Speech comprehension across time, space, frequency, and age: MEG-MVPA classification of intertrial phase coherence.

Language is a key part of human cognition, essential for our well-being at all stages of our lives. Whereas many neurocognitive abilities decline with age, for language the picture is much less clear, and how exactly speech comprehension changes with ageing is still unknown. To investigate this, we employed magnetoencephalography (MEG) and recorded neuromagnetic brain responses to auditory linguistic stimuli in healthy participants of younger and older age using a passive task-free paradigm and a range of different linguistic stimulus contrasts, which enabled us to assess neural processing of spoken language at multiple levels (lexical, semantic, morphosyntactic). Using machine learning-based classification algorithms to scrutinise intertrial phase coherence of MEG responses in cortical source space, we found that patterns of oscillatory neural activity diverged between younger and older participants across several frequency bands (alpha, beta, gamma) for all tested linguistic information types. The results suggest multiple age-related changes in the brain's neurolinguistic circuits, which may be due to both healthy ageing in general and compensatory processes in particular.

Structural and functional changes in the retina in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease is caused by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, originating in the substantia nigra pars compacta and characterised by bradykinesia, rest tremor and rigidity. In addition, visual disorders and retinal abnormalities are often present and can be identified by decreased visual acuity, abnormal spatial contrast sensitivity or even difficulty in complex visual task completion. Because of their early onset in patients with de novo Parkinson's disease, the anatomical retinal changes and electrophysiological modification could be valuable markers even at early stages of the disease. However, due to the concomitant occurrence of normal ageing, the relevance and specificity of these predictive values can be difficult to interpret. This review examines retinal dysfunction arising in Parkinson's disease. We highlight the electrophysiological delays and decreased amplitude in the electroretinography recorded in patients and animal models. We relate this to coexisting anatomical changes such as retinal nerve fibre layer and macular thinning, measured using optical coherence tomography, and show that functional measures are more consistent overall than optical coherence-measured structural changes. We review the underlying chemical changes seen with loss of retinal dopaminergic neurons and the effect of levodopa treatment on the retina in Parkinson's disease. Finally, we consider whether retinal abnormalities in Parkinson's disease could have a role as potential markers of poorer outcomes and help stratify patients at early stages of the disease. We emphasise that retinal measures can be valuable, accessible and cost-effective methods in the early evaluation of Parkinson's disease pathogenesis with potential for patient stratification.

A unified view on beamformers for M/EEG source reconstruction.

Beamforming is a popular method for functional source reconstruction using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) data. Beamformers, which were first proposed for MEG more than two decades ago, have since been applied in hundreds of studies, demonstrating that they are a versatile and robust tool for neuroscience. However, certain characteristics of beamformers remain somewhat elusive and there currently does not exist a unified documentation of the mathematical underpinnings and computational subtleties of beamformers as implemented in the most widely used academic open source software packages for MEG analysis (Brainstorm, FieldTrip, MNE, and SPM). Here, we provide such documentation that aims at providing the mathematical background of beamforming and unifying the terminology. Beamformer implementations are compared across toolboxes and pitfalls of beamforming analyses are discussed. Specifically, we provide details on handling rank deficient covariance matrices, prewhitening, the rank reduction of forward fields, and on the combination of heterogeneous sensor types, such as magnetometers and gradiometers. The overall aim of this paper is to contribute to contemporary efforts towards higher levels of computational transparency in functional neuroimaging.

Parkinson's disease patients benefit from bicycling - a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Many Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are able to ride a bicycle despite being severely compromised by gait disturbances up to freezing of gait. This review [PROSPERO CRD 42019137386] aimed to find out, which PD-related symptoms improve from bicycling, and which type of bicycling exercise would be most beneficial. Following a systematic database literature search, peer-reviewed studies with randomized control trials (RCT) and with non-randomized trials (NRCT) investigating the interventional effects of bicycling on PD patients were included. A quality analysis addressing reporting, design and possible bias of the studies, as well as a publication bias test was done. Out of 202 references, 22 eligible studies with 505 patients were analysed. An inverse variance-based analysis revealed that primary measures, defined as motor outcomes, benefitted from bicycling significantly more than cognitive measures. Additionally, secondary measures of balance, walking speed and capacity, and the PDQ-39 ratings improved with bicycling. The interventions varied in durations, intensities and target cadences. Conclusively, bicycling is particularly beneficial for the motor performance of PD patients, improving crucial features of gait. Furthermore, our findings suggest that bicycling improves the overall quality-of-life of PD patients.

Contactless measurements of retinal activity using optically pumped magnetometers.

Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) have been adopted for the measurement of brain activity. Without the need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures, an array of these sensors can be placed more flexibly, which allows for the recording of neuronal structures other than neocortex. Here we use eight OPM sensors to record human retinal activity following flash stimulation. We compare this magnetoretinographic (MRG) activity to the simultaneously recorded electroretinogram of the eight participants. The MRG shows the familiar flash-evoked potentials (a-wave and b-wave) and shares a highly significant amount of information with the electroretinogram (both in a simultaneous and separate measurement). We conclude that OPM sensors have the potential to become a contactless alternative to fiber electrodes for the measurement of retinal activity. Such a contactless solution can benefit both clinical and neuroscientific settings.

Comparison of beamformer implementations for MEG source localization.

Beamformers are applied for estimating spatiotemporal characteristics of neuronal sources underlying measured MEG/EEG signals. Several MEG analysis toolboxes include an implementation of a linearly constrained minimum-variance (LCMV) beamformer. However, differences in implementations and in their results complicate the selection and application of beamformers and may hinder their wider adoption in research and clinical use. Additionally, combinations of different MEG sensor types (such as magnetometers and planar gradiometers) and application of preprocessing methods for interference suppression, such as signal space separation (SSS), can affect the results in different ways for different implementations. So far, a systematic evaluation of the different implementations has not been performed. Here, we compared the localization performance of the LCMV beamformer pipelines in four widely used open-source toolboxes (MNE-Python, FieldTrip, DAiSS (SPM12), and Brainstorm) using datasets both with and without SSS interference suppression. We analyzed MEG data that were i) simulated, ii) recorded from a static and moving phantom, and iii) recorded from a healthy volunteer receiving auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimulation. We also investigated the effects of SSS and the combination of the magnetometer and gradiometer signals. We quantified how localization error and point-spread volume vary with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in all four toolboxes. When applied carefully to MEG data with a typical SNR (3-15 â€‹dB), all four toolboxes localized the sources reliably; however, they differed in their sensitivity to preprocessing parameters. As expected, localizations were highly unreliable at very low SNR, but we found high localization error also at very high SNRs for the first three toolboxes while Brainstorm showed greater robustness but with lower spatial resolution. We also found that the SNR improvement offered by SSS led to more accurate localization.

Time Course of Brain Network Reconfiguration Supporting Inhibitory Control.

Hemodynamic research has recently clarified key nodes and links in brain networks implementing inhibitory control. Although fMRI methods are optimized for identifying the structure of brain networks, the relatively slow temporal course of fMRI limits the ability to characterize network operation. The latter is crucial for developing a mechanistic understanding of how brain networks shift dynamically to support inhibitory control. To address this critical gap, we applied spectrally resolved Granger causality (GC) and random forest machine learning tools to human EEG data in two large samples of adults (test sample n = 96, replication sample n = 237, total N = 333, both sexes) who performed a color-word Stroop task. Time-frequency analysis confirmed that recruitment of inhibitory control accompanied by slower behavioral responses was related to changes in theta and alpha/beta power. GC analyses revealed directionally asymmetric exchanges within frontal and between frontal and parietal brain areas: top-down influence of superior frontal gyrus (SFG) over both dorsal ACC (dACC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), dACC control over middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and frontal-parietal exchanges (IFG, precuneus, MFG). Predictive analytics confirmed a combination of behavioral and brain-derived variables as the best set of predictors of inhibitory control demands, with SFG theta bearing higher classification importance than dACC theta and posterior beta tracking the onset of behavioral response. The present results provide mechanistic insight into the biological implementation of a psychological phenomenon: inhibitory control is implemented by dynamic routing processes during which the target response is upregulated via theta-mediated effective connectivity within key PFC nodes and via beta-mediated motor preparation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Hemodynamic neuroimaging research has recently clarified regional structures in brain networks supporting inhibitory control. However, due to inherent methodological constraints, much of this research has been unable to characterize the temporal dynamics of such networks (e.g., direction of information flow between nodes). Guided by fMRI research identifying the structure of brain networks supporting inhibitory control, results of EEG source analysis in a test sample (n = 96) and replication sample (n = 237) using effective connectivity and predictive analytics strategies advance a model of inhibitory control by characterizing the precise temporal dynamics by which this network operates and exemplify an approach by which mechanistic models can be developed for other key psychological processes.

Across-subjects classification of stimulus modality from human MEG high frequency activity.

Single-trial analyses have the potential to uncover meaningful brain dynamics that are obscured when averaging across trials. However, low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can impede the use of single-trial analyses and decoding methods. In this study, we investigate the applicability of a single-trial approach to decode stimulus modality from magnetoencephalographic (MEG) high frequency activity. In order to classify the auditory versus visual presentation of words, we combine beamformer source reconstruction with the random forest classification method. To enable group level inference, the classification is embedded in an across-subjects framework. We show that single-trial gamma SNR allows for good classification performance (accuracy across subjects: 66.44%). This implies that the characteristics of high frequency activity have a high consistency across trials and subjects. The random forest classifier assigned informational value to activity in both auditory and visual cortex with high spatial specificity. Across time, gamma power was most informative during stimulus presentation. Among all frequency bands, the 75 Hz to 95 Hz band was the most informative frequency band in visual as well as in auditory areas. Especially in visual areas, a broad range of gamma frequencies (55 Hz to 125 Hz) contributed to the successful classification. Thus, we demonstrate the feasibility of single-trial approaches for decoding the stimulus modality across subjects from high frequency activity and describe the discriminative gamma activity in time, frequency, and space.

Violent Offending Promotes Appetitive Aggression Rather than Posttraumatic Stress-A Replication Study with Burundian Ex-Combatants.

Research has identified appetitive aggression, i.e., the perception of committed, violent acts as appealing, exciting and fascinating, as a common phenomenon within populations living in precarious and violent circumstances. Investigating demobilized soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) demonstrated that violent offending is associated with appetitive aggression and not necessarily with symptoms of posttraumatic stress. In the present study, we sought to replicate these results in an independent and larger sample of demobilized soldiers from Burundi. As with the Congolese ex-combatants, random forest regression revealed that the number of lifetime perpetrated violent acts is the most important predictor of appetitive aggression and the number of lifetime experienced traumatic events is the main predictor for posttraumatic stress. Perpetrated violent acts with salient cues of hunting (pursuing the victim, the sight of blood, etc.) were most predictive for perceiving violent cues appealingly after demobilization. Moreover, the association of violent acts and appetitive aggression as well as traumatic events and posttraumatic stress remains strong even years after demobilization. Patterns of traumatic events and perpetrated acts as predictors for posttraumatic stress and appetitive aggression seem to be robust among different samples of ex-combatants who fought in civil wars. Psychotherapeutic interventions that address these complementary facets of combat-related disorders-namely, posttraumatic stress and appetitive aggression-are indispensable for a successful reintegration of those who fought in armed conflicts and to achieve a successful transition to peace.