standard principal component analysis (PCA), whose computational felicity is offset by limited expressivity, especially at great compression ratios. Employing whole‐brain, voxel‐wise Allen Brain Atlas transcription data, here we systematically compare compressed representations based on the most widely supported linear and non‐linear methods—PCA, kernel PCA, non‐negative matrix factorisation (NMF), t‐stochastic neighbour embedding (t‐SNE), uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP), and deep auto‐encoding—quantifying reconstruction fidelity, anatomical coherence, and predictive utility across signalling, microstructural, and metabolic targets, drawn from large‐scale open‐source MRI and PET data. We show that deep auto‐encoders yield superior representations across all metrics of performance and target domains, supporting their use as the reference standard for representing transcription patterns in the human brain.
... [3] Unfortunately, habituation to stimulation is frequently reported and thalamic DBS is not without potential complications. [4] e most frequently used stereotactic coordinates for the VIM are based on statistical estimations in relation to the third ventricle and the mid-commissural line, initially derived from the stereotactic atlases of Schaltenbrand G and of Talairach et al. [7,9] According to these estimations, the VIM is situated in the posterior fourth of the AC-PC line at AC-PC level and approximately 15 mm from the midline. Because the VIM is located laterally from the third ventricle, the width of the third ventricle should be taken into consideration. ...
Background
Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus ventralis intermedius (VIM-DBS) is considered a safe and effective treatment for medically intractable essential tremor (ET). However, ventriculomegaly can provide a surgical challenge, as there is an increased risk of breaching the ventricle during the procedure, with potential risk of intraventricular hemorrhage and target displacement.
Case Description
In this case series, we report successful bilateral VIM-DBS in a 72-year-old and 69-year-old female ET patient with significant ventriculomegaly. VIM-DBS therapy provided an excellent tremor response. After 5 years, a ventriculoperitoneal shunt was implanted in the first patient due to an incomplete Hakim-Adams triad, with significant improvement in gait and cognition.
Conclusion
To the best of our knowledge, we present the first report on VIM-DBS in ET patients with ventriculomegaly and illustrate that VIM-DBS can provide an excellent tremor response in patients with medically intractable ET, even in the context of marked ventriculomegaly.
... Before running FunMaps, you will need to make an experiment directory with two subdirectories: One called "brains" that contains the cleaned rs-fMRI timeseries data for all participants in the study and another directory called "masks" that contains two types of masks in the native resolution of the timeseries data ( Figure 1A). The toolbox expects all initial brain data and masks to be in NIfTI format and to be in a standard volumetric space (e.g., our data are in Talairach space - (Talairach et al., 1997). The first type of mask is the region of interest (ROI) mask, which consists of all the voxels within the brain region(s) that you want to parcellate. ...
Parcellations of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data are widely used to create topographical maps of functional networks in the human brain. While such network maps are highly useful for studying brain organization and function, they usually require large sample sizes to make them, thus creating practical limitations for researchers that would like to carry out parcellations on data collected in their labs. Furthermore, it can be difficult to quantitatively evaluate the results of a parcellation since networks are usually identified using a clustering algorithm, like principal components analysis, on the results of a single group-averaged connectivity map. To address these challenges, we developed the FunMaps toolbox: a parcellation routine that intrinsically incorporates stability and replicability of the parcellation by keeping only network distinctions that agree across halves of the data over multiple random iterations. Here, we demonstrate the efficacy and flexibility of FunMaps, while describing step-by-step instructions for running the program. The FunMaps toolbox is publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/persichetti-lab/FunMaps). It includes source code for running the parcellation and auxiliary code for preparing data, evaluating the parcellation, and displaying the results.
... Such an approach is common for non-human primate experiments where long and involved behavioral experiments are performed with one or few subjects (Wessberg et al., 2000). Similar approaches have been used for establishing the Talairach coordinate system (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988) for creating the Colin27 template MRI brain (Holmes et al., 1998). Nevertheless, a future extension of our work is to create a more generalizable population representative stimulation-response map based on a larger cohort of subjects. ...
Large-scale networks underpin brain functions. How such networks respond to focal stimulation can help decipher complex brain processes and optimize brain stimulation treatments. To map such stimulation-response patterns across the brain non-invasively, we recorded concurrent EEG responses from single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (i.e., TMS-EEG) from over 100 cortical regions with two orthogonal coil orientations from one densely-sampled individual. We also acquired Human Connectome Project (HCP)-styled diffusion imaging scans (six), resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans (120 mins), resting-state EEG scans (108 mins), and structural MR scans (T1- and T2-weighted). Using the TMS-EEG data, we applied network science-based community detection to reveal insights about the brain's causal-functional organization from both a stimulation and recording perspective. We also computed structural and functional maps and the electric field of each TMS stimulation condition. Altogether, we hope the release of this densely sampled (n=1) dataset will be a uniquely valuable resource for both basic and clinical neuroscience research.
... Despite they have been commonly referred to as PLAs in the clinic (Binder et al., 1997;Hertrich et al., 2020), there is no universal agreement on the specific cortical areas that make up these core language networks (Binder et al., 1997). For example, Wernicke's area can be defined as including the angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and the posterior half of superior temporal gyrus of the left temporal cortex (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988), whereas others consider Wernicke's to be within the superior and middle temporal regions (Hertrich et al., 2020). Therefore, due to the variability in the cortical components that make up the PLAs, a definition of the PLA that differs from ours could yield different results. ...
Introduction
Functional brain templates are often used in the analysis of clinical functional MRI (fMRI) studies. However, these templates are mostly built based on anatomy or fMRI of healthy subjects, which have not been fully vetted in clinical cohorts. Our aim was to evaluate language templates by comparing with primary language areas (PLAs) detected from presurgical fMRI of brain tumor patients.
Methods
Four language templates (A–D) based on anatomy, task‐based fMRI, resting‐state fMRI, and meta‐analysis, respectively, were compared with PLAs detected by fMRI with word generation and sentence completion paradigms. For each template, the fraction of PLA activations enclosed by the template (positive inclusion fraction, [PIF]), the fraction of activations within the template but that did not belong to PLAs (false inclusion fraction, [FIF]), and their Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) with PLA activations were calculated.
Results
For anterior PLAs, Template A had the greatest PIF (median, 0.95), whereas Template D had both the lowest FIF (median, 0.074), and the highest DSC (median, 0.30), which were all significant compared to other templates. For posterior PLAs, Templates B and D had similar PIF (median, 0.91 and 0.90, respectively) and DSC (both medians, 0.059), which were all significantly higher than that of Template C. Templates B and C had significantly lower FIF (median, 0.061 and 0.054, respectively) compared to Template D.
Conclusion
This study demonstrated significant differences between language templates in their inclusiveness of and spatial agreement with the PLAs detected in the presurgical fMRI of the patient cohort. These findings may help guide the selection of language templates tailored to their applications in clinical fMRI studies.
... Multi-Subject fMRI Representations: Traditionally, multi-subject fMRI studies have relied on anatomical alignment -i.e., canonical brain mapping to align all brains to a common anatomical space [25,26,27,28]. This often results in poor functional correspondences (i.e., poor alignment of multi-subject fMRI responses), due to the varied nature of brain functionality across people [25,29,30,31,32]. ...
Image-to-fMRI encoding is important for both neuroscience research and practical applications. However, such "Brain-Encoders" have been typically trained per-subject and per fMRI-dataset, thus restricted to very limited training data. In this paper we propose a Universal Brain-Encoder, which can be trained jointly on data from many different subjects/datasets/machines. What makes this possible is our new voxel-centric Encoder architecture, which learns a unique "voxel-embedding" per brain-voxel. Our Encoder trains to predict the response of each brain-voxel on every image, by directly computing the cross-attention between the brain-voxel embedding and multi-level deep image features. This voxel-centric architecture allows the functional role of each brain-voxel to naturally emerge from the voxel-image cross-attention. We show the power of this approach to (i) combine data from multiple different subjects (a "Crowd of Brains") to improve each individual brain-encoding, (ii) quick & effective Transfer-Learning across subjects, datasets, and machines (e.g., 3-Tesla, 7-Tesla), with few training examples, and (iii) use the learned voxel-embeddings as a powerful tool to explore brain functionality (e.g., what is encoded where in the brain).
... Voxel-based contrast maps were computed for each condition. The anatomic coordinates of voxel groups that displayed significant contrasts were localized on a standard stereotactic atlas [51] using TalairachClient (Version 2.4.2, http:\\www.talairach.org, accessed on 24 January 2013). ...
Objective: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) report to be especially prone to social emotions like shame and guilt. At the same time, these emotions seem to play an important role in BPD pathology. The present study aimed to deepen the knowledge about the processes behind shame and guilt in patients with BPD. Methods: Twenty patients with BPD and twenty healthy controls (HCs) took part in an experiment that induced shame and guilt by imagining scenarios during scanning using functional brain imaging. Participants also filled out self-report questionnaires and took part in diagnostic interviews. Results: BPD patients reported more proneness to guilt but not to shame than the HCs. There was no difference in the self-reported intensity rating of experimentally induced emotions between the groups. Between-group contrast of neural signals in the shame condition revealed a stronger activation of cingulate and fusiform gyrus for the BPD patients compared to the controls, and a more pronounced activation in the lingual gyrus and cuneus for the HCs. In the guilt condition, activation in the caudate nucleus, the fusiform gyrus, and the posterior cingulate cortex was stronger in BPD patients, while HC showed stronger activations in cuneus, lingual gyrus, and fronto-temporal regions. Conclusions: Differences in the neuro-functional processes between BPD patients and HC were found, even though the two groups did not differ in their self-report of subjective proneness to guilt and emotional intensity of shame and guilt during the experiment. While the HCs may be engaged more by the emotional scenarios themselves, the BPD patients may be more occupied with cognitive regulatory and self-referential processing.
... The T1-weighted structural images were processed for cortical reconstruction and segmentation using FreeSurfer 6.0 (Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA). The anatomical data processing pipeline involved several steps, including motion correction, removal of non-brain tissue , transformation to Talairach space (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988), intensity normalization, segmentation of the subcortical white matter and deep gray matter (Desikan et al., 2006), and finally volumetric reconstruction and parcellation Fischl, 2012). At each stage of the pipeline, the reconstructed datasets were visually inspected to identify and correct any segmentation errors. ...
This study aimed to investigate the impact of eccentric-vision training on population receptive field (pRF) estimates to provide insights into brain plasticity processes driven by practice. Fifteen participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements before and after behavioral training on a visual crowding task, where the relative orientation of the opening (gap position: up/down, left/right) in a Landolt C optotype had to be discriminated in the presence of flanking ring stimuli. Drifting checkerboard bar stimuli were used for pRF size estimation in multiple regions of interest (ROIs): dorsal-V1 (dV1), dorsal-V2 (dV2), ventral-V1 (vV1), and ventral-V2 (vV2), including the visual cortex region corresponding to the trained retinal location. pRF estimates in V1 and V2 were obtained along eccentricities from 0.5° to 9°. Statistical analyses revealed a significant decrease of the crowding anisotropy index (p = 0.009) after training, indicating improvement on crowding task performance following training. Notably, pRF sizes at and near the trained location decreased significantly (p = 0.005). Dorsal and ventral V2 exhibited significant pRF size reductions, especially at eccentricities where the training stimuli were presented (p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant changes in pRF estimates were found in either vV1 (p = 0.181) or dV1 (p = 0.055) voxels. These findings suggest that practice on a crowding task can lead to a reduction of pRF sizes in trained visual cortex, particularly in V2, highlighting the plasticity and adaptability of the adult visual system induced by prolonged training.
... In basic radiology education, anatomists and radiologists teach sectional anatomy using cross-sectional atlases consisting of CT and MRI [1,45]. However, resolution and color depth are limited in CT and MRI in the atlases. ...
Purpose
Visible Korean (VK) consists of two-dimensional (2D) images and three-dimensional (3D) models. The VK is used in various educational tools and research sources for anatomy. In this paper, we report on the records of the VK over 20 years.
Methods
Research papers related to Visible Korean were reviewed.
Results
Through this report of VK records, we highlighted the essential points for making true color and ultra-high-resolution sectioned images of human and animal bodies, for making various 2D and 3D applications from the sectioned images, and for good use of the sectioned images and their applications.
Conclusion
In this metaverse age that various virtual environments are required in medical education and research, the VK dataset meets the reality of virtual human models as fundamental data owing to the actual color and high resolution of the VK dataset.
... Structural MRI data were aligned parallel to the anterior and posterior commissures and transformed into the Talairach coordinate system. 35 Following source analysis (ie, beamforming), each participant's functional images were transformed into standardized space using the transform previously applied to the structural MRI volume and spatially resampled. Structural T1-weighted MRI images were acquired using a Siemens Prisma 3-T MRI scanner with a 64-channel head coil and an MP-RAGE sequence with the following parameters: repetition time (TR)=2300 ms; echo time (TE)=2.98 ...
BACKGROUND
Chronic hypertension is known to be a major contributor to cognitive decline, with executive function and working memory being among the domains most commonly affected. Despite the growing literature on such dysfunction in patients with hypertension, the underlying neural processes are poorly understood.
METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, we examine these neural processes by having participants with controlled hypertension, uncontrolled hypertension, and healthy controls perform a verbal working memory task during magnetoencephalography. Neural oscillations associated with the encoding and maintenance components of the working memory task were imaged and statistically evaluated among the 3 groups.
RESULTS
Differences related to hypertension emerged during the encoding phase, where the hypertension groups exhibited weaker α-β oscillatory responses compared with controls in the left parietal cortices, whereas such oscillatory activity differed between the 2 hypertension groups in the right prefrontal regions. Importantly, these neural responses in the prefrontal and parietal cortices during encoding were also significantly associated with behavioral performance across all participants.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, our data suggest that hypertension is associated with neurophysiological abnormalities during working memory encoding, whereas the neural processes serving maintenance seem to be preserved. The right hemispheric neural responses likely reflected compensatory processing, which patients with controlled hypertension may use to achieve verbal working memory function at the level of controls, as opposed to the uncontrolled hypertension group where diminished resources may have limited such additional recruitment.
... Current source density analysis was performed in 3-D Talairach/MNI space (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988) SLORETA's nonparametric mapping (SnPM) was applied to determine and localize changes in frequency bands. Table 2 shows the test results of each compared frequency band. ...
Introduction
Previous studies described various adaptive neuroplastic brain changes associated with physical activity (PA). EEG studies focused mostly on effects during or shortly after short bouts of exercise. This is the first study to investigate the capability of EEG to display PA‐induced long‐lasting plasticity in runners compared to a sedentary control group.
Methods
Thirty trained runners and 30 age‐ and sex‐matched sedentary controls (SC) were included as a subpopulation of the ReCaP (Running effects on Cognition and Plasticity) study. PA was measured with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Resting‐state EEG of the runners was recorded in the tapering phase of the training for the Munich marathon 2017. Power spectrum analyses were conducted using standardized low‐resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) and included the following frequency bands: delta: 1.5–6 Hz, theta: 6.5–8.0 Hz, alpha1: 8.5–10 Hz, alpha2: 10.5–12.0 Hz, beta1: 12.5–18.0 Hz, beta2: 18.5–21.0 Hz, beta3: 21.5–30.0 Hz, and total power (1.5–30 Hz).
Results
PA (IPAQ) and BMI differed significantly between the groups. The other included demographic parameters were comparable. Statistical nonparametric mapping showed no significant power differences in EEG between the groups.
Discussion
Heterogeneity in study protocols, especially in time intervals between exercise cessation and EEG recordings and juxtaposition of acute exercise‐induced effects on EEG in previous studies, could be possible reasons for the differences in results. Future studies should record EEG at different time points after exercise cessation and in a broader spectrum of exercise intensities and forms to further explore the capability of EEG in displaying long‐term exercise‐induced plasticity.
... The significant activation maps were generated at a threshold of P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons with a false discovery rate (FDR) at the voxel level. The brain regions were labeled using (Talairach and Tournoux 1988) after adjustments for differences between the MNI and Talairach coordinates. Moreover, we conducted a region of interest (ROI) analysis to evaluate activation patterns between the two languages and the two participant groups. ...
The brain networks for the first (L1) and second (L2) languages are dynamically formed in the bilingual brain. This study delves into the neural mechanisms associated with logographic–logographic bilingualism, where both languages employ visually complex and conceptually rich logographic scripts. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, we examined the brain activity of Chinese–Japanese bilinguals and Japanese–Chinese bilinguals as they engaged in rhyming tasks with Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji. Results showed that Japanese–Chinese bilinguals processed both languages using common brain areas, demonstrating an assimilation pattern, whereas Chinese–Japanese bilinguals recruited additional neural regions in the left lateral prefrontal cortex for processing Japanese Kanji, reflecting their accommodation to the higher phonological complexity of L2. In addition, Japanese speakers relied more on the phonological processing route, while Chinese speakers favored visual form analysis for both languages, indicating differing neural strategy preferences between the 2 bilingual groups. Moreover, multivariate pattern analysis demonstrated that, despite the considerable neural overlap, each bilingual group formed distinguishable neural representations for each language. These findings highlight the brain’s capacity for neural adaptability and specificity when processing complex logographic languages, enriching our understanding of the neural underpinnings supporting bilingual language processing.
... All cross-spectral matrices were then converted in sLORETA transformation matrices to reduce noise associated with measurement, to minimize the dependence of the source current density on individual subjects, and to eliminate components in the EEG spectra that were common to both groups. This transformation algorithm uses the three-shell spherical head model registered to the Talairach Human Brain Atlas (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988) available as MNI coordinates. To localize the effects of the emotional processing in the static and dynamic conditions, we contrasted emotional and neutral stimuli in men and women groups separately, because sLORETA allows users to compare two conditions (or groups) at a time. ...
Past research on gender-related brain asymmetries in emotions was limited and not univocal. The present study analyzed EEG alpha activity (indexing cortical de-activation) from 64 scalp sites in 20 women and 20 men during a counterbalanced block presentation of emotional slides and short video-clips. Stimuli consisted of 45 brief clips of 13 s, divided into 15 erotic (pleasant), 15 neutral and 15 fear (unpleasant) contents. Slides consisted in 45 photo shots (presented for 13 s each) extracted from the videos. As expected, women perceived fear stimuli as more arousing and more unpleasant compared to men. Alpha EEG source analysis revealed gender effects depending on stimulus. Emotional film-clips elicited in both groups a pattern of greater right than left occipital activation. Instead, emotional pictures activated opposite occipital regions, as women showed greater activation in the left, men in the right hemisphere. Men also showed greater activation to Erotic compared to Fear stimuli (i.e., pictures/clips) in the posterior parietal complex. Results point to the relevance of emotional stimulus type to reveal gender effects: clips are ecological, dynamic and engaging, and forced a unified pattern of emotional responses that reset individual differences. Emotional pictures, less engaging, allowed individual differences to emerge and interact with the stimulus category.
... Time points with excessive motion (>0.3 mm) and their neighboring time points were censored. Images were spatially normalized to the Talairach space [40]. Individual statistical maps were then calculated using a seed-based correlation analysis using 16 subcortical regions as seeds covering all the bilateral structures of the human subcortical basal forebrain and extended amygdala including its major surrounding subcortical structures (hippocampus, amygdala, substantia innominata, and nucleus accumbens, thalamus, globus pallidum, putamen, and caudate) [19] in case they may also be functionally related to the proposed circuitry (Fig. 1A). ...
... In addition, the references of the included studies and relevant review articles were checked for additional relevant studies, and imported all retrieved articles into the EndNote X9 literature management tool for further screening. (Mazziotta et al., 1995) or Talairach (Talairach and Tournoux, 1988) atlases]; 4 More than 5 participants in each study; 5 Published in English or Chinese. ...
Objective
To explore the characteristics of spontaneous brain activity changes in patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH), and help reconcile the contradictory findings in the literature and enhance the understanding of LDH-related pain.
Materials and methods
PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), SinoMed, and Wanfang databases were searched for literature that studies the changes of brain basal activity in patients with LDH using regional homogeneity (ReHo) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation/fraction amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF/fALFF) analysis methods. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) was used to perform a meta-analysis of the brain regions with spontaneous brain activity changes in LDH patients compared with healthy controls (HCs).
Results
A total of 11 studies were included, including 7ALFF, 2fALFF, and 2ReHo studies, with a total of 269 LDH patients and 277 HCs. Combined with the data from the ALFF/fALFF and ReHo studies, the meta-analysis results showed that compared with HCs, LDH patients had increased spontaneous brain activity in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the right anterior lobe of the cerebellum, while they had decreased spontaneous brain activity in the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Meta-analysis using ALFF/fALFF data alone showed that compared with HCs, LDH patients had increased spontaneous brain activity in the right MFG and left ACC, but no decrease in spontaneous brain activity was found.
Conclusion
In this paper, through the ALE Meta-analysis method, based on the data of reported rs-fMRI whole brain studies, we found that LDH patients had spontaneous brain activity changes in the right middle frontal gyrus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, right anterior cerebellar lobe and left superior frontal gyrus. However, it is still difficult to assess whether these results are specific and unique to patients with LDH. Further neuroimaging studies are needed to compare the effects of LDH and other chronic pain diseases on the spontaneous brain activity of patients. Furthermore, the lateralization results presented in our study also require further LDH-related pain side-specific grouping study to clarify this causation.
Systematic review registration
PROSPERO, identifier CRD42022375513.
... To analyze and statistically compare patient SPECT images with age-matched control subjects, the threshold of 35% of the maximum count was set, and voxel-by-voxel Z-scores were calculated using the following equation: Z-score = ([control means] − [individual subject mean])/ (control standard deviation) with analysis after voxel normalization to the global mean. Then, the obtained Z-scores were displayed in color scale on a three-dimensional topography section of the anatomically standardized MRI template [15] based on the orbito-meatal line mentioned later. ...
The aim of this study was to develop a novel approach that enhanced diagnostic accuracy in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer's disease (AD) using cerebral perfusion SPECT by minimizing artifacts caused by cerebral atrophy.
[99mTc]-ECD and SPECT studies were performed on 15 cognitively normal patients, 40 patients with MCI, and 16 patients with AD. SPECT images were compared using SPM. The atrophy correction method was incorporated to reduce artifacts through the MRI masking procedure. Regional Z-score, percent extent, and atrophy correction rate were obtained and compared. The Z-score mapping program was structured as a single package that ran semi-automatically.
The method significantly reduced regional Z-score in most regions, leading to improved estimates. The mean atrophy correction rate ranged from 10.4 to 12.0%. In MCI and AD, the convexities of the frontal and parietal lobes and the posterior medial cerebrum were particularly sensitive to cerebral atrophy, and the Z-scores were overestimated, whereas the posterior cingulate cortex and the cerebellum were less sensitive. The diagnostic accuracy for MCI increased from 67 to 69% and for AD from 78 to 82%.
The proposed approach provided more precise Z-scores with less over- or underestimation, artifacts, and improved diagnostic accuracy, being recommended for clinical studies.
... Indeed, the abovementioned procedure has been proven to ensure a reliable localization accuracy of about 5 mm, i.e. a level of precision almost comparable to that obtainable using individual MRI (Carducci and Brusco 2012). Neuronavigation used anatomical Talairach coordinates (Talairach and Tournoux 1988) obtained by converting the MNI coordinates of the sites of interest from a recent meta-analysis of fMRI studies of eye movements (Zhou and Shu 2017) and previously used in a TMS experiment (Lega et al. 2019): coordinates were x = 36, y = −1, z = 48 for rFEF and x = 30, y = −53, z = 49 for rIPS. Furthermore, we added a sham control condition over a brain area located midway between the two active stimulation sites (see Lega et al. 2019, 2020 for a similar procedure). ...
Psychophysical observations indicate that the spatial profile of visuospatial attention includes a central enhancement around the attentional focus, encircled by a narrow zone of reduced excitability in the immediate surround. This inhibitory ring optimally amplifies relevant target information, likely stemming from top-down frontoparietal recurrent activity modulating early visual cortex activations. However, the mechanisms through which neural suppression gives rise to the surrounding attenuation and any potential hemispheric specialization remain unclear. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to evaluate the role of two regions of the dorsal attention network in the center-surround profile: the frontal eye field and the intraparietal sulcus. Participants performed a psychophysical task that mapped the entire spatial attentional profile, while transcranial magnetic stimulation was delivered either to intraparietal sulcus or frontal eye field on the right (Experiment 1) and left (Experiment 2) hemisphere. Results showed that stimulation of right frontal eye field and right intraparietal sulcus significantly changed the center-surround profile, by widening the inhibitory ring around the attentional focus. The stimulation on the left frontal eye field, but not left intraparietal sulcus, induced a general decrease in performance but did not alter the center-surround profile. Results point to a pivotal role of the right dorsal attention network in orchestrating inhibitory spatial mechanisms required to limit interference by surrounding distractors.
... Based on the intensity of individual response (p < 0.001, uncorrected, height threshold: T = 3.53), we identified clusters of activated voxels composed of at least 15 adjacent voxels. The activated regions for each condition were identified according to Talairach coordinates [18]. ...
Background/Objectives: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may serve as an early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study investigates regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) alterations in individuals with SCD using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). To characterize rCBF patterns in SCD patients compared to healthy controls and examine the relationship between rCBF and cognitive function. Methods: We compared rCBF in 20 SCD patients and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls using 99mTc-ECD SPECT imaging. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI). Results: SCD patients demonstrated significantly reduced rCBF in the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) (mean uptake ratio [UR] = 0.864 ± 0.090 vs. 1.030 ± 0.074, p < 0.001) and right caudate (mean UR = 0.783 ± 0.068 vs. 0.947 ± 0.062, p < 0.001) compared to controls. Additionally, negative correlations were observed between rCBF in these regions and CDR scores, particularly in the memory domain (rSTG: r = −0.37, p = 0.016; right caudate: r = −0.39, p = 0.011). Conclusions: Reduced rCBF in the rSTG and right caudate may represent early biomarkers for SCD, which could aid in the early detection of AD. These findings suggest that SPECT imaging might be a valuable tool for identifying individuals at risk of cognitive decline, potentially allowing for earlier intervention and targeted preventive strategies in the management of AD.
Invasive and non-invasive electrophysiological measurements during “cocktail-party”-like listening indicate that neural activity in the human auditory cortex (AC) “tracks” the envelope of relevant speech. However, due to limited coverage and/or spatial resolution, the distinct contribution of primary and non-primary areas remains unclear. Here, using 7-Tesla fMRI, we measured brain responses of participants attending to one speaker, in the presence and absence of another speaker. Through voxel-wise modeling, we observed envelope tracking in bilateral Heschl’s gyrus (HG), right middle superior temporal sulcus (mSTS) and left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), despite the signal’s sluggish nature and slow temporal sampling. Neurovascular activity correlated positively (HG) or negatively (mSTS, TPJ) with the envelope. Further analyses comparing the similarity between spatial response patterns in the single speaker and concurrent speakers conditions and envelope decoding indicated that tracking in HG reflected both relevant and (to a lesser extent) non-relevant speech, while mSTS represented the relevant speech signal. Additionally, in mSTS, the similarity strength correlated with the comprehension of relevant speech. These results indicate that the fMRI signal tracks cortical responses and attention effects related to continuous speech and support the notion that primary and non-primary AC process ongoing speech in a push-pull of acoustic and linguistic information.
Parcellations of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data are widely used to create topographical maps of functional networks in the human brain. While such network maps are highly useful for studying brain organization and function, they usually require large sample sizes to make them, thus creating practical limitations for researchers that would like to carry out parcellations on data collected in their labs. Furthermore, it can be difficult to quantitatively evaluate the results of a parcellation since networks are usually identified using a clustering algorithm, like principal components analysis, on the results of a single group-averaged connectivity map. To address these challenges, we developed the FunMaps method: a parcellation routine that intrinsically incorporates stability and replicability of the parcellation by keeping only network distinctions that agree across halves of the data over multiple random iterations. Here, we demonstrate the efficacy and flexibility of FunMaps, while describing step-by-step instructions for running the program. The FunMaps method is publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/persichetti-lab/FunMaps). It includes source code for running the parcellation and auxiliary code for preparing data, evaluating the parcellation, and displaying the results.
During magnetic-resonance-guided focused ultrasound ablation of the ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus (VIM) for essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson's disease (PD), targeting is generally performed using a standard atlas-based stereotactic approach. The purpose of our work is to evaluate the anatomic variations in the venous vasculature of the thalamus in patients treated with MRgFUS, as a possible landmark for targeting. We retrospectively evaluated the relationship between the obtained thalamotomy lesion and the ipsilateral superior thalamic vein (STV). A total of 36 patients (25 ET and 11 PD) who underwent MRgFUS treatment were evaluated, and the STV was studied with susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) sequences. Based on the axial SWI images, the distance between the STV and the center of the lesion at the presumed site of the VIM was measured in follow-up MRI images one month after treatment. Statistical analysis shows that there is a correlation between the STV and the presumed site of the VIM. The STV visible in SWI could be used as an additional, real-time, and patient-specific anatomical landmark for VIM identification during MR examination and just before and during FUS treatment.
Previous studies have emphasized the critical role of the prefrontal cortex in cognitive estimation and theory of mind, however, none of them has questioned the possible role of cognitive estimation processes in understanding the mental states of others. In this study, we compared 30 patients with focal prefrontal cortex damage and 30 control subjects matched by gender, age, and education level on their performances on a cognitive estimation task and two tasks assessing theory of mind: the "Faux-Pas" task and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. The results showed that patients were significantly impaired compared with control subjects on both abilities of cognitive estimation and theory of mind. Moreover, regression analyses showed that performance on theory of mind was predicted by the scores on cognitive estimation. Finally, using voxel-based lesion analysis, we identified a partially common bilaterally distributed prefrontal network involved in both these domains centred within the ventral and dorsomedial areas with extension to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
The cortex has a characteristic layout with specialized functional areas forming distributed large-scale networks. However, substantial work shows striking variation in this organization across people, which relates to differences in behavior. While most previous work treats individual differences as linked to boundary shifts between the borders of regions, here we show that cortical ‘variants’ also occur at a distance from their typical position, forming ectopic intrusions. Both ‘border’ and ‘ectopic’ variants are common across individuals, but differ in their location, network associations, properties of subgroups of individuals, activations during tasks, and prediction of behavioral phenotypes. Border variants also track significantly more with shared genetics than ectopic variants, suggesting a closer link between ectopic variants and environmental influences. This work argues that these two dissociable forms of variation—border shifts and ectopic intrusions—must be separately accounted for in the analysis of individual differences in cortical systems across people.
Background: El núcleo tegmental pedunculopontino (PPTg) es un nuevo blanco para la Estimulación Cerebral Profunda (ECP) en la Enfermedad de Parkinson (PD), en particular para mejorar las anormalidades posturales y las alteraciones de la marcha. La técnica quirúrgica estereotáctica clásica, basada en la línea intercomisural Ca-Cp (comisura anterior-comisura posterior) y el esquema de Guyot, es difícilmente aplicable a la cirugía del tronco del encéfalo, debido al alto grado de variabilidad anatómica interindividual. Objetivo: Describir la técnica del modelo tridimensional, basada en neuroimágenes y atlas anatómicos, útiles en el planeamiento prequirúrgico así como también en las fases intraoperativa y postquirúrgica de implantación de electrodos de ECP en el PPTg en humanos. Métodos: Construimos modelos 3D, representando las estructuras anatómicas más relevantes del mesencéfalo y la protuberancia, en base a atlas estereotácticos anatómicos por medio de softwares Rhinoceros© y MedicoCad utilizados para la reconstrucción y el modelo 3D de estructuras del tronco del encéfalo. Los modelos 3D fueron integrados con neuroimágenes (imágenes de RM y TC, y particularmente enriquecidas con la representación de los vasos cerebrales por medio de TC angiográfica). Modelo tridimensional de estructuras mesencefálicas y protuberanciales: Se propone un abordaje para la identificación estereotáctica del núcleo tegmental pedúnculopontino. Resultados: Las estructuras anatómicas incluidas en el modelo fueron las siguientes: PPTg, Pedúnculo Cerebeloso Superior (SPC), Núcleo Peripeduncular (PPD), Lemnisco Medio (ML), Núcleo Rojo (RN), Ventrículos 3ro y 4to, Lamina Quadrigémina (LQ), Locus Coeruleus (LC), Sustancia Gris Periacueductal (PAG) . Discusión: La determinación clásica de las coordenadas estereotácticas, obtenida por medio del uso de un sistema proporcional, basado en ventriculografía o neuroimágenes, utilizando como referencia la línea Ca-Cp y el límite superior del tálamo, y adoptando únicamente atlas estereotácticos 2D, difícilmente pueda ser aplicada a la cirugía del tronco del encéfalo. El método “directo” de planificación, basado en MPR (reconstrucción multi plano) y cortes de exploración por TAC estereotáctica, en la superposición de cortes Ct 2D por individualización ‘directa’ de los bordes del tronco del encéfalo, y en la representación del PPTg, permite una mejor adaptación a los rasgos anatómicos individuales.
Background/Objectives: Tourette Syndrome (TS), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB) are three disorders that share many similarities in terms of phenomenology, neuroanatomy, and functionality. However, despite the literature pointing toward a plausible spectrum of these disorders, only a few studies have compared them. Studying the neurocognitive processes using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) offers the advantage of assessing brain activity with excellent temporal resolution. The ERP components can then reflect specific processes known to be potentially affected by these disorders. Our first goal is to characterize ‘when’ in the processing stream group differences are the most prominent. The second goal is to identify ‘where’ in the brain the group discrepancies could be. Methods: Participants with TS (n = 24), OCD (n = 18), and BFRB (n = 16) were matched to a control group (n = 59) and were recorded with 58 EEG electrodes during a visual counting oddball task. Three ERP components were extracted (i.e., P200, N200, and P300), and generating sources were modelized with Standardized Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography. Results: We showed no group differences for the P200 and N200 when controlling for anxiety and depressive symptoms, suggesting that the early cognitive processes reflected by these components are relatively intact in these populations. Our results also showed a decrease in the later anterior P300 oddball effect for the TS and OCD groups, whereas an intact oddball effect was observed for the BFRB group. Source localization analyses with sLORETA revealed activations in the lingual and middle occipital gyrus for the OCD group, distinguishing it from the other two clinical groups and the controls. Conclusions: It seems that both TS and OCD groups share deficits in anterior P300 activation but reflect distinct brain-generating source activations.
Exacerbated negativity bias, including in responses to ambiguity, represents a common phenotype of internalizing disorders. Individuals differ in their propensity toward positive or negative appraisals of ambiguity. This variability constitutes one's valence bias, a stable construct linked to mental health. Evidence suggests an initial negativity in response to ambiguity that updates via regulatory processes to support a more positive bias. Previous work implicates the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, and regions of the cingulo-opercular system, in this regulatory process. Nonetheless, the neurodevelopmental origins of valence bias remain unclear. The current study tests whether intrinsic brain organization predicts valence bias among 119 children and adolescents (6 to 17 years). Using whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity, a machine-learning model predicted valence bias (r = 0.20, P = 0.03), as did a model restricted to amygdala and cingulo-opercular system features (r = 0.19, P = 0.04). Disrupting connectivity revealed additional intra-system (e.g. fronto-parietal) and inter-system (e.g. amygdala to cingulo-opercular) connectivity important for prediction. The results highlight top-down control systems and bottom-up perceptual processes that influence valence bias in development. Thus, intrinsic brain organization informs the neurodevelopmental origins of valence bias, and directs future work aimed at explicating related internalizing symptomology.
The hub-and-spoke theory of semantic representation fractionates the neural underpinning of semantic knowledge into two essential components: the sensorimotor modality-specific regions and a crucially important semantic hub region. Our previous study in patients with semantic dementia has found that the hub region is located in the left fusiform gyrus. However, because this region is located within the brain damage in patients with semantic dementia, it is not clear whether the semantic deficit is caused by structural damage to the hub region itself or by its disconnection from other brain regions. Stroke patients do not have any damage to the left fusiform gyrus, but exhibit amodal and modality-specific deficits in semantic processing. Therefore, in this study, we validated the semantic hub region from a brain network perspective in 79 stroke patients and explored the white matter connections associated with it. First, we collected data of diffusion-weighted imaging and behavioural performance on general semantic tasks and modality-specific semantic tasks (assessing object knowledge on form, colour, motion, sound, manipulation and function). We then used correlation and regression analyses to examine the association between the nodal degree values of brain regions in the whole-brain structural network and general semantic performance in the stroke patients. The results revealed that the connectivity of the left fusiform gyrus significantly predicted general semantic performance, indicating that this region is the semantic hub. To identify the semantic-relevant connections of the semantic hub, we then correlated the white matter integrity values of each tract connected to the left fusiform gyrus separately with performance on general and modality-specific semantic processing. We found that the hub region accomplished general semantic processing through white matter connections with the left superior temporal pole, middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus and hippocampus. The connectivity between the hub region and the left hippocampus, superior temporal pole, middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus was differentially involved in object form, colour, motion, sound, manipulation and function processing. After statistically removing the effects of potential confounding variables (i.e. whole-brain lesion volume, lesion volume of regions of interest and performance on non-semantic control tasks), the observed effects remained significant. Together, our findings support the role of the left fusiform gyrus as a semantic hub region in stroke patients and reveal its crucial connectivity in the network. This study provides new insights and evidence for the neuroanatomical organization of semantic memory in the human brain.
The primate hippocampus includes the dentate gyrus, cornu ammonis (CA), and subiculum. CA is subdivided into four fields (CA1-CA3, plus CA3h/hilus of the dentate gyrus) with specific pyramidal cell morphology and connections. Work in non-human mammals has shown that hippocampal connectivity is precisely patterned both in the laminar and longitudinal axes. One of the main handicaps in the study of neuropathological semiology in the human hippocampus is the lack of clear laminar and longitudinal borders. The aim of this study was to explore a histochemical segmentation of the adult human hippocampus, integrating field (medio-lateral), laminar, and anteroposterior longitudinal patterning. We provide criteria for head-body-tail field and subfield parcellation of the human hippocampus based on immunodetection of Rabphilin3a (Rph3a), Purkinje-cell protein 4 (PCP4), Chromogranin A and Regulation of G protein signaling-14 (RGS-14). Notably, Rph3a and PCP4 allow to identify the border between CA3 and CA2, while Chromogranin A and RGS-14 give specific staining of CA2. We also provide novel histological data about the composition of human-specific regions of the anterior and posterior hippocampus. The data are given with stereotaxic coordinates along the longitudinal axis. This study provides novel insights for a detailed region-specific parcellation of the human hippocampus useful for human brain imaging and neuropathology.
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