The impact of wearing a KN95 face mask on human brain function: evidence from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: Face masks are widely used in daily life because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this study was to explore the impact of wearing face masks on brain functions by using resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI). Methods: Scanning data from 15 healthy subjects (46.20 ± 6.67 years) were collected in this study. Each subject underwent RS-fMRI scans under two comparative conditions, wearing a KN95 mask and natural breathing (no mask). The amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and functional connectivity under the two conditions were analyzed and then compared using the paired t-test. Results: Compared with those of the no-mask condition, the ALFF activities when wearing masks were increased significantly in the right middle frontal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, right superior marginal gyrus, left inferior parietal gyrus, and left supplementary motor area and decreased significantly in the anterior cingulate gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, bilateral lingual gyrus, and bilateral calcarine cortex (p < 0.05). Taking the posterior cingulate cortex area as a seed point, the correlations with the occipital cortex, prefrontal lobe, and motor sensory cortex were sensitive to wearing masks compared with not wearing masks (p < 0.05). Taking the medial prefrontal cortex region as a seed point, the functional connectivity with the bilateral temporal lobe, bilateral motor sensory cortex, and occipital lobe was influenced by wearing a KN95 mask (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that wearing a KN95 face mask can cause short-term changes in human resting brain function. Both local neural activities and functional connectivity in brain regions were sensitive to mask wearing. However, the neural mechanism causing these changes and its impact on cognitive function still need further investigation.

Cognitive and functional connectivity impairment in post-COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the neuropsychological profile and the integrity of the olfactory network in patients with COVID-19-related persistent olfactory dysfunction (OD). METHODS: Patients with persistent COVID-19-related OD underwent olfactory assessment with Sniffin' Sticks and neuropsychological evaluation. Additionally, both patients and a control group underwent brain MRI, including T1-weighted and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) sequences on a 3 T scanner. Morphometrical properties were evaluated in olfaction-associated regions; the rs-fMRI data were analysed using graph theory at the whole-brain level and within a standard parcellation of the olfactory functional network. All the MR-derived quantities were compared between the two groups and their correlation with clinical scores in patients were explored. RESULTS: We included 23 patients (mean age 37 ± 14 years, 12 females) with persistent (mean duration 11 ± 5 months, range 2-19 months) COVID-19-related OD (mean score 23.63 ± 5.32/48, hyposmia cut-off: 30.75) and 26 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Applying population-derived cut-off values, the two cognitive domains mainly impaired were visuospatial memory and executive functions (17 % and 13 % of patients). Brain MRI did not show gross morphological abnormalities. The lateral orbital cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala volumes exhibited a reduction trend in patients, not significant after the correction for multiple comparisons. The olfactory bulb volumes did not differ between patients and controls. Graph analysis of the functional olfactory network showed altered global and local properties in the patients' group (n = 19, 4 excluded due to artifacts) compared to controls. Specifically, we detected a reduction in the global modularity coefficient, positively correlated with hyposmia severity, and an increase of the degree and strength of the right thalamus functional connections, negatively correlated with short-term verbal memory scores. DISCUSSION: Patients with persistent COVID-19-related OD showed an altered olfactory network connectivity correlated with hyposmia severity and neuropsychological performance. No significant morphological alterations were found in patients compared with controls.

Effects of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome on the functional brain networks of non-hospitalized individuals.

Introduction: The long-term impact of COVID-19 on brain function remains poorly understood, despite growing concern surrounding post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS). The goal of this cross-sectional, observational study was to determine whether there are significant alterations in resting brain function among non-hospitalized individuals with PACS, compared to symptomatic individuals with non-COVID infection. Methods: Data were collected for 51 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 (mean age 41±12 yrs., 34 female) and 15 controls who had cold and flu-like symptoms but tested negative for COVID-19 (mean age 41±14 yrs., 9 female), with both groups assessed an average of 4-5 months after COVID testing. None of the participants had prior neurologic, psychiatric, or cardiovascular illness. Resting brain function was assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and self-reported symptoms were recorded. Results: Individuals with COVID-19 had lower temporal and subcortical functional connectivity relative to controls. A greater number of ongoing post-COVID symptoms was also associated with altered functional connectivity between temporal, parietal, occipital and subcortical regions. Discussion: These results provide preliminary evidence that patterns of functional connectivity distinguish PACS from non-COVID infection and correlate with the severity of clinical outcome, providing novel insights into this highly prevalent disorder.

What influence do face masks have on reading emotions in faces?

In the past years, no event has affected people around the globe more than the SARS-COVID-2 pandemic. Besides the health system and the economy, it has affected social life. A grave sequela is the social distancing due to the ubiquitous use of medical face masks. Since these face masks cover approximately two thirds of the face including the mouth and nose, we hypothesized that they may impair affect reading of emotional face expressions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 16 healthy volunteers to investigate brain activity changes related to the recognition of evolving emotional face expressions in short video-clips. We found that the face masks delayed emotion recognition, but at a normal nearly 100% success rate. This effect was related to a decreased activation in the cortical network mediating face recognition. Our data support the notion that face masks can have an adverse impact of social interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The modulatory effects of visual speech on auditory speech perception: A multi-modal investigation of how vision alters the temporal, spatial and spectral components of speech

Visual speech information, especially that provided by the mouth and lips, is important during face-to-face communication. This has been made more evident by the increased difficulty of speech perception because mask usage has become commonplace in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Masking obscures the mouth and lips, thus eliminating meaningful information from visual cues that are used to perceive speech correctly. To fully understand the perceptual benefits afforded by visual information during audiovisual speech perception, it is necessary to explore the underlying neural mechanisms involved. While several studies have shown neural activation of auditory regions in response to visual speech, the information represented by these activations remain poorly understood. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the neural bases for how visual speech modulates the temporal, spatial, and spectral components of audiovisual speech perception, and the type of information encoded by these signals.Most studies approach this question by using techniques sensitive to one or two important dimensions (temporal, spatial, or spectral). Even in studies that have used intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), which is sensitive to all three dimensions, research conventionally quantifies effects using single-subject statistics, leaving group-level variance unexplained. In Study 1, I overcome these shortcomings by investigating how vision modulates auditory speech processes across spatial, temporal and spectral dimensions in a large group of epilepsy patients with intracranial electrodes implanted (n = 21). The results of this study demonstrate that visual speech produced multiple spatiotemporally distinct patterns of theta, beta, and high-gamma power changes in auditory regions in the superior temporal gyrus (STG).While study 1 showed that visual speech evoked activity in auditory areas, it is not clear what, if any, information is encoded by these activations. In Study 2, I investigated whether these distinct patterns of activity in the STG, produced by visual speech, contain information about what word is being said. To address this question, I utilized a support-vector machine classifier to decode the identities of four word types (consonants beginning with 'b', 'd', 'g', and 'f') from activity in the STG recorded during spoken (phonemes: basic units of speech) or silent visual speech (visemes: basic units of lipreading information). Results from this study indicated that visual speech indeed encodes lipreading information in auditory regions.Studies 1 and 2 provided evidence from iEEG data obtained from patients with epilepsy. In order to replicate these results in a normative population and to leverage improved spatial resolution, in Study 3 I acquired data from a large cohort of normative subjects (n = 64) during a randomized event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Similar to that of Study 2, I used machine learning to test for classification of phonemes and visemes (/fafa/, /kaka/, /mama/) from auditory, auditory-visual, and visual regions in the brain. Results conceptually replicated the results of Study 2, such that phoneme and viseme identities could both be classified from the STG, revealing that this information is encoded through distributed representations. Further analyses revealed similar spatial patterns in the STG between phonemes and visemes, consistent with the model that viseme information is used to target corresponding phoneme populations in auditory regions. Taken together, the findings from this dissertation advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie the multiple ways in which vision alters the temporal, spatial and spectral components of audiovisual speech perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

From study abroad to study at home: Spontaneous neuronal activity predicts depressive symptoms in overseas students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective of this study was to evaluate symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as changes in spontaneous neuronal activity in college students studying abroad during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined functional brain changes using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo) in overseas students with enforced isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, emotional assessments were administered to determine the severity of depression and anxiety. The questionnaire results showed that anxiety and depressive symptoms differed between overseas students (i.e., those attending an overseas college virtually) and local students (i.e., those attending a local college in person). The fMRI data revealed higher ALFF values in the bilateral superior medial frontal gyrus, bilateral pre-central gyrus, left insula, and left superior temporal gyrus as well as lower ALFF values in the bilateral paracentral lobule (supplementary motor area) in overseas students. Moreover, ReHo analysis also revealed significant differences between overseas students and local students. Compared with local students, overseas students showed significantly increased ReHo in the right inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri and decreased ReHo in the bilateral paracentral lobule, bilateral superior medial frontal gyrus (supplementary motor area), and bilateral pre-central gyrus. In addition, in overseas students, altered ReHo in the cluster including the left superior and medial frontal gyri, pre-central gyrus, and paracentral lobule was significantly positively correlated with Self-Rating Depression Scale scores. Thus, spontaneous brain activity in overseas students changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This change in brain function might be related to depression and anxiety symptoms. These results suggest that mental health services are needed to decrease the risk of anxiety and depression among college students studying abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global multi-center and multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging study of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Harmonization and monitoring of protocols in healthy volunteers and phantoms.

OBJECTIVES: We describe the harmonized MRI acquisition and quality assessment of an ongoing global OCD study, with the aim to translate representative, well-powered neuroimaging findings in neuropsychiatric research to worldwide populations. METHODS: We report on T1-weighted structural MRI, resting-state functional MRI, and multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging of 140 healthy participants (28 per site), two traveling controls, and regular phantom scans. RESULTS: Human image quality measures (IQMs) and outcome measures showed smaller within-site variation than between-site variation. Outcome measures were less variable than IQMs, especially for the traveling controls. Phantom IQMs were stable regarding geometry, SNR, and mean diffusivity, while fMRI fluctuation was more variable between sites. CONCLUSIONS: Variation in IQMs persists, even for an a priori harmonized data acquisition protocol, but after pre-processing they have less of an impact on the outcome measures. Continuous monitoring IQMs per site is valuable to detect potential artifacts and outliers. The inclusion of both cases and healthy participants at each site remains mandatory.

Risk of insomnia during COVID-19: effects of depression and brain functional connectivity.

Normal sleepers may be at risk for insomnia during COVID-19. Identifying psychological factors and neural markers that predict their insomnia risk, as well as investigating possible courses of insomnia development, could lead to more precise targeted interventions for insomnia during similar public health emergencies. Insomnia severity index of 306 participants before and during COVID-19 were employed to determine the development of insomnia, while pre-COVID-19 psychometric and resting-state fMRI data were used to explore corresponding psychological and neural markers of insomnia development. Normal sleepers as a group reported a significant increase in insomnia symptoms after COVID-19 outbreak (F = 4.618, P = 0.0102, df = 2, 609.9). Depression was found to significantly contribute to worse insomnia (ß = 0.066, P = 0.024). Subsequent analysis found that functional connectivity between the precentral gyrus and middle/inferior temporal gyrus mediated the association between pre-COVID-19 depression and insomnia symptoms during COVID-19. Cluster analysis identified that postoutbreak insomnia symptoms followed 3 courses (lessened, slightly worsened, and developed into mild insomnia), and pre-COVID-19 depression symptoms and functional connectivities predicted these courses. Timely identification and treatment of at-risk individuals may help avoid the development of insomnia in the face of future health-care emergencies, such as those arising from COVID-19 variants.

Face processing in the infant brain after pandemic lockdown.

The role of visual experience in the development of face processing has long been debated. We present a new angle on this question through a serendipitous study that cannot easily be repeated. Infants viewed short blocks of faces during fMRI in a repetition suppression task. The same identity was presented multiple times in half of the blocks (repeat condition) and different identities were presented once each in the other half (novel condition). In adults, the fusiform face area (FFA) tends to show greater neural activity for novel versus repeat blocks in such designs, suggesting that it can distinguish same versus different face identities. As part of an ongoing study, we collected data before the COVID-19 pandemic and after an initial local lockdown was lifted. The resulting sample of 12 infants (9-24 months) divided equally into pre- and post-lockdown groups with matching ages and data quantity/quality. The groups had strikingly different FFA responses: pre-lockdown infants showed repetition suppression (novel > repeat), whereas post-lockdown infants showed the opposite (repeat > novel), often referred to as repetition enhancement. These findings provide speculative evidence that altered visual experience during the lockdown, or other correlated environmental changes, may have affected face processing in the infant brain.

Neural correlates of psychodynamic and non-psychodynamic therapies in different clinical populations through fMRI: A meta-analysis and systematic review.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the ongoing crisis in psychiatric and psychological care, contributing to what we have identified as a new psychological and psychiatric pandemic. Psychotherapy is an effective method for easing the psychological suffering experienced also by the various impacts of COVID-19. This treatment can be examined from a neurological perspective, through the application of brain imaging techniques. Specifically, the meta-analysis of imaging studies can aid in expanding researchers' understanding of the many beneficial applications of psychotherapy. Objectives: We examined the functional brain changes accompanying different mental disorders with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), through a meta-analysis, and systematic review in order to better understand the general neural mechanism involved in psychotherapy and the potential neural difference between psychodynamic and non-psychodynamic approaches. Data sources: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were employed for our systematic review and meta-analysis. We conducted a computer-based literature search, following the Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcomes (PICO) approach, to retrieve all published articles in English regarding the above-described topics from PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, and Web of Science. Study eligibility criteria participants and interventions: We combined terms related to psychotherapy and fMRI: ("psychotherapy" [All Fields] OR "psychotherapy" [MeSH Terms] OR "psychotherapy" [All Fields] OR "psychotherapies" [All Fields] OR "psychotherapy s" [All Fields]) AND ("magnetic resonance imaging" [MeSH Terms]) OR ("magnetic"[All Fields] AND "resonance"[All Fields] AND "imaging"[All Fields]) OR ("magnetic resonance imaging"[All Fields] OR "fmri"[All Fields]). We considered (1) whole brain fMRI studies; (2) studies in which participants have been involved in a clinical trial with psychotherapy sessions, with pre/post fMRI; (3) fMRI results presented in coordinate-based (x, y, and z) in MNI or Talairach space; (4) presence of neuropsychiatric patients. The exclusion criteria were: (1) systematic review or meta-analysis; (2) behavioral study; (3) single-case MRI or fMRI study; and (4) other imaging techniques (i.e., PET, SPECT) or EEG. Results: After duplicates removal and assessment of the content of each published study, we included 38 sources. The map including all studies that assessed longitudinal differences in brain activity showed two homogeneous clusters in the left inferior frontal gyrus, and caudally involving the anterior insular cortex (p < 0.0001, corr.). Similarly, studies that assessed psychotherapy-related longitudinal changes using emotional or cognitive tasks (TASK map) showed a left-sided homogeneity in the anterior insula (p < 0.000) extending to Broca's area of the inferior frontal gyrus (p < 0.0001) and the superior frontal gyrus (p < 0.0001). Studies that applied psychodynamic psychotherapy showed Family-Wise Error (FWE) cluster-corrected (p < 0.05) homogeneity values in the right superior and inferior frontal gyri, with a small cluster in the putamen. No FWE-corrected homogeneity foci were observed for Mindful- based and cognitive behavioral therapy psychotherapy. In both pre- and post-therapy results, studies showed two bilateral clusters in the dorsal anterior insulae (p = 0.00001 and p = 0.00003, respectively) and involvement of the medial superior frontal gyrus (p = 0.0002). Limitations: Subjective experiences, such as an individual's response to therapy, are intrinsically challenging to quantify as objective, factual realities. Brain changes observed both pre- and post-therapy could be related to other factors, not necessary to the specific treatment received. Therapeutic modalities and study designs are generally heterogeneous. Differences exist in sample characteristics, such as the specificity of the disorder and number and duration of sessions. Moreover, the sample size is relatively small, particularly due to the paucity of studies in this field and the little contribution of PDT. Conclusions and implications of key findings: All psychological interventions seem to influence the brain from a functional point of view, showing their efficacy from a neurological perspective. Frontal, prefrontal regions, insular cortex, superior and inferior frontal gyrus, and putamen seem involved in these neural changes, with the psychodynamic more linked to the latter three regions.

The modulatory effects of visual speech on auditory speech perception: A multi-modal investigation of how vision alters the temporal, spatial and spectral components of speech

Visual speech information, especially that provided by the mouth and lips, is important during face-to-face communication. This has been made more evident by the increased difficulty of speech perception because mask usage has become commonplace in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Masking obscures the mouth and lips, thus eliminating meaningful information from visual cues that are used to perceive speech correctly. To fully understand the perceptual benefits afforded by visual information during audiovisual speech perception, it is necessary to explore the underlying neural mechanisms involved. While several studies have shown neural activation of auditory regions in response to visual speech, the information represented by these activations remain poorly understood. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the neural bases for how visual speech modulates the temporal, spatial, and spectral components of audiovisual speech perception, and the type of information encoded by these signals.Most studies approach this question by using techniques sensitive to one or two important dimensions (temporal, spatial, or spectral). Even in studies that have used intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), which is sensitive to all three dimensions, research conventionally quantifies effects using single-subject statistics, leaving group-level variance unexplained. In Study 1, I overcome these shortcomings by investigating how vision modulates auditory speech processes across spatial, temporal and spectral dimensions in a large group of epilepsy patients with intracranial electrodes implanted (n = 21). The results of this study demonstrate that visual speech produced multiple spatiotemporally distinct patterns of theta, beta, and high-gamma power changes in auditory regions in the superior temporal gyrus (STG).While study 1 showed that visual speech evoked activity in auditory areas, it is not clear what, if any, information is encoded by these activations. In Study 2, I investigated whether these distinct patterns of activity in the STG, produced by visual speech, contain information about what word is being said. To address this question, I utilized a support-vector machine classifier to decode the identities of four word types (consonants beginning with 'b', 'd', 'g', and 'f') from activity in the STG recorded during spoken (phonemes: basic units of speech) or silent visual speech (visemes: basic units of lipreading information). Results from this study indicated that visual speech indeed encodes lipreading information in auditory regions.Studies 1 and 2 provided evidence from iEEG data obtained from patients with epilepsy. In order to replicate these results in a normative population and to leverage improved spatial resolution, in Study 3 I acquired data from a large cohort of normative subjects (n = 64) during a randomized event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Similar to that of Study 2, I used machine learning to test for classification of phonemes and visemes (/fafa/, /kaka/, /mama/) from auditory, auditory-visual, and visual regions in the brain. Results conceptually replicated the results of Study 2, such that phoneme and viseme identities could both be classified from the STG, revealing that this information is encoded through distributed representations. Further analyses revealed similar spatial patterns in the STG between phonemes and visemes, consistent with the model that viseme information is used to target corresponding phoneme populations in auditory regions. Taken together, the findings from this dissertation advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie the multiple ways in which vision alters the temporal, spatial and spectral components of audiovisual speech perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on functional and structural connectivity in post-COVID-19 condition patients: A randomized, sham-controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Post-COVID-19 condition refers to a range of persisting physical, neurocognitive, and neuropsychological symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Abnormalities in brain connectivity were found in recovered patients compared to non-infected controls. This study aims to evaluate the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on brain connectivity in post-COVID-19 patients. METHODS: In this randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind trial, 73 patients were randomized to receive 40 daily sessions of HBOT (n = 37) or sham treatment (n = 36). We examined pre- and post-treatment resting-state brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans to evaluate functional and structural connectivity changes, which were correlated to cognitive and psychological distress measures. RESULTS: The ROI-to-ROI analysis revealed decreased internetwork connectivity in the HBOT group which was negatively correlated to improvements in attention and executive function scores (p < 0.001). Significant group-by-time interactions were demonstrated in the right hippocampal resting state function connectivity (rsFC) in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFWE = 0.002). Seed-to-voxel analysis also revealed a negative correlation in the brief symptom inventory (BSI-18) score and in the rsFC between the amygdala seed, the angular gyrus, and the primary sensory motor area (PFWE = 0.012, 0.002). Positive correlations were found between the BSI-18 score and the left insular cortex seed and FPN (angular gyrus) (PFWE < 0.0001). Tractography based structural connectivity analysis showed a significant group-by-time interaction in the fractional anisotropy (FA) of left amygdala tracts (F = 7.81, P = 0.007). The efficacy measure had significant group-by-time interactions (F = 5.98, p = 0.017) in the amygdala circuit. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that HBOT improves disruptions in white matter tracts and alters the functional connectivity organization of neural pathways attributed to cognitive and emotional recovery in post-COVID-19 patients. This study also highlights the potential of structural and functional connectivity analysis as a promising treatment response monitoring tool.

Interdigitated Columnar Representation of Personal Space and Visual Space in Human Parietal Cortex.

Personal space (PS) is the space around the body that people prefer to maintain between themselves and unfamiliar others. Intrusion into personal space evokes discomfort and an urge to move away. Physiologic studies in nonhuman primates suggest that defensive responses to intruding stimuli involve the parietal cortex. We hypothesized that the spatial encoding of interpersonal distance is initially transformed from purely sensory to more egocentric mapping within human parietal cortex. This hypothesis was tested using 7 Tesla (7T) fMRI at high spatial resolution (1.1 mm isotropic), in seven subjects (four females, three males). In response to visual stimuli presented at a range of virtual distances, we found two categories of distance encoding in two corresponding radially-extending columns of activity within parietal cortex. One set of columns (P columns) responded selectively to moving and stationary face images presented at virtual distances that were nearer (but not farther) than each subject's behaviorally-defined personal space boundary. In most P columns, BOLD response amplitudes increased monotonically and nonlinearly with increasing virtual face proximity. In the remaining P columns, BOLD responses decreased with increasing proximity. A second set of parietal columns (D columns) responded selectively to disparity-based distance cues (near or far) in random dot stimuli, similar to disparity-selective columns described previously in occipital cortex. Critically, in parietal cortex, P columns were topographically interdigitated (nonoverlapping) with D columns. These results suggest that visual spatial information is transformed from visual to body-centered (or person-centered) dimensions in multiple local sites within human parietal cortex.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Recent COVID-related social distancing practices highlight the need to better understand brain mechanisms which regulate "personal space" (PS), which is defined by the closest interpersonal distance that is comfortable for an individual. Using high spatial resolution brain imaging, we tested whether a map of external space is transformed from purely visual (3D-based) information to a more egocentric map (related to personal space) in human parietal cortex. We confirmed this transformation and further showed that it was mediated by two mutually segregated sets of columns: one which encoded interpersonal distance and another that encoded visual distance. These results suggest that the cortical transformation of sensory-centered to person-centered encoding of space near the body involves short-range communication across interdigitated columns within parietal cortex.

A detailed review of contrast-enhanced fluorescence magnetic resonance imaging techniques for earlier prediction and easy detection of COVID-19

Omicron, a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) variation, just seems to contain hundreds of modifications, with no transition sequences found in their ribonucleic acid (RNA). Omicron has a mutation termed E484A, as well as polymorphisms in the sites where it can attack two kinds of antibodies at one time. Since the nucleotide was highly altered, the well-known gold standard PCR test failed to identify these variants in post-covid patients. Computer tomography (CT) and Lung-X-Ray tests are a little more effective than the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT - PCR) test in the diagnosis of coronavirus transmission (usually after 2 weeks). So, it is a need of the hour to define a test that could identify the symptoms, and extend the impact of COVID-19 in the pre-and post-COVID-19 cases. The in vivo MRI and the advanced fluorescent magnetic resonance imaging (F-MRI) diagnostic test for the lungs were recently revamped to identify the essential symbols of viral pneumonia, and pathological alterations in lung nodules, and made it easy to identify the seriousness of respiratory problems. The present work aims to review F-MRI techniques for earlier prediction and easy detection of COVID-19.

What influence do face masks have on reading emotions in faces?

In the past years, no event has affected people around the globe more than the SARS-COVID-2 pandemic. Besides the health system and the economy, it has affected social life. A grave sequela is the social distancing due to the ubiquitous use of medical face masks. Since these face masks cover approximately two thirds of the face including the mouth and nose, we hypothesized that they may impair affect reading of emotional face expressions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 16 healthy volunteers to investigate brain activity changes related to the recognition of evolving emotional face expressions in short video-clips. We found that the face masks delayed emotion recognition, but at a normal nearly 100% success rate. This effect was related to a decreased activation in the cortical network mediating face recognition. Our data support the notion that face masks can have an adverse impact of social interactions.

Pre-COVID brain functional connectome features prospectively predict emergence of distress symptoms after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Persistent psychological distress associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been well documented. This study aimed to identify pre-COVID brain functional connectome that predicts pandemic-related distress symptoms among young adults. METHODS: Baseline neuroimaging studies and assessment of general distress using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale were performed with 100 healthy individuals prior to wide recognition of the health risks associated with the emergence of COVID-19. They were recontacted for the Impact of Event Scale-Revised and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist in the period of community-level outbreaks, and for follow-up distress evaluation again 1 year later. We employed the network-based statistic approach to identify connectome that predicted the increase of distress based on 136-region-parcellation with assigned network membership. Predictive performance of connectome features and causal relations were examined by cross-validation and mediation analyses. RESULTS: The connectome features that predicted emergence of distress after COVID contained 70 neural connections. Most within-network connections were located in the default mode network (DMN), and affective network-DMN and dorsal attention network-DMN links largely constituted between-network pairs. The hippocampus emerged as the most critical hub region. Predictive models of the connectome remained robust in cross-validation. Mediation analyses demonstrated that COVID-related posttraumatic stress partially explained the correlation of connectome to the development of general distress. CONCLUSIONS: Brain functional connectome may fingerprint individuals with vulnerability to psychological distress associated with the COVID pandemic. Individuals with brain neuromarkers may benefit from the corresponding interventions to reduce the risk or severity of distress related to fear of COVID-related challenges.

Transfer Learning from Healthy to Unhealthy Patients for the Automated Classification of Functional Brain Networks in fMRI

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is an essential tool for the pre-surgical planning of brain tumor removal, which allows the identification of functional brain networks to preserve the patient’s neurological functions. One fMRI technique used to identify the functional brain network is the resting-state-fMRI (rs-fMRI). This technique is not routinely available because of the necessity to have an expert reviewer who can manually identify each functional network. The lack of sufficient unhealthy data has so far hindered a data-driven approach based on machine learning tools for full automation of this clinical task. In this article, we investigate the possibility of such an approach via the transfer learning method from healthy control data to unhealthy patient data to boost the detection of functional brain networks in rs-fMRI data. The end-to-end deep learning model implemented in this article distinguishes seven principal functional brain networks using fMRI images. The best performance of a 75% correct recognition rate is obtained from the proposed deep learning architecture, which shows its superiority over other machine learning algorithms that were equally tested for this classification task. Based on this best reference model, we demonstrate the possibility of boosting the results of our algorithm with transfer learning from healthy patients to unhealthy patients. This application of the transfer learning technique opens interesting possibilities because healthy control subjects can be easily enrolled for fMRI data acquisition since it is non-invasive. Consequently, this process helps to compensate for the usual small cohort of unhealthy patient data. This transfer learning approach could be extended to other medical imaging modalities and pathology.

Changes in Internalizing Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Transdiagnostic Sample of Youth: Exploring Mediators and Predictors.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a chronically stressful event, particularly for youth. Here, we examine (i) changes in mood and anxiety symtpoms, (ii) pandemic-related stress as a mediator of change in symptoms, and (ii) threat processing biases as a predictor of increased anxiety during the pandemic. A clinically well-characterized sample of 81 youth ages 8-18 years (M = 13.8 years, SD = 2.65; 40.7% female) including youth with affective and/or behavioral psychiatric diagnoses and youth without psychopathology completed pre- and during pandemic assessments of anxiety and depression and COVID-related stress. Forty-six youth also completed a threat processing fMRI task pre-pandemic. Anxiety and depression significantly increased during the pandemic (all ps < 0.05). Significant symptom change was partially mediated by pandemic stress and worries. Increased prefrontal activity in response to neutral faces pre-pandemic was associated with more intense parent-reported anxiety during the pandemic (all Fs(1.95,81.86) > 14.44, ps < 0.001). The present work extends existing knowledge on the mediating role of psychological stress on symptoms of anxiety and depression in youth.

Altered brain regional homogeneity is associated with depressive symptoms in COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is an infectious disease that has spread worldwide in 2020, causing a severe pandemic. In addition to respiratory symptoms, neuropsychiatric manifestations are commonly observed, including chronic fatigue, depression, and anxiety. The neural correlates of neuropsychiatric symptoms in COVID-19 are still largely unknown. METHODS: A total of 79 patients with COVID-19 (COV) and 17 healthy controls (HC) underwent 3 T functional magnetic resonance imaging at rest, as well as structural imaging. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) was calculated. We also measured depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), anxiety using the General Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale, and fatigue with the Multidimension Fatigue Inventory. RESULTS: In comparison with HC, COV showed significantly higher depressive scores. Moreover, COV presented reduced ReHo in the left angular gyrus, the right superior/middle temporal gyrus and the left inferior temporal gyrus, and higher ReHo in the right hippocampus. No differences in gray matter were detected in these areas. Furthermore, we observed a negative correlation between ReHo in the left angular gyrus and PHQ-9 scores and a trend toward a positive correlation between ReHo in the right hippocampus and PHQ-9 scores. LIMITATIONS: Heterogeneity in the clinical presentation in COV, the different timing from the first positive molecular swab test to the MRI, and the cross-sectional design of the study limit the generalizability of our findings. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that COVID-19 infection may contribute to depressive symptoms via a modulation of local functional connectivity in cortico-limbic circuits.

Memorize COVID-19 Advertisement: Customer Neuroscience Data Collection Techniques by Using EEG and fMRI

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) confirmed cases in the world still occurred more than 1.5 years after the first cases outbreak in Wuhan, China. Education is a main key to deal with this pandemic. The information on how to prevent COVID-19 continues to be informed by direct approach and by using advertisements on television, radio, printed media, and on the internet are being provided to gain the awareness to the people. Consumer neuroscience is necessarily needed and important for understanding consumer behavior. This research paper proposed the techniques to collect the visual data of COVID-19 advertisements by using electroencephalogram (EEG) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to understand the brain activity. The results of this research can be useful to create a better COVID-19 advertisement that can attract people to memorize the health protocol. © 2021 IEEE.