Altered resting-state functional connectivity in emotion-processing brain regions in adults who were born very preterm.

BACKGROUND: Very preterm birth (VPT; <32 weeks of gestation) has been associated with impairments in emotion regulation, social competence and communicative skills. However, the neuroanatomical mechanisms underlying such impairments have not been systematically studied. Here we investigated the functional integrity of the amygdala connectivity network in relation to the ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions in VPT adults. METHOD: Thirty-six VPT-born adults and 38 age-matched controls were scanned at rest in a 3-T MRI scanner. Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) was assessed with SPM8. A seed-based analysis focusing on three amygdalar subregions (centro-medial/latero-basal/superficial) was performed. Participants' ability to recognize emotions was assessed using dynamic stimuli of human faces expressing six emotions at different intensities with the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT). RESULTS: VPT individuals compared to controls showed reduced rs-fc between the superficial subregion of the left amygdala, and the right posterior cingulate cortex (p = 0.017) and the left precuneus (p = 0.002). The VPT group further showed elevated rs-fc between the left superficial amygdala and the superior temporal sulcus (p = 0.008). Performance on the ERT showed that the VPT group was less able than controls to recognize anger at low levels of intensity. Anger scores were significantly associated with rs-fc between the superficial amygdala and the posterior cingulate cortex in controls but not in VPT individuals. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that alterations in rs-fc between the amygdala, parietal and temporal cortices could represent the mechanism linking VPT birth and deficits in emotion processing.

Motor fMRI and cortical grey matter volume in adults born very preterm.

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the functional neuroanatomy of motor planning, initiation and execution in a cohort of young adults (mean age 20 years) who were born very preterm (VPT; <33 weeks of gestation), as these individuals are at increased risk of experiencing neuromotor difficulties compared to controls. A cued motor task was presented to 20 right-handed VPT individuals and 20 controls within a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm. Whole-brain grey matter volume was also quantified and associations with functional data were examined. Despite comparable task performance, fMRI results showed that the VPT group displayed greater brain activation compared to controls in a region comprising the right cerebellum and the lingual, parahippocampal and middle temporal gyri. The VPT group also displayed decreased grey matter volume in the right superior frontal/premotor cortex and left middle temporal gyri. Grey matter volume in the premotor and middle temporal clusters was significantly negatively correlated with BOLD activation in the cerebellum. Overall, these data suggest that preterm birth is associated with functional neuronal differences that persist into adulthood, which are likely to reflect neural reorganisation following early brain injury.

Modelo de cognición musical y amusia / Model of music cognition and amusia

Introducción: El estudio de las redes neuronales implicadas en el procesamiento de la música ha recibido menos atención que la dispensada al lenguaje proposicional. Desde hace dos décadas existe un interés creciente en conocer los mecanismos funcionales del cerebro musical y los trastornos que surgen del daño de las estructuras implicadas en la percepción y producción de la música. Desarrollo: Los déficits congénitos y adquiridos del procesamiento musical en cualquiera de sus componentes (percepción, ejecución, memoria musical) se engloban dentro del término genérico amusia. En este trabajo se presenta una revisión selectiva del «estado-del-arte» delos procesos cognitivos y neurales implicados en la música y los diferentes tipos de amusias. Conclusiones: El procesamiento musical depende de una amplia red neural córtico-subcortical distribuida en ambos hemisferios cerebrales y cerebelo. El análisis de sujetos sanos con neuroimagen funcional y de los déficits selectivos en los componentes musicales (p. ej., tono, ritmo, timbre, contorno melódico) en pacientes con amusia mejorarán nuestro conocimiento acerca de los mecanismos implicados en el procesamiento musical y su relación con otros procesos cognitivos (AU)

Introduction: The study of the neural networks involved in music processing has received less attention than work researching the brain’s language networks. For the last two decades there has been a growing interest in discovering the functional mechanisms of the musical brain and understanding those disorders in which brain regions linked with perception and production of music are damaged Discussion: Congenital and acquired musical deficits in their various forms (perception, execution, music-memory) are grouped together under the generic term amusia. In this selective review we present the ‘‘cutting edge’’ studies on the cognitive and neural processes implicated in music and the various forms of amusia. Conclusions: Musical processing requires a large cortico-subcortical network which is distributed throughout both cerebral hemispheres and the cerebellum. The analysis of healthy subjects sing functional neuroimaging and examination of selective deficits (e.g., tone, rhythm, timbre, melodic contours) in patients will improve our knowledge of the mechanisms involved in musical processing and the latter’s relationship with other cognitive processes (AU)

Model of music cognition and amusia.

INTRODUCTION: The study of the neural networks involved in music processing has received less attention than work researching the brain's language networks. For the last two decades there has been a growing interest in discovering the functional mechanisms of the musical brain and understanding those disorders in which brain regions linked with perception and production of music are damaged. DISCUSSION: Congenital and acquired musical deficits in their various forms (perception, execution, music-memory) are grouped together under the generic term amusia. In this selective review we present the "cutting edge" studies on the cognitive and neural processes implicated in music and the various forms of amusia. CONCLUSIONS: Musical processing requires a large cortico-subcortical network which is distributed throughout both cerebral hemispheres and the cerebellum. The analysis of healthy subjects using functional neuroimaging and examination of selective deficits (e.g., tone, rhythm, timbre, melodic contours) in patients will improve our knowledge of the mechanisms involved in musical processing and the latter's relationship with other cognitive processes.