THINGS-odd-one-out

4.7 million odd-one-out similarity judgments of 1854 natural object

Reduced dimension stimulus decoding and column-based modeling reveal architectural differences of primary somatosensory finger maps between younger and older adults

The primary somatosensory cortex (SI) contains fine-grained tactile representations of the body, arranged in an orderly fashion. The use of ultra-high resolution fMRI data to detect group differences, for example between younger and older adults’ SI maps, is challenging, because group alignment often does not preserve the high spatial detail of the data. Here, we use robust-shared response modeling (rSRM) that allows group analyses by mapping individual stimulus-driven responses to a lower dimensional shared feature space, to detect age-related differences in tactile representations between younger and older adults using 7T-fMRI data. Using this method, we show that finger representations are more precise in Brodmann-Area (BA) 3b and BA1 compared to BA2 and motor areas, and that this hierarchical processing is preserved across age groups. By combining rSRM with column-based decoding (C-SRM), we further show that the number of columns that optimally describes finger maps in SI is higher in younger compared to older adults in BA1, indicating a greater columnar size in older adults’ SI. Taken together, we conclude that rSRM is suitable for finding fine-grained group differences in ultra-high resolution fMRI data, and we provide first evidence that the columnar architecture in SI changes with increasing age

THINGS-data: fMRI ICA Noise Regressors

ICA-based noise regressors for the fMRI data. Part of THINGS-data: A multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in brain and behavior. See related materials in Collection at: https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.6161151</p

Musical Agency during Physical Exercise Decreases Pain

Objectives: When physical exercise is systematically coupled to music production, exercisers experience improvements in mood, reductions in perceived effort, and enhanced muscular efficiency. The physiology underlying these positive effects remains unknown. Here we approached the investigation of how such musical agency may stimulate the release of endogenous opioids indirectly with a pain threshold paradigm. Design: In a cross-over design we tested the opioid-hypothesis with an indirect measure, comparing the pain tolerance of 22 participants following exercise with or without musical agency. Method: Physical exercise was coupled to music by integrating weight-training machines with sensors that control music-synthesis in real time. Pain tolerance was measured as withdrawal time in a cold pressor test. Results: On average, participants tolerated cold pain for ~5 s longer following exercise sessions with musical agency. Musical agency explained 25% of the variance in cold pressor test withdrawal times after factoring out individual differences in general pain sensitivity. Conclusions: This result demonstrates a substantial pain reducing effect of musical agency in combination with physical exercise, probably due to stimulation of endogenous opioid mechanisms. This has implications for exercise endurance, both in sports and a multitude of rehabilitative therapies in which physical exercise is effective but painful

THINGS-data: fMRI Regions of Interest

Subject specific category-selective and retinotopic regions of interest for the fMRI data. Part of THINGS-data: A multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in brain and behavior. See related materials in Collection at: https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.6161151</p

THINGS-data: fMRI PRF AFNI inputs

Input files required to run a population receptive field analysis on the THINGS-fMRI localizer data with AFNI. Part of THINGS-data: A multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in brain and behavior See related materials in Collection at: https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.6161151</p

THINGS-data: fMRI BIDS raw dataset

fMRI raw dataset in BIDS format. Part of THINGS-data: A multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in brain and behavior See related materials in Collection at: https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.6161151</p

THINGS-data: fMRI cortical surface flat maps

Cortical flat maps for three subjects derived from the anatomical MRI images. Cortical surfaces were reconstructed from T1-weighted and T2-weighted anatomical images with freesurfer's reconall procedure. Relaxation cuts were placed manually to allow for flattening of each hemisphere's surface. Results of any analysis of the fMRI data can be viewed on these flat maps with pycortex. Part of THINGS-data: A multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in brain and behavior See related materials in Collection at: https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.6161151</p

THINGS-data: Behavioral odd-one-out data and code

4.7 million object odd-one-out judgements from human participants on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Part of THINGS-data: A multimodal collection of large-scale datasets for investigating object representations in brain and behavior. See related materials in Collection at: https://doi.org/10.25452/figshare.plus.c.6161151</p

Musical Agency during Physical Exercise Decreases Pain

Objectives: When physical exercise is systematically coupled to music production, exercisers experience improvements in mood, reductions in perceived effort, and enhanced muscular efficiency. The physiology underlying these positive effects remains unknown. Here we approached the investigation of how such musical agency may stimulate the release of endogenous opioids indirectly with a pain threshold paradigm. Design: In a cross-over design we tested the opioid-hypothesis with an indirect measure, comparing the pain tolerance of 22 participants following exercise with or without musical agency. Method: Physical exercise was coupled to music by integrating weight-training machines with sensors that control music-synthesis in real time. Pain tolerance was measured as withdrawal time in a cold pressor test. Results: On average, participants tolerated cold pain for ~5 s longer following exercise sessions with musical agency. Musical agency explained 25% of the variance in cold pressor test withdrawal times after factoring out individual differences in general pain sensitivity. Conclusions: This result demonstrates a substantial pain reducing effect of musical agency in combination with physical exercise, probably due to stimulation of endogenous opioid mechanisms. This has implications for exercise endurance, both in sports and a multitude of rehabilitative therapies in which physical exercise is effective but painful.© 2018 Fritz, Bowling, Contier, Grant, Schneider, Lederer, Höer, Busch and Villringe