Neuroimaging and Psychopharmacology.

This review presents the most recent research concerning neuroimaging in developmental disabilities. Changes in structure and activation have been found in children with ADHD and learning disabilities, following intervention. For the children with learning disabilities changes in activation have been found following intensive behavioral and academic intervention. Structural and activation differences in the auditory processing regions of the brain were found prior to academic intervention, with activation differences found for those children responding to the reading programs. Children with ADHD have been found to show differences in brain structures with few studies evaluating the differences in activation following medication. Emerging evidence indicates differences in the frontal regions of the brain for children who respond successfully to medication. Finally, a discussion of the variables that can impact the results in neuroimaging studies is presented. Further study is needed in this area, and additional variables of concern are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于深度学习的fMRI数据分析在偏头痛研究中的应用

偏头痛作为一种常见的疾病,发病概率高,致病机理尚不明确,并且临床缺乏有效的诊断手段.运用功能核磁共振成像技术获取被试脑功能数据,然后通过深度学习中自动编码器,自动提取数据特征,并结合各种机器学习算法,预测偏头痛,为临床诊断提供参考依据.用深度学习提取数据特征,训练分类器,能达到更好的分类效果.深度学习算法可以在传统模板获取初步特征之后,进一步提取更加精细有效的特征,在预测偏头痛上获得更好的分类性能.     

Making sense by making sentient: Effectance motivation increases anthropomorphism.

People commonly anthropomorphize nonhuman agents, imbuing everything from computers to pets to gods with humanlike capacities and mental experiences. Although widely observed, the determinants of anthropomorphism are poorly understood and rarely investigated. We propose that people anthropomorphize, in part, to satisfy effectance motivation—the basic and chronic motivation to attain mastery of one's environment. Five studies demonstrated that increasing effectance motivation by manipulating the perceived unpredictability of a nonhuman agent or by increasing the incentives for mastery increases anthropomorphism. Neuroimaging data demonstrated that the neural correlates of this process are similar to those engaged when mentalizing other humans. A final study demonstrated that anthropomorphizing a stimulus makes it appear more predictable and understandable, suggesting that anthropomorphism satisfies effectance motivation. Anthropomorphizing nonhuman agents seems to satisfy the basic motivation to make sense of an otherwise uncertain environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unequal motor durations under simple-, go/no-go, and choice-RT tasks: Extension of Miller and Low (2001).

The logic of the Subtraction Method is used implicitly or explicitly in a variety of work, ranging from traditional response-time research to functional neuroimaging. One assumption of all forms of the Subtraction Method is that components may be inserted (or deleted) without causing changes in the remaining components. We tested this assumption as it applies to the duration of late motor processing using the lag between the onset of lateralized readiness potential (LRP) and the production of the required response as the measure of late motor processing. In contrast to a similar, previous study that used this approach (Miller & Low, 2001), we found differences in the LRP lags across the types of task that are used in the Subtraction Method. The LRP lag for simple-RT was shorter than the lags for either go/no-go or choice-RT. This finding constitutes evidence against an assumption required by the Subtraction Method, at least as applied to component durations, but can be explained in terms of a supplementary (non-subtractive) inhibitory component that is only employed in the go/no-go task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

What neuroimaging and brain localization can do, cannot do and should not do for social psychology.

Interest in bridging social psychology and neuroscience has seen a significant upsurge. Much of this interest has centered on brain localization--the attempt to relate psychological events to locations of brain events. Although many articles have sought to localize brain activity that supports social behavior, scant attention has been paid to the specific methods to be used in integrating brain localization data into psychological theory. The authors describe 4 strategies psychologists can use to integrate brain localization data and psychological theory, and they consider whether social psychology presents special considerations in the use of these strategies. They conclude that brain localization offers a useful tool for some but not all problems in social psychology, and they discuss the types of problems for which it may and may not prove useful. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Videomicroscopy, image processing, and analysis of whole histologic sections of the human brain

Serial histologic sections of a whole human brain may have extensions of up to 130 x 130 mm within the coronal plane around the temporal lobe. To date, however, technology has not provided a bright field microscope that is able to shift the object holder continuously in the x- and y-direction over such distances and still possess the same optical capabilities as comparable devices. We developed a new light microscope to continuously quantify such sections. We also developed the computing environment for controlling the device and for analyzing the data produced. In principle, we are now able to quantify each neuron of a human brain. The data ultimately will provide the most detailed structural information about the human brain ascertained thus far. Such detailed information of the spatial distribution of neurons is essential to develop realistic models for simulation of large-scale neuronal networks and to investigate the significance of neuronal arrangements with respect to neuronal signal processing in the CNS. After preprocessing of the data produced by the new microscope, we are able to detect lamination patterns in the spatial distribution of gravity centers of cells. Furthermore, morphological features like size of the projection area and mean staining intensity are visualized as a particle process. The particle process presents the sizes and staining intensity of perikaryons and allows a distinction of gray matter and white matter. These results provide evidence that the system works correctly and can be applied to a systematic analysis of a larger sequence of serial histologic sections. The objective of this study is to introduce the very large section analyzing microscope (VLSAM) and to present the initial data produced by the system. Moreover, we will discuss workload and future developments of the parallel image analysis system that are associated with the microscope.     

Correlates of social problem solving during the first year after traumatic brain injury in children.

Effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on social problem-solving were examined in a longitudinal study of 103 children with moderate-to-severe TBI (n = 52) or orthopedic injury (OI; n = 51) using the Interpersonal Negotiation Strategies task (INS). Children solved age-appropriate hypothetical social conflicts, with responses for four problem-solving steps scored by developmental level. The OI group performed better than the TBI group, but rate of change in performance over time did not differ between groups, suggesting improvement in children with TBI was not due to recovery from injury. Strong relations between INS performance and memory and language skills emerged, but emotional processing was only weakly related to INS performance. Frontal focal lesions influenced INS performance in younger (but not older) children with TBI. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), revealed strong relationships between the INS and increased apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measures indexing connectivity in the dorsolateral and cingulate regions in both TBI and OI groups, and in the temporal and parietal regions in the TBI group. These findings inform studies of social problem-solving skills during the first year post TBI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroimaging computer-aided diagnosis systems for Alzheimer's disease

This paper has reviewed the state-of-the-art approaches for Computer Aided Diagnosis Systems (CADS) for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) using neuroimaging. Identification of the current approaches leads to improving the efficiency of these techniques. The analysis covered 110 articles published between 2009 and January 2018. Papers were chosen according to the Newcastle-Ottawa criteria. MeSH terms were “computer aided diagnosis systems for Alzheimer's disease” and “computer aided diagnosis systems methods for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease”. CADS algorithms have been presented with specific methods. There is no standardized approach to determine the best one. This study has tables that aimed to conclude all methods in a precise way. Among them, Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were the most common, respectively. CADS for AD could become important in clinical practice in the near future. The evaluation criteria approved their efficiency as a second opinion besides the neurologist.     

The plasticity of human maternal brain: Longitudinal changes in brain anatomy during the early postpartum period.

Animal studies suggest that structural changes occur in the maternal brain during the early postpartum period in regions such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, parietal lobe, and prefrontal cortex and such changes are related to the expression of maternal behaviors. In an attempt to explore this in humans, we conducted a prospective longitudinal study to examine gray matter changes using voxel-based morphometry on high resolution magnetic resonance images of mothers' brains at two time points: 2–4 weeks postpartum and 3–4 months postpartum. Comparing gray matter volumes across these two time points, we found increases in gray matter volume of the prefrontal cortex, parietal lobes, and midbrain areas. Increased gray matter volume in the midbrain including the hypothalamus, substantia nigra, and amygdala was associated with maternal positive perception of her baby. These results suggest that the first months of motherhood in humans are accompanied by structural changes in brain regions implicated in maternal motivation and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improvement in cytoarchitectonic mapping by combining electrodynamic modeling with local orientation in high‐resolution images of the cerebral cortex

To detect changes of cortical cytoarchitectonics, digital images of cortical laminations are analyzed. Cortical regions are transformed into a rectangular grid for subsequent evaluations. Transformations are realized by stepwise scanning using perpendicular testlines. 3D cytoarchitectonic data of the human brain at a histological resolution are not available and 2D sections deliver partial information only. The problem is to find an optimal scanning‐technique that introduces a minimum of distortions and noise by the transformation of the curvilinear cortex to a rectangular presentation. In the past this was solved by constructing testlines dependent on the outlined cortical contours only. An advanced approach was to model the contours as electrically charged surfaces and to use the resulting field lines as testlines. However, local information of cell distributions were not considered. Hence a novel hybrid approach was developed which is able to construct significantly better testlines in cortical images with mixtures of columnar rich (local orientation rich) and orientation poor parts of strongly curved and large regions of the cerebral cortex. The novel hybrid approach is based on the computer vision methods such as the structure tensor and constrained anisotropic diffusion. In addition, the introduction of projective transformations yields a significant improvement of cortical fingerprints, thereby offering the possibility for detecting weakly pronounced regions of cytoarchitectonic transitions. The statistical evaluation of the novel hybrid approach confirms robustness. This technique can be generalized and applied to different types of cerebral cortex with any kind and amount of local orientation information. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.