A Pneumatically Actuated Manipulandum for Neuromotor Control Research

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques have great potential for identifying which neural structures are involved in the control of goal-directed reaching movements. However, fMRI techniques alone are not capable of probing the neural mechanisms involved in acquisition of novel motor behaviors because such studies require that the moving limb be perturbed in a controlled fashion. We outline a plan to design and develop a non-metallic, pneumatically actuated tool that, along with systems identification techniques and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), will characterize and quantify how the human central nervous system uses sensory information during practice-based motor learning

Imaging memory in temporal lobe epilepsy: predicting the effects of temporal lobe resection

Functional magnetic resonance imaging can demonstrate the functional anatomy of cognitive processes. In patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy, evaluation of preoperative verbal and visual memory function is important as anterior temporal lobe resections may result in material specific memory impairment, typically verbal memory decline following left and visual memory decline after right anterior temporal lobe resection. This study aimed to investigate reorganization of memory functions in temporal lobe epilepsy and to determine whether preoperative memory functional magnetic resonance imaging may predict memory changes following anterior temporal lobe resection. We studied 72 patients with unilateral medial temporal lobe epilepsy (41 left) and 20 healthy controls. A functional magnetic resonance imaging memory encoding paradigm for pictures, words and faces was used testing verbal and visual memory in a single scanning session on a 3T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Fifty-four patients subsequently underwent left (29) or right (25) anterior temporal lobe resection. Verbal and design learning were assessed before and 4 months after surgery. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis revealed that in left temporal lobe epilepsy, greater left hippocampal activation for word encoding correlated with better verbal memory. In right temporal lobe epilepsy, greater right hippocampal activation for face encoding correlated with better visual memory. In left temporal lobe epilepsy, greater left than right anterior hippocampal activation on word encoding correlated with greater verbal memory decline after left anterior temporal lobe resection, while greater left than right posterior hippocampal activation correlated with better postoperative verbal memory outcome. In right temporal lobe epilepsy, greater right than left anterior hippocampal functional magnetic resonance imaging activation on face encoding predicted greater visual memory decline after right anterior temporal lobe resection, while greater right than left posterior hippocampal activation correlated with better visual memory outcome. Stepwise linear regression identified asymmetry of activation for encoding words and faces in the ipsilateral anterior medial temporal lobe as strongest predictors for postoperative verbal and visual memory decline. Activation asymmetry, language lateralization and performance on preoperative neuropsychological tests predicted clinically significant verbal memory decline in all patients who underwent left anterior temporal lobe resection, but were less able to predict visual memory decline after right anterior temporal lobe resection. Preoperative memory functional magnetic resonance imaging was the strongest predictor of verbal and visual memory decline following anterior temporal lobe resection. Preoperatively, verbal and visual memory function utilized the damaged, ipsilateral hippocampus and also the contralateral hippocampus. Memory function in the ipsilateral posterior hippocampus may contribute to better preservation of memory after surgery

Neuronal correlates of functional magnetic resonance imaging in human temporal cortex

The relationship between changes in functional magnetic resonance imaging and neuronal activity remains controversial. Data collected during awake neurosurgical procedures for the treatment of epilepsy provided a rare opportunity to examine this relationship in human temporal association cortex. We obtained functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen dependent signals, single neuronal activity and local field potentials from 8 to 300 Hz at 13 temporal cortical sites, from nine subjects, during paired associate learning and control measures. The relation between the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal and the electrophysiologic parameters was assessed in two ways: colocalization between significant changes in these signals on the same paired associate-control comparisons and multiple linear regressions of the electrophysiologic measures on the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal, across all tasks. Significant colocalization was present between increased functional magnetic resonance imaging signals and increased local field potentials power in the 50–250 Hz range. Local field potentials power greater than 100 Hz was also a significant regressor for the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal, establishing this local field potentials frequency range as a neuronal correlate of the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal. There was a trend for a relation between power in some low frequency local field potentials frequencies and the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal, for 8–15 Hz increases in the colocalization analysis and 16–23 Hz in the multiple linear regression analysis. Neither analysis provided evidence for an independent relation to frequency of single neuron activity

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

"Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Advanced Neuroimaging Applications" is a concise book on applied methods of fMRI used in assessment of cognitive functions in brain and neuropsychological evaluation using motor-sensory activities, language, orthographic disabilities in children. The book will serve the purpose of applied neuropsychological evaluation methods in neuropsychological research projects, as well as relatively experienced psychologists and neuroscientists. Chapters are arranged in the order of basic concepts of fMRI and physiological basis of fMRI after event-related stimulus in first two chapters followed by new concepts of fMRI applied in constraint-induced movement therapy; reliability analysis; refractory SMA epilepsy; consciousness states; rule-guided behavioral analysis; orthographic frequency neighbor analysis for phonological activation; and quantitative multimodal spectroscopic fMRI to evaluate different neuropsychological states

Deep learning based pipeline for fingerprinting using brain functional MRI connectivity data

In this work we describe an appropriate pipeline for using deep-learning as a form of improving the brain functional connectivity-based fingerprinting process which is based in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data-processing results. This pipeline approach is mostly intended for neuroscientists, biomedical engineers, and physicists that are looking for an easy form of using fMRI-based Deep-Learning in identifying people, drastic brain alterations in those same people, and/or pathologic consequences to people’s brains. Computer scientists and engineers can also gain by noticing the data-processing improvements obtained by using the here-proposed pipeline. With our best approach, we obtained an average accuracy of 0.3132 ± 0.0129 and an average validation cost of 3.1422 ± 0.0668, which clearly outperformed the published Pearson correlation approach performance with a 50 Nodes parcellation which had an accuracy of 0.237.Thanks to Eduarda Sousa for support. NFL was supported by a fellowship of the project MEDPERSYST - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016428, funded by Portugal’s FCT. This work was also supported by NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, and NORTE 2020 under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement through the FEDER, plus it was funded by the European Commission (FP7) “SwitchBox - Maintaining health in old age through homeostasis” (Contract HEALTH-F2-2010-259772), and co-financed by the Portuguese North Regional Operational Program (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the QREN through FEDER, and by the “Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian” (Portugal) (Contract grant number: P-139977; project “TEMPO - Better mental health during ageing based on temporal prediction of individual brain ageing trajectories”). We gratefully acknowledge the support of the NVIDIA Corporation with their donation of a Quadro P6000 board used in this research. This work was also supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Pediatrics

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows non-invasive assessment of human brain function in vivo by detecting blood flow differences. In this review, we want to illustrate the background and different aspects of performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the pediatric age group. An overview over current and future applications of fMRI will be given, and typical problems, pitfalls, and benefits of doing fMRI in the pediatric age group are discussed. We conclude that fMRI can successfully be applied in children and holds great promise for both research and clinical purposes

Men fear other men most: Gender specific brain activations in perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies. An fMRI study.

We report a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment showing different activation patterns as a function of threatening signals from facial or bodily expressions and these differed between male and female participants as a function of male and female actors. Male observers showed a clear motor preparation response to threatening male body language