Intrinsic connectivity in the human brain does not reveal networks for ‘basic’ emotions

We tested two competing models for the brain basis of emotion, the basic emotion theory and the conceptual act theory of emotion, using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fcMRI). The basic emotion view hypothesizes that anger, sadness, fear, disgust and happiness each arise from a brain network that is innate, anatomically constrained and homologous in other animals. The conceptual act theory of emotion hypothesizes that an instance of emotion is a brain state constructed from the interaction of domain-general, core systems within the brain such as the salience, default mode and frontoparietal control networks. Using peak coordinates derived from a meta-analysis of task-evoked emotion fMRI studies, we generated a set of whole-brain rs-fcMRI ‘discovery’ maps for each emotion category and examined the spatial overlap in their conjunctions. Instead of discovering a specific network for each emotion category, variance in the discovery maps was accounted for by the known domain-general network. Furthermore, the salience network is observed as part of every emotion category. These results indicate that specific networks for each emotion do not exist within the intrinsic architecture of the human brain and instead support the conceptual act theory of emotion

Assessment of Circulating MicroRNAs for the Diagnosis and Disease Activity Evaluation in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis by Using the Nanostring Technology

Background: Clinical decision and patient care management in inflammatory bowel diseases is largely based on the assessment of clinical symptoms, while the biomarkers currently in use poorly reflect the actual disease activity. Therefore, the identification of novel biomarkers will serve an unmet clinical need for IBD screening and patient management. We examined the utility of circulating microRNAs for diagnosis and disease activity monitoring in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. Methods: Blood serum microRNAs were isolated from UC patients with active and inactive disease and healthy donors. High-throughput microRNA profiling was performed using the Nanostring technology platform. Clinical disease activity was captured by calculating the partial Mayo score. C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured in UC patients as part of their clinical monitoring. The profiles of circulating microRNAs and CRP were correlated with clinical disease indices. Results: We have identified a signature of 12 circulating microRNAs that differentiate UC patients from control subjects. Moreover, six of these microRNAs significantly correlated with UC disease activity. Importantly, a set of four microRNAs (hsa-miR-4454, hsa-miR-223-3p, hsa-miR-23a-3p, and hsa-miR-320e) which correlated with UC disease activity, were found to have higher sensitivity and specificity values than CRP. Conclusions: Circulating microRNAs provide a novel diagnostic and prognostic marker for UC patients. The use of an FDA approved platform could accelerate the application of microRNA screening in a GI clinical setting. When used in combination with current diagnostic and disease activity assessment modalities, microRNAs could improve both IBD screening and care management

Evidence for a Large-Scale Brain System Supporting Allostasis and Interoception in Humans

Large-scale intrinsic brain systems have been identified for exteroceptive senses (e.g., sight, hearing, touch). We introduce an analogous system for representing sensations from within the body, called interoception, and demonstrate its relation to regulating peripheral systems in the body, called allostasis. Employing the recently introduced Embodied Predictive Interoception Coding (EPIC) model, we used tract-tracing studies of macaque monkeys, followed by two intrinsic functional magnetic resonance imaging samples (N = 280 and N = 270) to evaluate the existence of an intrinsic allostatic/interoceptive system in the human brain. Another sample (N = 41) allowed us to evaluate the convergent validity of the hypothesized allostatic/interoceptive system by showing that individuals with stronger connectivity between system hubs performed better on an implicit index of interoceptive ability related to autonomic fluctuations. Implications include insights for the brain’s functional architecture, dissolving the artificial boundary between mind and body, and unifying mental and physical illness

Interruption of cognitive processing: cognitive, metacognitive and affective consequences

The thesis comprises three studies that examine the cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional effects of cognitive interruption caused by unexpected or discrepant events in cognitive processing. These studies present evidence that cognitive interruption evokes a constellation of cognitive (e.g., accuracy, RT), metacognitive (e.g., feeling of difficuty) and emotional (e.g., surprise) responses, depending on whether the discrepancies enhance or block cognitive processing. To study cognitive interruption, a computerized inductive reasoning task was constructed, consisting of discrepant and non-discrepant numerical sequences. The first study explored the effects of cognitive interruption on performance and the metacognitive experience of feeling of difficulty. In this study, induced discrepancies that were designed to block the progress towards solution reduced accuracy and increased RT. Self-reports of feeling of difficulty revealed that when the task was familiar, feeling of difficulty increased with greater working memory load (Exp.1). However, when the task was less familiar, involving discrepancies, feeling of difficulty increased as a function of cognitive interruption (Exp. 2 and 3). In the latter case, feeling of difficulty correlated positively and highly with the emotion of surprise. Together, these results suggest that feeling of difficulty may be triggered by lack of fluency in processing and not cognitive interruption per se. The second study moved from the realm of cognitive and metacognitive effects to investigate the relationship between cognitive interruption and surprise. In Experiment 1, discrepancies were equally unexpected, but they nevertheless produced different levels of surprise. Surprise ratings increased with the difficulty with which discrepant events were integrated into the prevalent processing schema. This was observed regardless of the strength of the schema from which discrepant events deviated (Exp. 2 and 3). Finally, surprise was closely related to feeling of difficulty as was found in the first study. Overall, these findings extend current models of surprise by taking into account the difficulty of assimilating discrepant events. The final study examined the cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional effects of discrepancies by employing a different paradigm. Participants were engaged in a more realistic problem solving, consisting of discrepancies that could either enhance or block further cognitive processing. Experiment 1 replicated the findings of the two previous studies, indicating that cognitive interruption reduces performance, giving rise to feeling of difficulty along with surprise. Experiment 2 expanded on the previous findings by examining the cognitive, metacognitive, and affective effects of discrepancies that enhance instead of blocking cognitive processing. Here, cognitive interruption improved performance, reduced feeling of difficulty and increased surprise. These findings are conceptualized in terms of cognitive and affective consequences of cognitive interruption that might contribute to a better understanding of problem solving in naturalistic situations.Η διατριβή αποτελείται από τρεις έρευνες που επικεντρώνονται στη διακοπή της γνωστικής επεξεργασίας, ένα φαινόμενο που δεν έχει μελετηθεί εκτενώς αλλά έχει πολλαπλές επιπτώσεις. Η γνωστική διακοπή ανακύπτει όταν τα εισιόντα προς γνωστική επεξεργασία αποκλίνουν από τα υπάρχοντα γνωστικά σχήματα, δυσχεραίνοντας ή διευκολύνοντας την περαιτέρω γνωστική επεξεργασία. Η υπόθεση που ελέγχεται είναι ότι η γνωστική διακοπή έχει επιπτώσεις γνωστικές (π.χ., ορθότητα αντίδρασης και χρόνος αντίδρασης), συναισθηματικές (π.χ., έκπληξη) και μεταγνωστικές (π.χ., αίσθημα δυσκολίας). Για τη μελέτη της γνωστικής διακοπής σχεδιάστηκαν επαγωγικού τύπου έργα στον Η/Υ, που εμπεριέχουν αριθμητικές ακολουθίες με αποκλίνοντα ή μη εισιόντα. Η Έρευνα 1 εξέτασε το αίσθημα δυσκολίας, τη μεταγνωστική πλευρά της γνωστικής διακοπής. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν ότι η γνωστική διακοπή προκαλεί δυσχέρεια στην επεξεργασία, μειώνοντας την επίδοση και αυξάνοντας το αίσθημα δυσκολίας. Ωστόσο, το τελευταίο αυξάνεται με την αύξηση της δυσχέρειας καθαυτής, είτε αυτή προκαλείται λόγω γνωστικού φόρτου (Πείραμα 1) είτε λόγω γνωστικής διακοπής (Πείραμα 2 και 3). Στην τελευταία περίπτωση, το αίσθημα δυσκολίας βρέθηκε να συνυπάρχει με την έκπληξη. Η Έρευνα 2 μελέτησε την έκπληξη, τη συναισθηματική πλευρά της γνωστικής διακοπής. Τα αποτελέσματα αποκάλυψαν ότι στην επίλυση προβλημάτων, το απροσδόκητο από μόνο του δεν αρκεί για να ερμηνεύσει την έκπληξη. Αντιθέτως, η έκπληξη βρέθηκε να αυξάνει με τη δυσκολία αφομοίωσης στο υπάρχον γνωστικό σχήμα των αποκλινόντων γεγονότων που δυσχεραίνουν την επεξεργασία (Πείραμα 1). Το φαινόμενο αυτό παρατηρείται ανεξαρτήτως της ισχύος (ισχυρό, ασθενές) του γνωστικού σχήματος, από το οποίο αποκλίνουν τα απροσδόκητα γεγονότα (Πείραμα 2 και 3). Και στην Έρευνα 2 η έκπληξη βρέθηκε να συσχετίζεται θετικά και υψηλά με το αίσθημα δυσκολίας. Επίσης, βρέθηκε να συνδέεται στενά με το χρόνο αντίδρασης. Η Έρευνα 3 μελέτησε περαιτέρω τη σχέση μεταξύ των προϊόντων της γνωστικής διακοπής. Το Πείραμα 1 επανέλαβε τα παραπάνω ευρήματα με ένα διαφορετικό μεθοδολογικό παράδειγμα, δείχνοντας ότι τα αποκλίνοντα εισιόντα που δυσχεραίνουν την επεξεργασία οδηγούν στη μείωση της επίδοσης και στην ταυτόχρονη αύξηση της έκπληξης και του αισθήματος δυσκολίας. Το Πείραμα 2 επεξέτεινε τα προηγούμενα ευρήματα, διερευνώντας την απροσδόκητη ευχέρεια της επεξεργασίας. Έδειξε ότι σ’ αυτή την περίπτωση η γνωστική διακοπή αυξάνει την επίδοση και την έκπληξη, ενώ μειώνει το αίσθημα δυσκολίας. Τέλος, τα ευρήματα της διατριβής συζητούνται σε σχέση με το ρόλο της γνωστικής διακοπής στην πυροδότηση αλλά και τη διαφοροποίηση των θυμικών αντιδράσεων που αναδύονται κατά την επίλυση προβλημάτων

Oral contraceptive pill use is associated with localized decreases in cortical thickness

Oral contraceptive pills (OCs), which are used to prevent pregnancy by the majority of women in the United States, contain steroid hormones that may affect the brain’s structure and function. In this investigation, we tested the hypothesis that OC use is associated with differences in brain structure using a hypothesis-driven, surface-based approach. In 90 women, (44 OC users, 46 naturally-cycling women), we compared the cortical thickness of brain regions that participate in the salience network and the default mode network, as well as the volume of subcortical regions in these networks. We found that OC use was associated with significantly lower cortical thickness measurements in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex. These regions are believed to be important for responding to rewards and evaluating internal states/incoming stimuli, respectively. Further investigations are needed to determine if cortical thinning in these regions are associated with behavioral changes, and also to identify whether OC use is causally or only indirectly related to these changes in brain morphology

Dissociable largescale networks anchored in the right anterior insula subserve affective experience and attention

Meta-analytic summaries of neuroimaging studies point to at least two major functional-anatomic subdivisions within the anterior insula that contribute to the detection and processing of salient information: a dorsal region that is routinely active during attention tasks and a ventral region that is routinely active during affective experience. In two independent samples of cognitively normal human adults, we used intrinsic functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging to demonstrate that the right dorsal and right ventral anterior insula are nodes in separable large-scale functional networks. Furthermore, stronger intrinsic connectivity within the right dorsal anterior insula network was associated with better performance on a task involving attention and processing speed whereas stronger connectivity within the right ventral anterior insula network was associated with more intense affective experience. These results support the hypothesis that the identification and manipulation of salient information is subserved by at least two brain networks anchored in the right anterior insula that exhibit distinct large-scale topography and dissociable behavioral correlates

Resting connectivity between salience nodes predicts recognition memory

Abstract The resting connectivity of the brain’s salience network, particularly the ventral subsystem of the salience network, has been previously associated with various measures of affective reactivity. Numerous studies have demonstrated that increased affective arousal leads to enhanced consolidation of memory. This suggests that individuals with greater ventral salience network connectivity will exhibit greater responses to affective experience, leading to a greater enhancement of memory by affect. To test this hypothesis, resting ventral salience connectivity was measured in 41 young adults, who were then exposed to neutral and negative affect inductions during a paired associate memory test. Memory performance for material learned under both negative and neutral induction was tested for correlation with resting connectivity between major ventral salience nodes. The results showed a significant interaction between mood induction (negative vs neutral) and connectivity between ventral anterior insula and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, indicating that salience node connectivity predicted memory for material encoded under negative, but not neutral induction. These findings suggest that the network state of the perceiver, measured prior to affective experience, meaningfully influences the extent to which affect modulates memory. Implications of these findings for individuals with affective disorder, who show alterations in both connectivity and memory, are considered

Table e-4. Motor speech features and criteria for diagnosing AOS, Dysarthria

Table e-4. Motor speech features and criteria for diagnosing AOS, Dysarthri