A systematic review of brain imaging studies of semantic priming

A presente revisão sistemática teve o objetivo de investigar a contribuição dos estudos de neuroimagem na investigação do priming semântico (PS) avaliado através de tarefas de decisão lexical em artigos publicados entre 2001 até setembro de 2017. Foram incluídos estudos com tarefas de decisão lexical com estímulos visuais e auditivos. A revisão resultou em 19 artigos, os quais mostraram o efeito de PS em uma diversa rede de áreas cerebrais (lobo frontal e temporal, giro cingulado, área motora suplementar e córtex parietal). A identificação de ativação nestas redes variou em função do intervalo entre estímulos utilizado. Os dados sugerem que ambos hemisférios estão envolvidos no efeito de PS, com o hemisfério esquerdo apresentando um papel mais robusto. Diminuição da ativação no giro temporal medial esquerdo foi associada ao efeito de PS automático. Esta mesma área apareceu relacionada ao efeito de PS com longos intervalos entre os estímulos, juntamente com o giro frontal inferior esquerdo e o córtex cingulado anterior. Um forte papel do hemisfério esquerdo nas tarefas de PS pode ser observado, especialmente do giro temporal medial esquerdo. Sua ativação foi modulada pelos curtos ou longos intervalos entre estímulos sendo mais ativação associada com longos intervalos.

Revisão sistemática de estudos de neuroimagem do priming semântico

A presente revisão sistemática teve o objetivo de investigar a contribuição dos estudos de neuroimagem na investigação do priming semântico (PS) avaliado através de tarefas de decisão lexical em artigos publicados entre 2001 até setembro de 2017. Foram incluídos estudos com tarefas de decisão lexical com estímulos visuais e auditivos. A revisão resultou em 19 artigos, os quais mostraram o efeito de PS em uma diversa rede de áreas cerebrais (lobo frontal e temporal, giro cingulado, área motora suplementar e córtex parietal). A identificação de ativação nestas redes variou em função do intervalo entre estímulos utilizado. Os dados sugerem que ambos hemisférios estão envolvidos no efeito de PS, com o hemisfério esquerdo apresentando um papel mais robusto. Diminuição da ativação no giro temporal medial esquerdo foi associada ao efeito de PS automático. Esta mesma área apareceu relacionada ao efeito de PS com longos intervalos entre os estímulos, juntamente com o giro frontal inferior esquerdo e o córtex cingulado anterior. Um forte papel do hemisfério esquerdo nas tarefas de PS pode ser observado, especialmente do giro temporal medial esquerdo. Sua ativação foi modulada pelos curtos ou longos intervalos entre estímulos sendo mais ativação associada com longos intervalos.The present systematic review aims to address the contribution of brain imaging studies to the investigation of semantic priming (SP). Only studies from 2001 to 2017 using lexical decision tasks with visual and auditory stimuli, were considered. The review resulted in 20 articles, which showed semantic priming effects (SPE) in several brain areas (frontal and temporal lobes, cingulate gyrus, supplementary motor areas, and parietal cortex). In this way, the identification of activation in these areas varied as a function of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Data suggests both hemispheres are involved on SPE, with a more robust role of the left hemisphere. Specifically, a decreased activation on the left middle temporal gyrus was found to be related to automatic SPE. This same area seemed to be related to SPE at long SOAs, along with the left inferior frontal gyrus and the anterior cingulated cortex. Therefore, a strong performance of the left hemisphere in semantic priming tasks could be observed, especially in the left middle temporal gyrus. Its activation was modulated by short and long intervals between stimuli, with more activation associated with longer intervals

The effects of type of discourse and of a second language on comprehension processes : a new linguistic relativism?

A través de este trabajo se examinan diversas cuestiones relacionadas con los procesos de comprensión del discurso escrito y de la adquisición de segundas lenguas como el español, inglés o portugués. El objetivo fundamental de este artículo es tratar de desvelar si el procesamiento que realiza el lector durante la comprensión de un discurso determinado o ante la adquisición de una segunda lengua requiere de una actividad cognitiva diferente a cuando se trata de comprender otro de naturaleza diferente o bajo una lengua diferente. Para ello se analiza por un lado, las diferencias existentes entre diferentes tipos de texto, centrándonos fundamentalmente en el narrativo y el expositivo, analizando sus repercusiones sobre varios niveles de la cognición humana. Por otro, se analizan algunos estudios sobre la adquisición de diferentes segundas lenguas y sus repercusiones sobre su nivel de activación cerebral utilizando la técnica de fMRI. Por último, se plantea hasta qué punto el relativismo lingüístico influye en los procesos de comprensión y de la realización de inferencias y de la adquisición de una segunda lengua.In this paper we address issues related to comprehension processes, and how they can be affected by types of text or written discourse, and by a reader’s first or second language. To this end, we discuss the processing of narrative and expository texts, and their effects on different levels of human cognition. Likewise, we discuss the effects of texts written in different codes, that is, in first and second languages. We propose that differences in text comprehension processes occur as a function of their causal nature and of the inferences that are generated during comprehension. In terms of second language comprehension, modern research applying functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, with bilinguals is discussed in support of the notion that first language comprehension processes are generally replicated in the second language. Therefore, we focus on comprehension processes, generation of interferences, and the processing of a second language as influenced by linguistic relativism

Visual Explanation for Identification of the Brain Bases for Developmental Dyslexia on fMRI Data

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Predicting Brain Age at Slice Level : Convolutional Neural Networks and Consequences for Interpretability

Funding Information: NE was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior— Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001. MM was financed in part by the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa—Brasil (CNPq). Funding Information: Conflict of Interest: BF had a research grant from Pfizer outside of this study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Interaction between perceived maternal care, anxiety symptoms, and the neurobehavioral response to palatable foods in adolescents

Studies in rodents have shown that early life trauma leads to anxiety, increased stress responses to threatening situations, and modifies food intake in a new environment. However, these associations are still to be tested in humans. This study aimed to verify complex interactions among anxiety diagnosis, maternal care, and baseline cortisol on food intake in a new environment in humans. A community sample of 32 adolescents and young adults was evaluated for: psychiatric diagnosis using standardized interviews, maternal care using the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI), caloric consumption in a new environment (meal choice at a snack bar), and salivary cortisol. They also performed a brain fMRI task including the visualization of palatable foods vs. neutral items. The study found a three-way interaction between anxiety diagnosis, maternal care, and baseline cortisol levels on the total calories consumed (snacks) in a new environment. This interaction means that for those with high maternal care, there were no significant associations between cortisol levels and food intake in a new environment. However, for those with low maternal care and who have an anxiety disorder (affected), cortisol was associated with higher food intake; whereas for those with low maternal care and who did not have an anxiety disorder (resilient), cortisol was negatively associated with lower food intake. In addition, higher anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased activation in the superior and middle frontal gyrus when visualizing palatable vs. neutral items in those reporting high maternal care. These results in humans mimic experimental research findings and demonstrate that a combination of anxiety diagnosis and maternal care moderate the relationship between the HPA axis functioning, anxiety, and feeding behavior in adolescents and young adults

Thrifty-eating behavior phenotype at the food court : programming goes beyond food preferences

Introduction: Prenatal growth impairment leads to higher preference for palatable foods in comparison to normal prenatal growth subjects, which can contribute to increased body fat mass and a higher risk for developing chronic diseases in small-for-gestational-age (SGA) individuals throughout life. This study aimed to investigate the effect of SGA on feeding behavior in children and adolescents, as well as resting-state connectivity between areas related to reward, self-control, and value determination, such as orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC), amygdala and dorsal striatum (DS). Methods: Caregivers and their offspring were recruited from two independent cohorts in Brazil (PROTAIA) and Canada (MAVAN). Both cohorts included anthropometric measurements, food choice tasks, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Results: In the Brazilian sample (17 ± 0.28 years, n=70), 21.4% of adolescents were classified as SGA. They exhibited lower monetary-related expenditure to buy a snack compared to controls in the food choice test. Decreased functional connectivity (n=40) between left OFC and left DL-PFC; and between right OFC and: left amygdala, right DS, and left DS were observed in the Brazilian SGA participants. Canadian SGA participants (14.9%) had non-significant differences in comparison with controls in a food choice task at 4 years old ( ± 0.01, n=315). At a follow-up brain scan visit (10.21 ± 0.140 years, n=49), SGA participants (28.6%) exhibited higher connectivity between the left OFC and left DL-PFC, also higher connectivity between the left OFC and right DL-PFC. We did not observe significant anthropometric neither nutrients’ intake differences between groups in both samples. Conclusions: Resting-state fMRI results showed that SGA individuals had altered connectivity between areas involved in encoding the subjective value for available goods and decision-making in both samples, which can pose them in disadvantage when facing food options daily. Over the years, the cumulative exposure to particular food cues together with the altered behavior towards food, such as food purchasing, as seen in the adolescent cohort, can play a role in the long-term risk for developing chronic noncommunicable diseases

The identifying depression early in adolescence risk stratified cohort (IDEA-RiSCo) : rationale, methods, and baseline characteristics

Background: The characterization of adolescents at high risk for developing depression has traditionally relied on the presence or absence of single risk factors. More recently, the use of composite risk scores combining information from multiple variables has gained attention in prognostic research in the field of mental health. We previously developed a sociodemographic composite score to estimate the individual level probability of depression occurrence in adolescence, the Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence Risk Score (IDEA-RS). Objectives: In this report, we present the rationale, methods, and baseline characteristics of the Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence Risk Stratified Cohort (IDEA-RiSCo), a study designed for in-depth examination of multiple neurobiological, psychological, and environmental measures associated with the risk of developing and with the presence of depression in adolescence, with a focus on immune/inflammatory and neuroimaging markers. Methods: Using the IDEA-RS as a tool for risk stratification, we recruited a new sample of adolescents enriched for low (LR) and high (HR) depression risk, as well as a group of adolescents with a currently untreated major depressive episode (MDD). Methods for phenotypic, peripheral biological samples, and neuroimaging assessments are described, as well as baseline clinical characteristics of the IDEA-RiSCo sample. Results: A total of 7,720 adolescents aged 14-16 years were screened in public state schools in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We were able to identify individuals at low and high risk for developing depression in adolescence: in each group, 50 participants (25 boys, 25 girls) were included and successfully completed the detailed phenotypic assessment with ascertainment of risk/MDD status, blood and saliva collections, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Across a variety of measures of psychopathology and exposure to negative events, there was a clear pattern in which either the MDD group or both the HR and the MDD groups exhibited worse indicators in comparison to the LR group. Conclusion: The use of an empirically-derived composite score to stratify risk for developing depression represents a promising strategy to establish a risk-enriched cohort that will contribute to the understanding of the neurobiological correlates of risk and onset of depression in adolescence

The Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence Risk Stratified Cohort (IDEA-RiSCo): Rationale, Methods, and Baseline Characteristics

Background: The characterization of adolescents at high risk for developing depression has traditionally relied on the presence or absence of single risk factors. More recently, the use of composite risk scores combining information from multiple variables has gained attention in prognostic research in the field of mental health. We previously developed a sociodemographic composite score to estimate the individual level probability of depression occurrence in adolescence, the Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence Risk Score (IDEA-RS).Objectives: In this report, we present the rationale, methods, and baseline characteristics of the Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence Risk Stratified Cohort (IDEA-RiSCo), a study designed for in-depth examination of multiple neurobiological, psychological, and environmental measures associated with the risk of developing and with the presence of depression in adolescence, with a focus on immune/inflammatory and neuroimaging markers.Methods: Using the IDEA-RS as a tool for risk stratification, we recruited a new sample of adolescents enriched for low (LR) and high (HR) depression risk, as well as a group of adolescents with a currently untreated major depressive episode (MDD). Methods for phenotypic, peripheral biological samples, and neuroimaging assessments are described, as well as baseline clinical characteristics of the IDEA-RiSCo sample.Results: A total of 7,720 adolescents aged 14–16 years were screened in public state schools in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We were able to identify individuals at low and high risk for developing depression in adolescence: in each group, 50 participants (25 boys, 25 girls) were included and successfully completed the detailed phenotypic assessment with ascertainment of risk/MDD status, blood and saliva collections, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Across a variety of measures of psychopathology and exposure to negative events, there was a clear pattern in which either the MDD group or both the HR and the MDD groups exhibited worse indicators in comparison to the LR group.Conclusion: The use of an empirically-derived composite score to stratify risk for developing depression represents a promising strategy to establish a risk-enriched cohort that will contribute to the understanding of the neurobiological correlates of risk and onset of depression in adolescence