Constraining current neuroanatomical models of reading: the view from Arabic.

There is a growing interest in imaging understudied orthographies to unravel their neuronal correlates and their implications for existing computational and neuroanatomical models. Here, we review current brain mapping literature about Arabic words. We first offer a succinct description of some unique linguistic features of Arabic that challenge current cognitive models of reading. We then appraise the existing functional neuroimaging studies that investigated written Arabic word processing. Our review revealed that (1) Arabic is still understudied, (2) the most investigated features concerned the effects of vowelling and diglossia in Arabic reading, (3) findings were not always discussed in the light of existing reading models such as the dual route cascaded, the triangle, and the connectionist dual process models, and (4) current evidence is unreliable when it comes to the exact neuronal pathways that sustain Arabic word processing. Overall, despite the fact that Arabic has some unique linguistic features that challenge and ultimately enrich current reading models, the existing functional neuroimaging literature falls short of offering a reliable evidence about brain networks of Arabic reading. We conclude by highlighting the need for more systematic studies of the linguistic features of Arabic to build theoretical and neuroanatomical models that are concurrently specific and general.

Opioid use disorder and role of yoga as an adjunct in management (OUDARYAM): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The proposed research aims to test the effects and mechanisms of a six-month yoga-based intervention as an add-on to standard treatment in opioid use disorder (OUD) by conducting a randomized controlled study with the following primary outcome variables: 1) clinical: abstinence (opioid negative urine test), and reductions in pain and craving, and 2) mechanisms: reward circuit activation in response to opioid visual cue craving paradigm, activation in response to a cognitive control task, and resting state functional connectivity through fMRI, and plasma beta-endorphin levels. Secondary outcome variables are perceived stress, anxiety, sleep quality, cognitive performance, pain threshold, buprenorphine dosage and side effects, withdrawal symptoms, socio-occupational functioning, vedic personality traits, heart rate variability, serum cortisol, and brain GABA levels through magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Methods: In this single-blinded, randomized, controlled, parallel-group superiority trial with 1:1 allocation ratio, 164 patients with OUD availing the outpatient/ inpatient clinical services at a tertiary mental healthcare hospital in India will be enrolled after giving informed consent. Consecutive consenting patients will be randomly allotted to one of the two groups - yoga arm (standard treatment + yoga-based intervention), or waitlist group (standard treatment alone). Allocation concealment will be followed, the clinicians, outcome assessors and data analysts will remain blind to subject-group allocation. A validated and standardized yoga program for OUD will be used as an intervention. Participants in the yoga arm will receive 10 supervised in-person sessions of yoga in the initial two weeks followed by tele-yoga sessions thrice a week for the next 22 weeks. The wait-list control group will continue the standard treatment alone for 24 weeks. Assessments will be done at baseline, two weeks, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. Data from all randomized subjects will be analysed using intent-to-treat analysis and mixed model multivariate analysis. Dissemination: Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentations, and social media. Trial registration number: The trial has been registered under Clinical Trials Registry-India with registration number CTRI/2023/03/050737.

Alterations in corpus callosum subregions morphology and functional connectivity in patients with adult-onset hypothyroidism.

BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain abnormalities have been reported in the corpus callosum (CC) of patients with adult-onset hypothyroidism. However, no study has directly compared CC-specific morphological or functional alterations among subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), overt hypothyroidism (OH), and healthy controls (HC). Moreover, the association of CC alterations with cognition and emotion is not well understood. METHODS: Demographic data, clinical variables, neuropsychological scores, and MRI data of 152 participants (60 SCH, 37 OH, and 55 HC) were collected. This study investigated the clinical performance, morphological and functional changes of CC subregions across three groups. Moreover, a correlation analysis was performed to explore potential relationships between these factors. RESULTS: Compared to HC, SCH and OH groups exhibited lower cognitive scores and higher depressive/anxious scores. Notably, rostrum and rostral body volume of CC was larger in the SCH group. Functional connectivity between rostral body, anterior midbody and the right precentral and dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus were increased in the SCH group. In contrast, the SCH and OH groups exhibited a decline in functional connectivity between splenium and the right angular gyrus. Within the SCH group, rostrum volume demonstrated a negative correlation with Montreal Cognitive Assessment and visuospatial/executive scores, while displaying a positive correlation with 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores. In the OH group, rostral body volume exhibited a negative correlation with serum thyroid stimulating hormone levels, while a positive correlation with serum total thyroxine and free thyroxine levels. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that patients with different stages of adult-onset hypothyroidism may exhibit different patterns of CC abnormalities. These findings offer new insights into the neuropathophysiological mechanisms in hypothyroidism.

Cerebellum in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases: an emerging research frontier.

The cerebellum is crucial for both motor and nonmotor functions. Alzheimer's disease (AD), alongside other dementias such as vascular dementia (VaD), Lewy body dementia (DLB), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), as well as other neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) like Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease (HD), and spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA), are characterized by specific and non-specific neurodegenerations in central nervous system. Previously, the cerebellum's significance in these conditions was underestimated. However, advancing research has elevated its profile as a critical node in disease pathology. We comprehensively review the existing evidence to elucidate the relationship between cerebellum and the aforementioned diseases. Our findings reveal a growing body of research unequivocally establishing a link between the cerebellum and AD, other forms of dementia, and other NDs, supported by clinical evidence, pathological and biochemical profiles, structural and functional neuroimaging data, and electrophysiological findings. By contrasting cerebellar observations with those from the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, we highlight the cerebellum's distinct role in the disease processes. Furthermore, we also explore the emerging therapeutic potential of targeting cerebellum for the treatment of these diseases. This review underscores the importance of the cerebellum in these diseases, offering new insights into the disease mechanisms and novel therapeutic strategies.

On the speech envelope in the cortical tracking of speech.

The synchronization between the speech envelope and neural activity in auditory regions, referred to as cortical tracking of speech (CTS), plays a key role in speech processing. The method selected for extracting the envelope is a crucial step in CTS measurement, and the absence of a consensus on best practices among the various methods can influence analysis outcomes and interpretation. Here, we systematically compare five standard envelope extraction methods the absolute value of Hilbert transform (absHilbert), gammatone filterbanks, heuristic approach, Bark scale, and vocalic energy), analyzing their impact on the CTS. We present performance metrics for each method based on the recording of brain activity from participants listening to speech in clear and noisy conditions, utilizing intracranial EEG, MEG and EEG data. As expected, we observed significant CTS in temporal brain regions below 10 Hz across all datasets, regardless of the extraction methods. In general, the gammatone filterbanks approach consistently demonstrated superior performance compared to other methods. Results from our study can guide scientists in the field to make informed decisions about the optimal analysis to extract the CTS, contributing to advancing the understanding of the neuronal mechanisms implicated in CTS.

Perioperative research into memory (PRiMe), part 2: Adult burns intensive care patients show altered structure and function of the default mode network.

BACKGROUND: Long-term cognitive impairment (LTCI) is experienced by up to two thirds of patients discharged from burns intensive care units (BICUs), however little is known about its neurobiological basis. This study investigated if patients previously admitted to BICU showed structural and functional MRI changes of the Default Mode Network (DMN). METHODS: Fifteen patients previously admitted to BICU with a significant burns injury, and 15 matched volunteers, underwent structural and functional MRI scans. Functional connectivity, fractional anisotropy and cortical thickness of the main DMN subdivisions (anterior DMN (aDMN), posterior DMN (pDMN) and right (rTPJ) and left (lTPJ) temporo-parietal junctions) were compared between patients and volunteers, with differences correlated against cognitive performance. RESULTS: Functional connectivity between rTPJ and pDMN (t = 2.91, p = 0.011) and between rTPJ and lTPJ (t = 3.18, p = 0.008) was lower in patients compared to volunteers. Functional connectivity between rTPJ and pDMN correlated with cognitive performance (r2 =0.33, p < 0.001). Mean fractional anisotropy of rTPJ (t = 2.70, p = 0.008) and lTPJ (T = 2.39, p = 0.015) was lower in patients but there was no difference in cortical thickness. CONCLUSIONS: Patients previously admitted to BICU show structural and functional disruption of the DMN. Since functional changes correlate with cognitive performance, this should direct further research into intensive-care-related cognitive impairment.

Arterial Spin Labeling Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Acute Disorders of Consciousness in the Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND: To investigate patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) for residual awareness, guidelines recommend quantifying glucose brain metabolism using positron emission tomography. However, this is not feasible in the intensive care unit (ICU). Cerebral blood flow (CBF) assessed by arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI) could serve as a proxy for brain metabolism and reflect consciousness levels in acute DoC. We hypothesized that ASL-MRI would show compromised CBF in coma and unresponsive wakefulness states (UWS) but relatively preserved CBF in minimally conscious states (MCS) or better. METHODS: We consecutively enrolled ICU patients with acute DoC and categorized them as being clinically unresponsive (i.e., coma or UWS [≤ UWS]) or low responsive (i.e., MCS or better [≥ MCS]). ASL-MRI was then acquired on 1.5 T or 3 T. Healthy controls were investigated with both 1.5 T and 3 T ASL-MRI. RESULTS: We obtained 84 ASL-MRI scans from 59 participants, comprising 36 scans from 35 patients (11 women [31.4%]; median age 56 years, range 18-82 years; 24 ≤ UWS patients, 12 ≥ MCS patients; 32 nontraumatic brain injuries) and 48 scans from 24 healthy controls (12 women [50%]; median age 50 years, range 21-77 years). In linear mixed-effects models of whole-brain cortical CBF, patients had 16.2 mL/100 g/min lower CBF than healthy controls (p = 0.0041). However, ASL-MRI was unable to discriminate between ≤ UWS and ≥ MCS patients (whole-brain cortical CBF: p = 0.33; best hemisphere cortical CBF: p = 0.41). Numerical differences of regional CBF in the thalamus, amygdala, and brainstem in the two patient groups were statistically nonsignificant. CONCLUSIONS: CBF measurement in ICU patients using ASL-MRI is feasible but cannot distinguish between the lower and the upper ends of the acute DoC spectrum. We suggest that pilot testing of diagnostic interventions at the extremes of this spectrum is a time-efficient approach in the continued quest to develop DoC neuroimaging markers in the ICU.

Implementation of the Milan System for Reporting Salivary Gland Cytology: A Two-Year Outcome Cytopathology Data of a Tertiary Care Center.

OBJECTIVE: In 2015, the Milan System for Reporting Salivary Gland Cytopathology (MSRSGC) was implemented to eliminate overlapping and disparate morphologies in salivary gland lesions. This approach helps track diagnostic findings, describe the risk of malignancy for each group, and advance therapy based on the results. The research aimed to classify fine-needle aspiration (FNA) smears, analyze malignancy risk, correlate cytology with histological diagnosis, and reduce unnecessary surgeries. METHODOLOGY: We evaluated 217 individuals using FNA, classified their conditions using the Milan System, and followed up on 149 cases through histopathology. Both the risk of malignancy in each cluster and the total risk of malignancy were noted. RESULTS: The most recent studies, as reported by the MSRSGC, found almost universal agreement about this grouping. The FNA cytopathology test demonstrated a sensitivity of 75% for identifying salivary gland abnormalities and a specificity of 93.16%. The findings indicated that the test had an accuracy of 89.66%, with a positive predictive value of 72.41% and a negative predictive value of 93.97%. CONCLUSION: The MSRSGC offers a standardized technique for examining the results and assists the physician in determining the treatment plan that will be most beneficial.

Degree centrality-based resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging explores central mechanisms in lumbar disc herniation patients with chronic low back pain.

Objective: To investigate the central mechanism of lumbar disc herniation in patients with chronic low back pain (LDHCP) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) utilizing the Degree Centrality (DC) method. Methods: Twenty-five LDHCP and twenty-two healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled, and rs-fMRI data from their brains were collected. We compared whole-brain DC values between the LDHCP and HC groups, and examined correlations between DC values within the LDHCP group and the Visual Analogue Score (VAS), Oswestry Dysfunction Index (ODI), and disease duration. Diagnostic efficacy was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: LDHCP patients exhibited increased DC values in the bilateral cerebellum and brainstem, whereas decreased DC values were noted in the left middle temporal gyrus and right post-central gyrus when compared with HCs. The DC values of the left middle temporal gyrus were positively correlated with VAS (r = 0.416, p = 0.039) and ODI (r = 0.405, p = 0.045), whereas there was no correlation with disease duration (p > 0.05). Other brain regions showed no significant correlations with VAS, ODI, or disease duration (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the results obtained from ROC curve analysis demonstrated that the Area Under the Curve (AUC) for the left middle temporal gyrus was 0.929. Conclusion: The findings indicated local abnormalities in spontaneous neural activity and functional connectivity in the bilateral cerebellum, bilateral brainstem, left middle temporal gyrus, and right postcentral gyrus among LDHCP patients.

Extracting interpretable signatures of whole-brain dynamics through systematic comparison.

The brain's complex distributed dynamics are typically quantified using a limited set of manually selected statistical properties, leaving the possibility that alternative dynamical properties may outperform those reported for a given application. Here, we address this limitation by systematically comparing diverse, interpretable features of both intra-regional activity and inter-regional functional coupling from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data, demonstrating our method using case-control comparisons of four neuropsychiatric disorders. Our findings generally support the use of linear time-series analysis techniques for rs-fMRI case-control analyses, while also identifying new ways to quantify informative dynamical fMRI structures. While simple statistical representations of fMRI dynamics performed surprisingly well (e.g., properties within a single brain region), combining intra-regional properties with inter-regional coupling generally improved performance, underscoring the distributed, multifaceted changes to fMRI dynamics in neuropsychiatric disorders. The comprehensive, data-driven method introduced here enables systematic identification and interpretation of quantitative dynamical signatures of multivariate time-series data, with applicability beyond neuroimaging to diverse scientific problems involving complex time-varying systems.

Association of Loneliness with Functional Connectivity MRI, Amyloid-ß PET, and Tau PET Neuroimaging Markers of Vulnerability for Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Loneliness has been declared an "epidemic" associated with negative physical, mental, and cognitive health outcomes such as increased dementia risk. Less is known about the relationship between loneliness and advanced neuroimaging correlates of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Objective: To assess whether loneliness was associated with advanced neuroimaging markers of AD using neuroimaging data from Framingham Heart Study (FHS) participants without dementia. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational analysis, we used functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI), amyloid-ß (Aß) PET, and tau PET imaging data collected between 2016 and 2019 on eligible FHS cohort participants. Loneliness was defined as feeling lonely at least one day in the past week. The primary fcMRI marker was Default Mode Network intra-network connectivity. The primary PET imaging markers were Aß deposition in precuneal and FLR (frontal, lateral parietal and lateral temporal, retrosplenial) regions, and tau deposition in the amygdala, entorhinal, and rhinal regions. Results: Of 381 participants (mean age 58 [SD 10]) who met inclusion criteria for fcMRI analysis, 5% were classified as lonely (17/381). No association was observed between loneliness status and network changes. Of 424 participants (mean age 58 [SD = 10]) meeting inclusion criteria for PET analyses, 5% (21/424) were lonely; no associations were observed between loneliness and either Aß or tau deposition in primary regions of interest. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional study, there were no observable associations between loneliness and select fcMRI, Aß PET, and tau PET neuroimaging markers of AD risk. These findings merit further investigation in prospective studies of community-based cohorts.

Test-retest reliability of resting-state cerebral blood flow quantification using pulsed Arterial Spin Labeling (PASL) over 3 weeks vs 8 weeks in healthy controls.

Arterial Spin Labeling is a valuable functional imaging tool for both clinical and research purposes. However, little is known about the test-retest reliability of cerebral blood flow measurements over longer periods. In this study, we investigated the reliability of pulsed Arterial Spin Labeling in assessing cerebral blood flow over a 3 (n = 28) vs 8 (n = 19) weeks interscan interval in 47 healthy participants. As a measure of cerebral blood flow reliability, we calculated voxel-wise, whole-brain, and regions of interest intraclass correlation coefficients. The whole-brain mean resting-state cerebral blood flow showed good to excellent reliability over time for both periods (intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.85 for the 3-week delay, intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.53 for the 8-week delay). However, the voxel-wise and regions of interest intraclass correlation coefficients fluctuated at 8-week compared to the 3-week interval, especially within cortical areas. These results confirmed previous findings that Arterial Spin Labeling could be used as a reliable method to assess brain perfusion. However, as the reliability seemed to decrease over time, caution is warranted when performing correlations with other variables, especially in clinical populations.

Functional alterations of the brain default mode network and somatosensory system in trigeminal neuralgia.

Mapping the localization of the functional brain regions in trigeminal neuralgia (TN) patients is still lacking. The study aimed to explore the functional brain alterations and influencing factors in TN patients using functional brain imaging techniques. All participants underwent functional brain imaging to collect resting-state brain activity. The significant differences in regional homogeneity (ReHo) and amplitude of low frequency (ALFF) between the TN and control groups were calculated. After familywise error (FWE) correction, the differential brain regions in ReHo values between the two groups were mainly located in bilateral middle frontal gyrus, bilateral inferior cerebellum, right superior orbital frontal gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and left gyrus rectus. The differential brain regions in ALFF values between the two groups were mainly located in the left triangular inferior frontal gyrus, left supplementary motor area, right supramarginal gyrus, and right middle frontal gyrus. With the functional impairment of the central pain area, the active areas controlling memory and emotion also change during the progression of TN. There may be different central mechanisms in TN patients of different sexes, affected sides, and degrees of nerve damage. The exact central mechanisms remain to be elucidated.

Never-Ending Learning for Explainable Brain Computing.

Exploring the nature of human intelligence and behavior is a longstanding pursuit in cognitive neuroscience, driven by the accumulation of knowledge, information, and data across various studies. However, achieving a unified and transparent interpretation of findings presents formidable challenges. In response, an explainable brain computing framework is proposed that employs the never-ending learning paradigm, integrating evidence combination and fusion computing within a Knowledge-Information-Data (KID) architecture. The framework supports continuous brain cognition investigation, utilizing joint knowledge-driven forward inference and data-driven reverse inference, bolstered by the pre-trained language modeling techniques and the human-in-the-loop mechanisms. In particular, it incorporates internal evidence learning through multi-task functional neuroimaging analyses and external evidence learning via topic modeling of published neuroimaging studies, all of which involve human interactions at different stages. Based on two case studies, the intricate uncertainty surrounding brain localization in human reasoning is revealed. The present study also highlights the potential of systematization to advance explainable brain computing, offering a finer-grained understanding of brain activity patterns related to human intelligence.

Sex differences in anhedonia in bipolar depression: a resting-state fMRI study.

Previous studies about anhedonia symptoms in bipolar depression (BD) ignored the unique role of gender on brain function. This study aims to explore the regional brain neuroimaging features of BD with anhedonia and the sex differences in these patients. The resting-fMRI by applying fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) method was estimated in 263 patients with BD (174 high anhedonia [HA], 89 low anhedonia [LA]) and 213 healthy controls. The effects of two different factors in patients with BD were analyzed using a 3 (group: HA, LA, HC) × 2 (sex: male, female) ANOVA. The fALFF values were higher in the HA group than in the LA group in the right medial cingulate gyrus and supplementary motor area. For the sex-by-group interaction, the fALFF values of the right hippocampus, left medial occipital gyrus, right insula, and bilateral medial cingulate gyrus were significantly higher in HA males than in LA males but not females. These results suggested that the pattern of high activation could be a marker of anhedonia symptoms in BD males, and the sex differences should be considered in future studies of BD with anhedonia symptoms.

Classification of Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy-Derived Biomarkers With Convolutional Neural Networks.

OBJECTIVE: To date, early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has mainly depended on paper-based neuropsychological assessments. Recently, biomarkers for MCI detection have gained a lot of attention because of the low sensitivity of neuropsychological assessments. This study proposed the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-derived data with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to identify MCI. METHODS: Eighty-two subjects with MCI and 148 healthy controls (HC) performed the 2-back task, and their oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were recorded during the task. The CNN model based on fNIRS-derived spatial features with HbO2 slope within time windows was trained to classify MCI. Thereafter, the 5-fold cross-validation approach was used to evaluate the performance of the CNN model. RESULTS: Significant differences in averaged HbO2 values between MCI and HC groups were found, and the CNN model could better discriminate MCI with over 89.57% accuracy than the Korean version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) (89.57%). Specifically, the CNN model based on HbO2 slope within the time window of 20-60 seconds from the left PFC (96.09%) achieved the highest accuracy. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the fNIRS-derived spatial features with CNNs could be a promising way for early detection of MCI as a surrogate for a conventional screening tool and demonstrate the superiority of the fNIRS-derived spatial features with CNNs to the MoCA.

Using neuroimaging to assess brain activity and areas associated with surgical skills: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Surgical skills acquisition is under continuous development due to the emergence of new technologies, and there is a need for assessment tools to develop along with these. A range of neuroimaging modalities has been used to map the functional activation of brain networks while surgeons acquire novel surgical skills. These have been proposed as a method to provide a deeper understanding of surgical expertise and offer new possibilities for the personalized training of future surgeons. With studies differing in modalities, outcomes, and surgical skills there is a need for a systematic review of the evidence. This systematic review aims to summarize the current knowledge on the topic and evaluate the potential use of neuroimaging in surgical education. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of neuroimaging studies that mapped functional brain activation while surgeons with different levels of expertise learned and performed technical and non-technical surgical tasks. We included all studies published before July 1st, 2023, in MEDLINE, EMBASE and WEB OF SCIENCE. RESULTS: 38 task-based brain mapping studies were identified, consisting of randomized controlled trials, case-control studies, and observational cohort or cross-sectional studies. The studies employed a wide range of brain mapping modalities, including electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, activating brain areas involved in the execution and sensorimotor or cognitive control of surgical skills, especially the prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and primary motor area, showing significant changes between novices and experts. CONCLUSION: Functional neuroimaging can reveal how task-related brain activity reflects technical and non-technical surgical skills. The existing body of work highlights the potential of neuroimaging to link task-related brain activity patterns with the individual level of competency or improvement in performance after training surgical skills. More research is needed to establish its validity and usefulness as an assessment tool.

Functional ultrasound imaging of the human spinal cord.

Utilizing the first in-human functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) of the spinal cord, we demonstrate the integration of spinal functional responses to electrical stimulation. We record and characterize the hemodynamic responses of the spinal cord to a neuromodulatory intervention commonly used for treating pain and increasingly used for the restoration of sensorimotor and autonomic function. We found that the hemodynamic response to stimulation reflects a spatiotemporal modulation of the spinal cord circuitry not previously recognized. Our analytical capability offers a mechanism to assess blood flow changes with a new level of spatial and temporal precision in vivo and demonstrates that fUSI can decode the functional state of spinal networks in a single trial, which is of fundamental importance for developing real-time closed-loop neuromodulation systems. This work is a critical step toward developing a vital technique to study spinal cord function and effects of clinical neuromodulation.

Enhancing neural encoding models for naturalistic perception with a multi-level integration of deep neural networks and cortical networks.

Cognitive neuroscience aims to develop computational models that can accurately predict and explain neural responses to sensory inputs in the cortex. Recent studies attempt to leverage the representation power of deep neural networks (DNNs) to predict the brain response and suggest a correspondence between artificial and biological neural networks in their feature representations. However, typical voxel-wise encoding models tend to rely on specific networks designed for computer vision tasks, leading to suboptimal brain-wide correspondence during cognitive tasks. To address this challenge, this work proposes a novel approach that upgrades voxel-wise encoding models through multi-level integration of features from DNNs and information from brain networks. Our approach combines DNN feature-level ensemble learning and brain atlas-level model integration, resulting in significant improvements in predicting whole-brain neural activity during naturalistic video perception. Furthermore, this multi-level integration framework enables a deeper understanding of the brain's neural representation mechanism, accurately predicting the neural response to complex visual concepts. We demonstrate that neural encoding models can be optimized by leveraging a framework that integrates both data-driven approaches and theoretical insights into the functional structure of the cortical networks.

Consistent abnormal activity in the putamen by dopamine modulation in Parkinson's disease: A resting-state neuroimaging meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to elucidate brain areas mediated by oral anti-parkinsonian medicine that consistently show abnormal resting-state activation in PD and to reveal their functional connectivity profiles using meta-analytic approaches. METHODS: Searches of the PubMed, Web of Science databases identified 78 neuroimaging studies including PD OFF state (PD-OFF) versus (vs.) PD ON state (PD-ON) or PD-ON versus healthy controls (HCs) or PD-OFF versus HCs data. Coordinate-based meta-analysis and functional meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) were performed using the activation likelihood estimation algorithm. RESULTS: Brain activation in PD-OFF vs. PD-ON was significantly changed in the right putamen and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Contrast analysis indicated that PD-OFF vs. HCs had more consistent activation in the right paracentral lobule, right middle frontal gyrus, right thalamus, left superior parietal lobule and right putamen, whereas PD-ON vs. HCs elicited more consistent activation in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, left occipital gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus and right caudate. MACM revealed coactivation of the right putamen in the direct contrast of PD-OFF vs. PD-ON. Subtraction analysis of significant coactivation clusters for PD-OFF vs. PD-ON with the medium of HCs showed effects in the sensorimotor, top-down control, and visual networks. By overlapping the MACM maps of the two analytical strategies, we demonstrated that the coactivated brain region focused on the right putamen. CONCLUSIONS: The convergence of local brain regions and co-activation neural networks are involved the putamen, suggesting its potential as a specific imaging biomarker to monitor treatment efficacy. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/], identifier [CRD CRD42022304150].