Emotional memory processing in post-traumatic stress disorder affected Colombian youth.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a neuropsychological condition caused by exposure to chronic stressors and extreme trauma. In past decades, Colombia (South America) has experienced high levels of armed conflict, which created an environment of chronic stress, resulting in an increased incidence of PTSD in children. Limited research exists on the effects of PTSD on emotional memory functioning of these Colombian youth living in chronically stressful environments. In the present study, 23 PTSD affected youth and 26 controls were asked to recall items from a memorised word list, as well as remembering details from a short emotional story. Although no significant differences were found for word list memory, deficits for emotional story content were found in the PTSD youth, particularly for facts involving negative emotional details. The latter may suggest a deficit in executive functioning for the integration of emotionally laden stimuli, perhaps induced as a by-product of their traumatic experiences.

Implicit processing of emotional words by children with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: An fMRI investigation / Procesamiento implícito de palabras emocionales en niños con Trastorno de Estrés Postraumático: investigación con resonancia magnética funcional

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: In the last decade, socio-political violence in Colombia (South America) has created an environment of extreme/chronic stress. In this study, brain imaging technology (fMRI) and behavioral task performance were used to measure potential deficits in executive functioning for emotional processing in Colombian children. METHOD: Participants (22 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD and 22 neurotypical, NT) were asked to perform a word task with implicit emotional salience, which required them to report the color of the ink in which a positive, negative or neutral word was printed. RESULTS: Mixed design analysis of variance showed no group differences in accuracy for determining ink color when presented as a positive or neutral word. However, PTSD children were significantly less accurate (negative words) and notably slower (both positive and negative words) at determining ink color when presented in the context of an emotional word. PTSD processing of positive and negative words was associated with hypoactivation in the superior and middle frontal gyri of the right hemisphere in comparison to NT children. CONCLUSIONS: These results may reflect a deficit in executive functioning for emotionally laden stimuli, perhaps induced as a by-product of their traumatic experiences

ANTECEDENTES/OBJETIVO: En la última década, la violencia socio-política en Colombia, ha propiciado un ambiente generador de situaciones de estrés crónico/extremo. El presente estudio empleó resonancia magnética funcional, junto con tareas conductuales, para medir posibles déficits en el funcionamiento ejecutivo en una tarea de palabras con contenido emocional en una muestra de niños colombianos. MÉTODO: A los participantes (22 TEPT y 22 controles), se les pidió indicar el color de la palabra impresa, omitiendo el contenido emocional implícito positivo, neutro o negativo. RESULTADOS: El análisis de varianza de diseño mixto, no arrojó diferencias entre los grupos, en número de aciertos al determinar el color en que estaban impresas las palabras positivas o neutras. Sin embargo, los niños con TEPT tuvieron más errores con las palabras de contenido emocional negativo y fueron más lentos que los controles con palabras de valencia positiva o negativa. En cuanto a las palabras positivas y negativas, el grupo con TEPT se asoció a hipoactivación de los giros superior y medio frontal del hemisferio derecho, al compararlos con los controles. CONCLUSIONES: Estos resultados sugieren déficits en el funcionamiento ejecutivo para estímulos con contenido emocional, quizás como consecuencia de las experiencias traumáticas vividas por el grupo de TEPT

Integrative Review of Dietary Choice Revealed by fMRI: Considerations for Obesity Prevention and Weight-Loss Education.

BACKGROUND: Emerging findings from neuroimaging studies investigating brain activity associated with dietary behavior are illuminating the interaction of biological and behavioral mechanisms that have implications for obesity prevention. Globally, A total of 1.9 billion adults are overweight, and 650 million are obese. Obesity and being overweight are major risk factors for chronic illness and death. Behaviorally based health interventions have had limited success in curbing the obesity epidemic. Greater understanding of brain responses to food cues will contribute to new knowledge and shape public health efforts in obesity prevention. However, an integration of this knowledge for obesity prevention education has not been published. AIMS: This study links evidence generated from brain activation studies generated in response to diet and food images and highlights educational recommendations for nurses engaged in obesity prevention and weight-loss education. METHODS: An integrative review of the literature was conducted using the MeSH keywords "magnetic resonance imaging," "diet," and "food images" in PubMed, MEDLINE Complete, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases from their first appearance in 2006 through March 2018. Studies published in English and using functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain response to diet, and food images were initially identified. Animal models, those whose primary focus was a specific disease, and intervention studies were excluded. RESULTS: Of 159 studies identified, 26 met inclusion criteria. Findings from neuroimaging studies may help explain the relationship between brain mechanisms and behavioral aspects of dietary choice and inform patient education in obesity prevention. Awareness of this evidence is applicable to nursing education efforts. This review contributes several recommendations that should be considered by nurses providing individualized weight-loss education. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: Nurses engaged in patient education for obesity prevention should consider personalized interventions that cultivate internal awareness for dietary adherence, self-care, exercise, hydration, and mood state; avoid using caloric deprivation approaches, such as skipping breakfast, for weight-loss interventions; and note the importance of individualized obesity prevention and weight-loss education.

Implicit processing of emotional words by children with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: An fMRI investigation.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: In the last decade, socio-political violence in Colombia (South America) has created an environment of extreme/chronic stress. In this study, brain imaging technology (fMRI) and behavioral task performance were used to measure potential deficits in executive functioning for emotional processing in Colombian children. METHOD: Participants (22 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD and 22 neurotypical, NT) were asked to perform a word task with implicit emotional salience, which required them to report the color of the ink in which a positive, negative or neutral word was printed. RESULTS: Mixed design analysis of variance showed no group differences in accuracy for determining ink color when presented as a positive or neutral word. However, PTSD children were significantly less accurate (negative words) and notably slower (both positive and negative words) at determining ink color when presented in the context of an emotional word. PTSD processing of positive and negative words was associated with hypoactivation in the superior and middle frontal gyri of the right hemisphere in comparison to NT children. CONCLUSIONS: These results may reflect a deficit in executive functioning for emotionally laden stimuli, perhaps induced as a by-product of their traumatic experiences.

ANTECEDENTES/OBJETIVO: En la última década, la violencia socio-política en Colombia, ha propiciado un ambiente generador de situaciones de estrés crónico/extremo. El presente estudio empleó resonancia magnética funcional, junto con tareas conductuales, para medir posibles déficits en el funcionamiento ejecutivo en una tarea de palabras con contenido emocional en una muestra de niños colombianos. MÉTODO: A los participantes (22 TEPT y 22 controles), se les pidió indicar el color de la palabra impresa, omitiendo el contenido emocional implícito positivo, neutro o negativo. RESULTADOS: El análisis de varianza de diseño mixto, no arrojó diferencias entre los grupos, en número de aciertos al determinar el color en que estaban impresas las palabras positivas o neutras. Sin embargo, los niños con TEPT tuvieron más errores con las palabras de contenido emocional negativo y fueron más lentos que los controles con palabras de valencia positiva o negativa. En cuanto a las palabras positivas y negativas, el grupo con TEPT se asoció a hipoactivación de los giros superior y medio frontal del hemisferio derecho, al compararlos con los controles. CONCLUSIONES: Estos resultados sugieren déficits en el funcionamiento ejecutivo para estímulos con contenido emocional, quizás como consecuencia de las experiencias traumáticas vividas por el grupo de TEPT.

Brain activation and affective judgements in response to personal dietary images: An fMRI preliminary study.

Emerging evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain activation studies associated with dietary behavior reveals significant interaction of biological and behavioral mechanisms in response to visualized food stimuli. Because food intake is influenced by neurosensory stimulation and memory cues, personalized food images may be useful in prompting appropriate affective responses to food intake, which may subsequently lead to healthier eating behaviors. The current study used a cross-sectional mixed methods approach to explore neural responses and self-perceptions of eating behavior during review of personalized food images. A sample of college students (N = 16; 9 females; M age = 21.44) used cell-phone cameras and an online dietary tracking website to collect and report three days of diet. Within 2-3 weeks of completing dietary tracking activity, participants underwent an fMRI scan while reviewing recorded personal images and text descriptions of their diet. They also responded to three questions related to memory for the food items and future eating intentions. Post-scan interviews explored how participants felt after reviewing personal food images and the possible impact that such review might have on future food choices. Whole brain analyses suggested, compared to a written dietary record, that the visualization of personal images of diet evoked greater brain activation in memory regions (e.g., superior frontal gyrus) along with mediating emotion (e.g., thalamus, putamen, anterior cingulate cortex), imagery and executive functions (e.g., inferior orbitofrontal gyrus, fusiform, and parietal lobe). This study offers preliminary support for the use of personal food images to strengthen dietary monitoring.

Hyper-brain connectivity in binge drinking college students: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

The current study used diffusion tensor imaging to examine patterns/degree of brain connectivity in 12 college-aged binge drinking (BD) and 12 moderate drinking individuals. Voxel-level and region-of-interest analyses revealed increased connectivity of the BD brain in the right corona radiata, right external capsule, and both the right and left cingulum. Also, fractional anisotropy and axial diffusivity values of these regions correlated with a number of drinking behaviors of the BD as well as both groups combined. It is hypothesized that increased connectivity in the BD may produce difficulties with regulatory control, contributing to their propensity to binge.

Lower Activation in Frontal Cortex and Posterior Cingulate Cortex Observed during Sex Determination Test in Early-Stage Dementia of the Alzheimer Type.

Face-labeling refers to the ability to classify faces into social categories. This plays a critical role in human interaction as it serves to define concepts of socially acceptable interpersonal behavior. The purpose of the current study was to characterize, what, if any, impairments in face-labeling are detectable in participants with early-stage clinically diagnosed dementia of the Alzheimer type (CDDAT) through the use of the sex determination test (SDT). In the current study, four (1 female, 3 males) CDDAT and nine (4 females, 5 males) age-matched neurotypicals (NT) completed the SDT using chimeric faces while undergoing BOLD fMRI. It was expected that CDDAT participants would have poor verbal fluency, which would correspond to poor performance on the SDT. This could be explained by decreased activation and connectivity patterns within the fusiform face area (FFA) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). DTI was also performed to test the association of pathological deterioration of connectivity in the uncinate fasciculus (UF) and verbally-mediated performance. CDDAT showed lower verbal fluency test (VFT) performance, but VFT was not significantly correlated to SDT and no significant difference was seen between CDDAT and NT for SDT performance as half of the CDDAT performed substantially worse than NT while the other half performed similarly. BOLD fMRI of SDT displayed differences in the left superior frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), but not the FFA or ACC. Furthermore, although DTI showed deterioration of the right inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi, as well as the PCC, it did not demonstrate significant deterioration of UF tracts. Taken together, early-stage CDDAT may represent a common emerging point for the loss of face labeling ability.

Mirror neuron activation of musicians and non-musicians in response to motion captured piano performances.

Mirror neurons (MNs) activate when performing an action and when an observer witnesses the same action performed by another individual. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and presentation of motion captured piano performances were used to identify differences in MN activation for musicians/non-musicians when viewing piano pieces played in a "Correct" mode (i.e., emphasis on technical correctness) or an "Enjoyment" mode (i.e., simply told to "enjoy" playing the piece). Results showed greater MN activation in a variety of brain regions for musicians, with these differences more pronounced in the "Enjoyment" mode. Our findings suggest that activation of MNs is not only initiated by the imagined action of an observed movement, but such activation is modulated by the level of musical expertise and knowledge of associated motor movements that the observer brings to the viewing situation. Enhanced MN activation in musicians may stem from imagining themselves actually playing the observed piece.

Attentional network deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often demonstrate deficient attentional ability, but the specific nature of the deficit is unclear. The Attention Networks model provides a useful approach to deconstruct this attentional deficit into its component parts. METHOD: Fifty-two neurotypical (NT) children and 14 children with ASD performed the child version of the Attention Network Test (ANT). The latter requires participants to indicate the direction of a centre target stimulus, which is presented above/below fixation and sometimes flanked by either congruent or incongruent distractor stimuli. RESULTS: Relative to NT children, those with ASD were: (1) slower to react to spatially cued trials and (2) more error prone on executive (conflict) attention trials. CONCLUSIONS: Young children with ASD have intact alerting attention, but less-efficient orienting and executive attention.

Electroencephalographic responses to photographs: a case study of three women with distinct adult attachment interview classifications.

This preliminary study explored whether neurophysiological responses to visual stimuli, including attachment-related pictures, differed based on attachment status. Along with self-reported valence ratings and reaction times, recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to a total of 100 images, 25 each of Positive, Negative, Neutral, and Personal (each participant's parents and child), were analyzed within and among three mothers with three attachment statuses (Dismissing, Preoccupied, and Secure), as judged by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). All three mothers gave their highest pleasantness ratings for Personal photographs. However, differences emerged when cross-region Alpha2 activation patterns in response to each picture type were compared amongst attachment categories. Alpha2 activation recorded during viewing of the participants' children's photographs was similar to viewing Negative pictures for mothers with insecure (Dismissing and Preoccupied) status; whereas the Alpha2 activation of the mother with Secure status towards photographs of her child was similar to Positive pictures. Different patterns of hemispheric asymmetry in Beta1 frequency when processing different picture types were also found. The mother with Dismissing status showed significantly stronger left-hemisphere Beta1 activation across all image types. The Preoccupied mother showed significantly stronger right-hemisphere Beta1 activation for all but the Neutral images, during which activation did not differ between the two hemispheres. The mother with Secure status showed significantly stronger Beta1 activation in the left hemisphere for all but parental Personal photos, during which activation did not differ between the two hemispheres. Implications from the current findings and future research possibilities are discussed.

What role for the anterior cingulate in analogical reasoning?

Abstract While prefrontal and frontal cortex of the brain are well documented to mediate many executive functions, including creativity, flexibility, and adaptability, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is known to be involved in error detection and conflict resolution, and is crucial to reward-based learning. A case is made for the notion that any neural model of analogical reasoning must incorporate the critical (and specialized) contributions of the ACC.

Enhanced brain connectivity in math-gifted adolescents: An fMRI study using mental rotation.

Mathematical giftedness is a form of intelligence related to enhanced mathematical reasoning that can be tested using a variety of numerical and spatial tasks. A number of neurobiological mechanisms related to exceptional mathematical reasoning ability have been postulated, including enhanced brain connectivity. We aimed to further investigate this possibility by comparing a group of mathematically gifted adolescents with an average math ability control group performing mental rotation of complex three-dimensional block figures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected and differences in intrahemispheric and interhemispheric connectivity between the groups were assessed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The math-gifted showed heightened intrahemispheric frontoparietal connectivity, as well as enhanced interhemispheric frontal connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal and premotor cortex. These enhanced connectivity patterns are consistent with previous studies linking increased activation of the frontal and parietal regions with high fluid intelligence, and may be a unique neural characteristic of the mathematically gifted brain.

Clustering and modeling of EEG coherence features of Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment patients.

Using multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) and k-means clustering, coherence features extracted from the EEGs of a group of 56 subjects were analyzed to assess how feasible an automated coherence-based pattern recognition system that detects Alzheimer's disease (AD) would be. Sixteen of the subjects were AD patients, 24 were mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients while 16 were age-matched controls. With MDA, an overall classification rate (CR) of 84% was obtained for AD vs. MCI vs. Controls classifications. The high CR implies that it is possible to distinguish between the three groups. The coherence features were also statistically analyzed to derive a neural model of AD and MCI, which indicated that patients with AD may have a greater number of damaged cortical fibers than their MCI counterparts, and furthermore, that MCI may be an intermediary step in the development of AD.

Visuospatial processing and the function of prefrontal-parietal networks in autism spectrum disorders: a functional MRI study.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with autism spectrum disorders typically have normal visuospatial abilities but impaired executive functioning, particularly in abilities related to working memory and attention. The aim of this study was to elucidate the functioning of frontoparietal networks underlying spatial working memory processes during mental rotation in persons with autism spectrum disorders. METHOD: Seven adolescent males with normal IQ with an autism spectrum disorder and nine age- and IQ-matched male comparison subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans while performing a mental rotation task. RESULTS: The autism spectrum disorders group showed less activation in lateral and medial premotor cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, and caudate nucleus. CONCLUSIONS: The finding of less activation in prefrontal regions but not in parietal regions supports a model of dysfunction of frontostriatal networks in autism spectrum disorders.

Mathematically gifted male adolescents activate a unique brain network during mental rotation.

Mental rotation involves the creation and manipulation of internal images, with the later being particularly useful cognitive capacities when applied to high-level mathematical thinking and reasoning. Many neuroimaging studies have demonstrated mental rotation to be mediated primarily by the parietal lobes, particularly on the right side. Here, we use fMRI to show for the first time that when performing 3-dimensional mental rotations, mathematically gifted male adolescents engage a qualitatively different brain network than those of average math ability, one that involves bilateral activation of the parietal lobes and frontal cortex, along with heightened activation of the anterior cingulate. Reliance on the processing characteristics of this uniquely bilateral system and the interplay of these anterior/posterior regions may be contributors to their mathematical precocity.

Generating an image from an ambiguous visual input: an electroencephalographic (EEG) investigation.

Fourteen right-handed males were shown slides of common objects (e.g., wristwatch), familiar situations (e.g., two people shaking hands), and inkblots from a popular projective test (Holtzman, 1986) and then asked to name the object, assess the situation, or describe the most salient image emerging from the inkblot. Alpha power suppression was monitored over the left and right frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes to determine the brain circuitry responsible for the processing of each type of stimulus. When processing common objects and familiar situations there was bilateral activation of the parietal and occipital lobes; when processing inkblots, bilateral activation of the parietal and occipital lobes was again obtained, but complemented by selective activation of the right frontal lobe. The later suggests that anterior regions of the right cerebral hemisphere contribute to the generation of dynamic images like those evoked by visually ambiguous inkblots.