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Kwok FY, Wilkey ED, Peters L, Khiu E, Bull R, Lee K, Ansari D. Developmental dyscalculia is not associated with atypical brain activation: A univariate fMRI study of arithmetic, magnitude processing, and visuospatial working memory. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:6308-6325. [PMID: 37909347 PMCID: PMC10681641 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2023] [Revised: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional neuroimaging serves as a tool to better understand the cerebral correlates of atypical behaviors, such as learning difficulties. While significant advances have been made in characterizing the neural correlates of reading difficulties (developmental dyslexia), comparatively little is known about the neurobiological correlates of mathematical learning difficulties, such as developmental dyscalculia (DD). Furthermore, the available neuroimaging studies of DD are characterized by small sample sizes and variable inclusion criteria, which make it problematic to compare across studies. In addition, studies to date have focused on identifying single deficits in neuronal processing among children with DD (e.g., mental arithmetic), rather than probing differences in brain function across different processing domains that are known to be affected in children with DD. Here, we seek to address the limitations of prior investigations. Specifically, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to probe brain differences between children with and without persistent DD; 68 children (8-10 years old, 30 with DD) participated in an fMRI study designed to investigate group differences in the functional neuroanatomy associated with commonly reported behavioral deficits in children with DD: basic number processing, mental arithmetic and visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM). Behavioral data revealed that children with DD were less accurate than their typically achieving (TA) peers for the basic number processing and arithmetic tasks. No behavioral differences were found for the tasks measuring VSWM. A pre-registered, whole-brain, voxelwise univariate analysis of the fMRI data from the entire sample of children (DD and TA) revealed areas commonly associated with the three tasks (basic number processing, mental arithmetic, and VSWM). However, the examination of differences in brain activation between children with and without DD revealed no consistent group differences in brain activation. In view of these null results, we ran exploratory, Bayesian analyses on the data to quantify the amount of evidence for no group differences. This analysis provides supporting evidence for no group differences across all three tasks. We present the largest fMRI study comparing children with and without persistent DD to date. We found no group differences in brain activation using univariate, frequentist analyses. Moreover, Bayesian analyses revealed evidence for the null hypothesis of no group differences. These findings contradict previous literature and reveal the need to investigate the neural basis of DD using multivariate and network-based approaches to brain imaging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fu Yu Kwok
- Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of EducationNanyang Technological UniversitySingapore
- Macquarie School of EducationMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Eric D. Wilkey
- Brain and Mind InstituteWestern UniversityLondonOntarioCanada
- Vanderbilt Brain InstituteVanderbilt UniversityNashvilleTennesseeUSA
- Department of Psychology & Human DevelopmentPeabody College, Vanderbilt UniversityNashvilleTennesseeUSA
| | - Lien Peters
- Brain and Mind InstituteWestern UniversityLondonOntarioCanada
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology Research in Developmental Disorders LabGhent UniversityGhentBelgium
| | - Ellyn Khiu
- Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of EducationNanyang Technological UniversitySingapore
| | - Rebecca Bull
- Macquarie School of EducationMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Kerry Lee
- Department of Early Childhood EducationThe Education University of Hong KongHong Kong
| | - Daniel Ansari
- Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of EducationNanyang Technological UniversitySingapore
- Brain and Mind InstituteWestern UniversityLondonOntarioCanada
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Boeken OJ, Markett S. Systems-level decoding reveals the cognitive and behavioral profile of the human intraparietal sulcus. FRONTIERS IN NEUROIMAGING 2023; 1:1074674. [PMID: 37555176 PMCID: PMC10406318 DOI: 10.3389/fnimg.2022.1074674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 08/10/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The human intraparietal sulcus (IPS) covers large portions of the posterior cortical surface and has been implicated in a variety of cognitive functions. It is, however, unclear how cognitive functions dissociate between the IPS's heterogeneous subdivisions, particularly in perspective to their connectivity profile. METHODS We applied a neuroinformatics driven system-level decoding on three cytoarchitectural distinct subdivisions (hIP1, hIP2, hIP3) per hemisphere, with the aim to disentangle the cognitive profile of the IPS in conjunction with functionally connected cortical regions. RESULTS The system-level decoding revealed nine functional systems based on meta-analytical associations of IPS subdivisions and their cortical coactivations: Two systems-working memory and numeric cognition-which are centered on all IPS subdivisions, and seven systems-attention, language, grasping, recognition memory, rotation, detection of motions/shapes and navigation-with varying degrees of dissociation across subdivisions and hemispheres. By probing the spatial overlap between systems-level co-activations of the IPS and seven canonical intrinsic resting state networks, we observed a trend toward more co-activation between hIP1 and the front parietal network, between hIP2 and hIP3 and the dorsal attention network, and between hIP3 and the visual and somatomotor network. DISCUSSION Our results confirm previous findings on the IPS's role in cognition but also point to previously unknown differentiation along the IPS, which present viable starting points for future work. We also present the systems-level decoding as promising approach toward functional decoding of the human connectome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ole Jonas Boeken
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute for Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Vaitonytė J, Alimardani M, Louwerse MM. Scoping review of the neural evidence on the uncanny valley. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR REPORTS 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chbr.2022.100263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
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Gao J, Zeng M, Dai X, Yang X, Yu H, Chen K, Hu Q, Xu J, Cheng B, Wang J. Functional Segregation of the Middle Temporal Visual Motion Area Revealed With Coactivation-Based Parcellation. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:427. [PMID: 32536850 PMCID: PMC7269029 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Traditionally, the visual motion area (MT) is considered as a brain region specialized for visual motion perception. However, accumulating evidence showed that MT is also related to various functions, suggesting that it is a complex functional area and different functional subregions might exist in this area. To delineate functional subregions of this area, left and right masks of MT were defined using meta-analysis in the BrainMap database, and coactivation-based parcellation was then performed on these two masks. Two dorsal subregions (Cl1 and Cl2) and one ventral subregion (Cl3) of left MT, as well as two dorsal-anterior subregions (Cl1 and Cl2), one ventral-anterior subregion (Cl3), and an additional posterior subregion (Cl4) of right MT were identified. In addition to vision motion, distinct and specific functions were identified in different subregions characterized by task-dependent functional connectivity mapping and forward/reverse inference on associated functions. These results not only were in accordance with the previous findings of a hemispheric asymmetry of MT, but also strongly confirmed the existence of subregions in this region with distinct and specific functions. Furthermore, our results extend the special role of visual motion perception on this area and might facilitate future cognitive study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingjing Gao
- School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Min Zeng
- Department of Radiology, Pidu District People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
| | - Xin Dai
- School of Automation, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Xun Yang
- School of Public Affairs, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Haibo Yu
- Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Shenzhen, China
| | - Kai Chen
- School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Qingmao Hu
- Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China.,CAS Key Laboratory of Human-Machine Intelligence-Synergy Systems, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jinping Xu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Human-Machine Intelligence-Synergy Systems, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Bochao Cheng
- Department of Radiology, West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
| | - Jiaojian Wang
- School of Life Sciences and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.,Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China
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Pierce JE, Saj A, Vuilleumier P. Differential parietal activations for spatial remapping and saccadic control in a visual memory task. Neuropsychologia 2019; 131:129-138. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2018] [Revised: 03/13/2019] [Accepted: 05/10/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Effects of Mnemonic Strategy Training on Brain Activity and Cognitive Functioning of Left-Hemisphere Ischemic Stroke Patients. Neural Plast 2019; 2019:4172569. [PMID: 31210761 PMCID: PMC6532294 DOI: 10.1155/2019/4172569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2018] [Revised: 02/22/2019] [Accepted: 04/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Memory dysfunction is one of the main cognitive impairments caused by stroke, especially associative memory. Therefore, cognitive training, such as face-name mnemonic strategy training, could be an important intervention for this group of patients. The goal of this study was to evaluate the behavioral effects of face-name mnemonic strategy training, along with the neural substrate behind these effects, in the left frontoparietal lobe stroke patients. Volunteers underwent 2 sessions of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during face-name association task: one prior and the other after the cognitive training. The fMRI followed a block design task with three active conditions: trained face-name pairs, untrained face-name pairs, and a couple of repeated face-name pairs. Prior to each fMRI session, volunteers underwent neuropsychological assessment. Training resulted in better performance on delayed memory scores of HVLT-R, and on recognition on a generalization strategy task, as well as better performance in the fMRI task. Also, trained face-name pairs presented higher activation after training in default-mode network regions, such as the posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, and angular gyrus, as well as in lateral occipital and temporal regions. Similarly, untrained face-name pairs also showed a nonspecific training effect in the right superior parietal cortex, right supramarginal gyrus, anterior intraparietal sulcus, and lateral occipital cortex. A correlation between brain activation and task performance was also found in the angular gyrus, superior parietal cortex, anterior intraparietal sulcus, and lateral occipital cortex. In conclusion, these results suggest that face-name mnemonic strategy training has the potential to improve memory performance and to foster brain activation changes, by the recruitment of contralesional areas from default-mode, frontoparietal, and dorsal attention networks as a possible compensation mechanism.
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O'Callaghan G, O'Dowd A, Simões-Franklin C, Stapleton J, Newell FN. Tactile-to-Visual Cross-Modal Transfer of Texture Categorisation Following Training: An fMRI Study. Front Integr Neurosci 2018; 12:24. [PMID: 29946245 PMCID: PMC6001281 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2018.00024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2018] [Accepted: 05/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated the neural underpinnings of texture categorisation using exemplars that were previously learned either within modalities (visual training and visual test) or across modalities (tactile training and visual test). Previous models of learning suggest a decrease in activation in brain regions that are typically involved in cognitive control during task acquisition, but a concomitant increase in activation in brain regions associated with the representation of the acquired information. In our study, participants were required to learn to categorise fabrics of different textures as either natural or synthetic. Training occurred over several sessions, with each fabric presented either visually or through touch to a participant. Pre- and post-training tests, in which participants categorised visual images only of the fabrics, were conducted during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. Consistent with previous research on cognitive processes involved in task acquisition, we found that categorisation training was associated with a decrease in activation in brain regions associated with cognitive systems involved in learning, including the superior parietal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLFC). Moreover, these decreases were independent of training modality. In contrast, we found greater activation to visual textures in a region within the left medial occipital cortex (MOC) following training. There was no overall evidence of an effect of training modality in the main analyses, with texture-specific regional changes associated with both within- (visual) and cross- (touch) modal training. However, further analyses suggested that, unlike categorisation performance following within-modal training, crossmodal training was associated with bilateral activation of the MOC. Our results support previous evidence for a multisensory representation of texture within early visual regions of the cortex and provide insight into how multisensory categories are formed in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgia O'Callaghan
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Alan O'Dowd
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Cristina Simões-Franklin
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - John Stapleton
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Fiona N Newell
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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