FMRI Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Trait empathy is an essential personality feature in the intricacy of typical social inclinations of individuals. Empathy is likely supported by multilevel neuronal network functioning, whereas local topological properties determine... more

Trait empathy is an essential personality feature in the intricacy of typical social inclinations of individuals. Empathy is likely supported by multilevel neuronal network functioning, whereas local topological properties determine network integrity. In the present functional MRI study (N = 116), we aimed to trace empathic traits to the intrinsic brain network architecture. Empathy was conceived as composed of two dimensions within the concept of pre-reflective, intersubjective understanding. Vicarious experience consists of the tendency to resonate with the feelings of other individuals, whereas intuitive understanding refers to a natural awareness of others’ emotional states. Analyses of graph theoretical measures of centrality showed a relationship between the fronto-parietal network and psychometric measures of vicarious experience, whereas intuitive understanding was associated with sensorimotor and subcortical networks. Salience network regions could constitute hubs for information processing underlying both dimensions. The network properties related to empathy dimensions mainly concern inter-network information flow. Moreover, interaction effects implied several sex differences in the relationship between functional network organization and trait empathy. These results reveal that distinct intrinsic topological network features explain individual differences in separate dimensions of intersubjective understanding. The findings could help understand the impact of brain damage or stimulation through alterations of empathy-related network integrity.

Commentators tended to focus on the conceptual framework of our article, the contrast between genetic and associative accounts of mirror neurons, and to challenge it with additional possibilities rather than empirical data. This made the... more

Commentators tended to focus on the conceptual framework of our article, the contrast between genetic and associative accounts of mirror neurons, and to challenge it with additional possibilities rather than empirical data. This made the empirically-focused comments especially valuable. The mirror neuron debate is replete with ideas; what it needs now are system-level theories and careful experiments – tests and testability.

Abstract--With the emergence of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), standard intelligence tests can now be studied to assess neural activity during test performance. However, traditional assessments are given with paper/pencil... more

Abstract--With the emergence of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), standard intelligence tests can now be studied to assess neural activity during test performance. However, traditional assessments are given with paper/pencil or card based methods which are difficult to deliver while in an MRI. Here, we validate a computerized version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Picture Completion subtest against the card based version in 20 adult learners. A preliminary fMRI series is included to investigate whether the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity can be associated with the paradigm. Using sparse sampling fMRI techniques, a control condition is contrasted to when participants ‘knew ’ what answer they were going to provide. In 8 task-novice individuals, significant activation was seen in right primary visual and left temporal cortex and is interpreted as task-specific activation related to visual search and naming the item missing from the scene. To ou...

The notion that past choices affect preferences is one of the most influential concepts of social psychology since its first report in the 50 s, and its theorization within the cognitive dissonance framework. In the free-choice paradigm... more

The notion that past choices affect preferences is one of the most influential concepts of social psychology since its first report in the 50 s, and its theorization within the cognitive dissonance framework. In the free-choice paradigm (FCP) after choosing between two similarly rated items, subjects reevaluate chosen items as more attractive and rejected items as less attractive. However the relations prevailing between episodic memory and choice-induced preference change (CIPC) remain highly debated: is this phenomenon dependent or independent from memory of past choices? We solve this theoretical debate by demonstrating that CIPC occurs exclusively for items which were correctly remembered as chosen or rejected during the choice stage. We used a combination of fMRI and intra-cranial electrophysiological recordings to reveal a modulation of left hippocampus activity, a hub of episodic memory retrieval, immediately before the occurrence of CIPC during item reevaluation. Finally, we...

The use of neuroscience tools to study consumer behavior and the decision making process in marketing has improved our understanding of cognitive, neuronal, and emotional mechanisms related to marketing-relevant behavior. However,... more

The use of neuroscience tools to study consumer behavior and the decision making process in marketing has improved our understanding of cognitive, neuronal, and emotional mechanisms related to marketing-relevant behavior. However, knowledge about neuroscience tools that are used in consumer neuroscience research is scattered. In this article, we present the results of a literature review that aims to provide an overview of the available consumer neuroscience tools and classifies them according to their characteristics. We analyse a total of 219 full-texts in the area of consumer neuroscience. Our findings suggest that there are seven tools that are currently used in consumer neuroscience research. In particular, electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking (ET) are the most commonly used tools in the field. We also find that consumer neuroscience tools are used to study consumer preferences and behaviors in different marketing domains such as advertising, branding, online experienc...

Guilt plays a significant role in the occurrence and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Two major types of guilt have been identified: one deriving from the transgression of a moral rule (deontological guilt DG), another... more

Guilt plays a significant role in the occurrence and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Two major types of guilt have been identified: one deriving from the transgression of a moral rule (deontological guilt DG), another (altruistic guilt AG), relying on the assumption of having compromised a personal altruistic goal. Clinical evidence suggests that OCD patients are particularly sensitive to DG, but not AG. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated brain response of OCD patients while processing DG and AG stimuli. A previously validated fMRI paradigm was used to selectively evoke DG and AG, and anger and sadness, as control emotions in 13 OCD patients and 19 healthy controls. Patients' behavioral results showed a prominent attitude to experience guilt, compared to controls, while accomplishing task. fMRI results revealed that patients have reduced activation in the anterior cingulate (ACC) and frontal gyrus when experiencing guilt, regardless of its specific type (DG or AG). When separately considering each type of guilt (against each of its control), patients showed decreased activation in the ACC, the insula and the precuneus, for DG. No significant differences were observed between groups when processing AG, anger or sad stimuli. This study provides evidence for an abnormal processing of guilt, and specifically DG, in OCD patients. We suggest that decreased activation may reflect patients' cerebral efficiency, which derives from their frequent exposure to guilty feelings ("neural efficiency hypothesis"). In conclusion, our study confirms a selective abnormal processing of guilt, and specifically DG, in OCD.

The young man sitting in the waiting room of our neuroimaging facility wearing skinny jeans and trainers looked like a typical Spanish 20-year-old of Moroccan origin. Yassine* was bouncy, chatting up the research assistants, and generally... more

The young man sitting in the waiting room of our neuroimaging facility wearing skinny jeans and trainers looked like a typical Spanish 20-year-old of Moroccan origin. Yassine* was bouncy, chatting up the research assistants, and generally in good spirits. He was like so many other Barcelona youths, except he openly expressed a desire to engage in violence for jihadist causes. As we took him through a battery of tests and questionnaires, we were barely able to keep him in his seat as he kept proclaiming his willingness to travel to Syria to kill himself. “I would go tomorrow, I would do it tomorrow,” he said. When we probed for the sincerity of his claim, he responded, “only if we go together. You pay for the tickets”, with a wink and a smile. Less budding foreign fighter and more extremist provocateur, he enjoyed insulting us with impunity and showed us the middle finger as he left. And yet, Yassine agreed to let us scan his brain – for the first ever brain scan study on radicalisation.

Gratitude is an important aspect of human sociality, and is valued by religions and moral philosophies. It has been established that gratitude leads to benefits for both mental health and interpersonal relationships. It is thus important... more

Gratitude is an important aspect of human sociality, and is valued by religions and moral philosophies. It has been established that gratitude leads to benefits for both mental health and interpersonal relationships. It is thus important to elucidate the neurobiological correlates of gratitude, which are only now beginning to be investigated. To this end, we conducted an experiment during which we induced gratitude in participants while they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. We hypothesized that gratitude ratings would correlate with activity in brain regions associated with moral cognition, value judgment and theory of mind. The stimuli used to elicit gratitude were drawn from stories of survivors of the Holocaust, as many survivors report being sheltered by strangers or receiving lifesaving food and clothing, and having strong feelings of gratitude for such gifts. The participants were asked to place themselves in the context of the Holocaust and imagine what their own experience would feel like if they received such gifts. For each gift, they rated how grateful they felt. The results revealed that ratings of gratitude correlated with brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, in support of our hypotheses. The results provide a window into the brain circuitry for moral cognition and positive emotion that accompanies the experience of benefitting from the goodwill of others.

Two lines of evidence indicate that there exists a reciprocal inhibitory relationship between opposed brain net- works. First, most attention-demanding cognitive tasks activate a stereotypical set of brain areas, known as the... more

Two lines of evidence indicate that there exists a reciprocal inhibitory relationship between opposed brain net- works. First, most attention-demanding cognitive tasks activate a stereotypical set of brain areas, known as the task-positive network and simultaneously deactivate a different set of brain regions, commonly referred to as the task negative or default mode network. Second, functional connectivity analyses show that these same opposed networks are anti-correlated in the resting state. We hypothesize that these reciprocally inhibitory effects reflect two incompatible cognitive modes, each of which may be directed towards understanding the external world. Thus, engaging one mode activates one set of regions and suppresses activity in the other. We test this hypothesis by identifying two types of problem-solving task which, on the basis of prior work, have been consistently asso- ciated with the task positive and task negative regions: tasks requiring social cognition, i.e., reasoning about the mental states of other persons, and tasks requiring physical cognition, i.e., reasoning about the causal/mechanical properties of inanimate objects. Social and mechanical reasoning tasks were presented to neurologically normal participants during fMRI. Each task type was presented using both text and video clips. Regardless of presenta- tion modality, we observed clear evidence of reciprocal suppression: social tasks deactivated regions associated with mechanical reasoning and mechanical tasks deactivated regions associated with social reasoning. These findings are not explained by self-referential processes, task engagement, mental simulation, mental time travel or external vs. internal attention, all factors previously hypothesized to explain default mode network activity. Analyses of resting state data revealed a close match between the regions our tasks identified as reciprocally inhibitory and regions of maximal anti-correlation in the resting state. These results indicate the reciprocal inhi- bition is not attributable to constraints inherent in the tasks, but is neural in origin. Hence, there is a physiological constraint on our ability to simultaneously engage two distinct cognitive modes. Further work is needed to more precisely characterize these opposing cognitive domains.

Behavioral studies have suggested that exaggerated reactivity to food cues, especially those associated with high-calorie foods, may be a factor underlying obesity. This increased motivational potency of foods in obese individuals appears... more

Behavioral studies have suggested that exaggerated reactivity to food cues, especially those associated with high-calorie foods, may be a factor underlying obesity. This increased motivational potency of foods in obese individuals appears to be mediated in part by a hyperactive reward system. We used a Philips 3T magnet and fMRI to investigate activation of reward-system and associated brain structures in response to pictures of high-calorie and low-calorie foods in 12 obese compared to 12 normal-weight women. A regions of interest (ROI) analysis revealed that pictures of high-calorie foods produced significantly greater activation in the obese group compared to controls in medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, nucleus accumbens/ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, ventral pallidum, caudate, putamen, and hippocampus. For the contrast of high-calorie vs. low-calorie foods, the obese group also exhibited a larger difference than the controls did in all of the same regions of interest except for the putamen. Within-group contrasts revealed that pictures of high-calorie foods uniformly stimulated more activation than low-calorie foods did in the obese group. By contrast, in the control group, greater activation by high-calorie foods was seen only in dorsal caudate, whereas low-calorie foods were more effective than high-calorie foods in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. In summary, compared to normal-weight controls, obese women exhibited greater activation in response to pictures of high-calorie foods in a large number of regions hypothesized to mediate motivational effects of food cues.

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and evaluation of a soft wearable robotic glove, which can be used with functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) during the hand rehabilitation and task specific training. The soft... more

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and evaluation of a soft wearable robotic glove, which can be used with functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) during the hand rehabilitation and task specific training. The soft wearable robotic glove, called MR-Glove, consists of two major components: a) a set of soft pneumatic actuators and b) a glove. The soft pneumatic actuators, which are made of silicone elastomers, generate bending motion and actuate finger joints upon pressurization. The device is MR-compatible as it contains no ferromagnetic materials and operates pneumatically. Our results show that the device did not cause artifacts to fMRI images during hand rehabilitation and task-specific exercises. This study demonstrated the possibility of using fMRI and MR-compatible soft wearable robotic device to study brain activities and motor performances during hand rehabilitation, and to unravel the functional effects of rehabilitation robotics on brain stimulation.

Racism and in-group favoritism is prevalent in our society and has been studied in Social Psychology for a long time. Recently it has become possible to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie these in-group biases, and hence this... more

Racism and in-group favoritism is prevalent in our society and has been studied in Social Psychology for a long time. Recently it has become possible to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie these in-group biases, and hence this review will give an overview of recent developments on the topic. Rather than relying on a single brain region or network, it seems that subtle changes in neural activation across the brain, depending on the modalities involved, underlie how we divide the world into ‘us’ versus ‘them’.
These insights have important implications for our understanding of how in-group biases develop and could potentially lead to new insights on how to reduce them.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a powerful non-invasive technique for imaging BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent) signal changes that is due to changes in brain hemodynamics... more

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a powerful
non-invasive technique for imaging BOLD (Blood Oxygenation
Level Dependent) signal changes that is due to changes in brain
hemodynamics responses associated to local neuronal activity to
identify activated brain regions [1,2]. This technique allows researchers
in laboratory environment to investigate the BOLD signals to determine
the activated brain reigns for different stimuli or the processing of
various cognitive tasks [3,4]. Furthermore, fMRI can be used in clinical
applications to determine the brain abnormalities in population of
subjects with neurological disease.

We investigated a unique way in which adolescent peer influence occurs on social media. We developed a novel functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm to simulate Instagram, a popular social photo-sharing tool, and measured adolescents’ behavioral... more

We investigated a unique way in which adolescent peer influence occurs on social media. We developed a novel
functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm to simulate Instagram, a popular social photo-sharing tool, and measured adolescents’
behavioral and neural responses to likes, a quantifiable form of social endorsement and potential source of peer
influence. Adolescents underwent fMRI while viewing photos ostensibly submitted to Instagram. They were more
likely to like photos depicted with many likes than photos with few likes; this finding showed the influence of virtual
peer endorsement and held for both neutral photos and photos of risky behaviors (e.g., drinking, smoking). Viewing
photos with many (compared with few) likes was associated with greater activity in neural regions implicated in
reward processing, social cognition, imitation, and attention. Furthermore, when adolescents viewed risky photos (as
opposed to neutral photos), activation in the cognitive-control network decreased. These findings highlight possible
mechanisms underlying peer influence during adolescence.

The core question to be raised is the question of what we mean by self-identity, how we experience and know ourselves as self-identical; this includes understanding how we can also be self-different, that is, how we have freedom. In... more

The core question to be raised is the question of what we mean by self-identity, how we experience and know ourselves as self-identical; this includes understanding how we can also be self-different, that is, how we have freedom. In terms of our experience of ourselves as selves, throughout the myriad of experiences we have, the various situations we find ourselves in, and even through our ability to be “other” than our Self in specific moments or situations, the Self appears self-identical and always “mine”. Heidegger’s insistence on the “mineness” of the Self, or Dasein, is a crucial insight into how we experience ourselves as experiencing the world. Another crucial insight comes from the historical nature of that Self as having-been while it simultaneously projects itself in a futural manner. The notion that one inherits determinate possibilities from which one can choose at will what one is to become runs into a difficulty, not because this choice isn’t available, but because it appears to be always already chosen by the factical Self.

This paper presents an overview of the key neuroscience studies investigating the neural mechanisms of self-initiated movements that form the basis of our human consciousness. These studies, which commenced with the seminal works of... more

This paper presents an overview of the key neuroscience studies investigating the neural mechanisms of self-initiated movements that form the basis of our human consciousness. These studies, which commenced with the seminal works of Benjamin Libet and colleagues, showed that an ensemble of brain areas — localized to the frontal and medial regions of the brain — are involved in engendering the conscious decision to commit a motor act. Regardless of differences in neuroimaging techniques, these studies commonly showed that early neuronal activities in the frontal lobules and supplementary motor areas, interpreted by some to be reflective of unconscious processes, occurred before one was conscious of the intention to act as well as the act itself. I examine and discuss these empirical findings with regard to the need to analyze the contents and stages of awareness, and devise paradigm-specific models or theories that could account for inconsistent findings garnered from different experimental paradigms. This paper concludes by emphasizing a need to reconcile the principles of determinism with the notions of free will in future development of consciousness research and theories. © The Institute of Mind and Behavior, Inc., P.O. Box 522, Village Station, New York City, New York, 10014. URL: https://umaine.edu/jmb/

To cope with the increasing economic complexity of modern life we need a better financial education what implies a better knowledge of how our brain process financial decision making. This is the subject of Neurofinances an emerging... more

To cope with the increasing economic complexity of modern life we need a better financial education what implies a better knowledge of how our brain process financial decision making. This is the subject of Neurofinances an emerging multidisciplinary area of research at the frontiers of Neurosciences, Economy, Finances and Accounting. Taking advantage of the new non-invasive Neurosciences techniques to study the human brain, Neurofinances is investigating the brain activity associated with financial decision. Here we discuss how Functional Magnetic Ressonance Imaging (fMRI) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) are being used in these studies. A short survey of fMRI studies is presented. Because we believe that EEG is the tool of choice for studying decision making, we present some results from our group on stock market investment decision. Finally, we conclude that how this kind of knowledge may be of guidance on financial education.

The multi-dimensional nature of pain renders difficult a holistic understanding of it. The conceptual framework of pain is said to be cognitive-evaluative, in addition to being sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational. To compare... more

The multi-dimensional nature of pain renders difficult a holistic understanding of it. The conceptual framework of pain is said to be cognitive-evaluative, in addition to being sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational. To compare participants' brain-behavior response before and after a 6-week mindfulness-based stress reduction training course on mindfulness in relation to pain modulation, three questionnaires (the Dallas Pain Questionnaire, Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire-SFMPQ, and Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness) as well as resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were administered to participants, divided into a pain-afflicted group (N = 18) and a control group (N = 16). Our results showed that the pain-afflicted group experienced significantly less pain after the mindfulness treatment than before, as measured by the SFMPQ. In conjunction, an increased connection from the anterior insular cortex (AIC) to the dorsal anterior midcingulate cortex (daMCC) was observed in the post-training pain-afflicted group and a significant correlation was found between AIC-daMCC connectivity and SFMPQ scores. The results suggest that mindfulness training can modulate the brain network dynamics underlying the subjective experience of pain.

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how performing formalized and improvised forms of praying changed the evoked BOLD response in a group of Danish Christians. Distinct from formalized praying and secular... more

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how performing formalized and improvised forms of praying changed the evoked BOLD response in a group of Danish Christians. Distinct from formalized praying and secular controls, improvised praying activated a strong response in the temporopolar region, the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporo- parietal junction and precuneus. This finding supports our hypothesis that religious subjects, who consider their God to be ‘real’
10 and capable of reciprocating requests, recruit areas of social cognition when they pray. We argue that praying to God is an intersubjective experience comparable to ‘normal’ interpersonal interaction.

В докладе представлены результаты первичного корпусного анализа, направленного на поиск стимульных материалов для двух серий экспериментов (психолингвистического и с использованием функционально-резонансной томографии). Эксперименты... more

В докладе представлены результаты первичного корпусного анализа, направленного на поиск стимульных материалов для двух серий экспериментов (психолингвистического и с использованием функционально-резонансной томографии). Эксперименты призваны пролить свет на восприятие речевых сбоев и прагматических мануальных жестов — как по отдельности, так и связи между собой. Показано, что характеристики естественного дискурса существенно затрудняют поиск требуемых для экспериментов фрагментов.