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Okayasu M, Inukai T, Tanaka D, Tsumura K, Shintaki R, Takeda M, Nakahara K, Jimura K. The Stroop effect involves an excitatory-inhibitory fronto-cerebellar loop. Nat Commun 2023; 14:27. [PMID: 36631460 PMCID: PMC9834394 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35397-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2022] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The Stroop effect is a classical, well-known behavioral phenomenon in humans that refers to robust interference between language and color information. It remains unclear, however, when the interference occurs and how it is resolved in the brain. Here we show that the Stroop effect occurs during perception of color-word stimuli and involves a cross-hemispheric, excitatory-inhibitory loop functionally connecting the lateral prefrontal cortex and cerebellum. Participants performed a Stroop task and a non-verbal control task (which we term the Swimmy task), and made a response vocally or manually. The Stroop effect involved the lateral prefrontal cortex in the left hemisphere and the cerebellum in the right hemisphere, independently of the response type; such lateralization was absent during the Swimmy task, however. Moreover, the prefrontal cortex amplified cerebellar activity, whereas the cerebellum suppressed prefrontal activity. This fronto-cerebellar loop may implement language and cognitive systems that enable goal-directed behavior during perceptual conflicts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moe Okayasu
- Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Tensei Inukai
- Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Daiki Tanaka
- Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Kaho Tsumura
- Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Reiko Shintaki
- Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Masaki Takeda
- Research Center for Brain Communication, Kochi University of Technology, Kami, Japan
| | - Kiyoshi Nakahara
- Research Center for Brain Communication, Kochi University of Technology, Kami, Japan
| | - Koji Jimura
- Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan.
- Research Center for Brain Communication, Kochi University of Technology, Kami, Japan.
- Department of Informatics, Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan.
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2
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Neurofunctional characteristics of executive control in older people with HIV infection: a comparison with Parkinson's disease. Brain Imaging Behav 2022; 16:1776-1793. [PMID: 35294979 PMCID: PMC10124990 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-022-00645-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Expression of executive dysfunctions is marked by substantial heterogeneity in people living with HIV infection (PLWH) and attributed to neuropathological degradation of frontostriatal circuitry with age and disease. We compared the neurophysiology of executive function in older PLWH and Parkinson's disease (PD), both affecting frontostriatal systems. Thirty-one older PLWH, 35 individuals with PD, and 28 older healthy controls underwent executive task-activated fMRI, neuropsychological testing, and a clinical motor exam. fMRI task conditions distinguished cognitive control operations, invoking a lateral frontoparietal network, and motor control operations, activating a cerebellar-precentral-medial prefrontal network. HIV-specific findings denoted a prominent sensorimotor hypoactivation during cognitive control and striatal hypoactivation during motor control related to CD4+ T cell count and HIV disease duration. Activation deficits overlapped for PLWH and PD, relative to controls, in dorsolateral frontal, medial frontal, and middle cingulate cortices for cognitive control, and in limbic, frontal, parietal, and cerebellar regions for motor control. Thus, despite well-controlled HIV infection, frontostriatal and sensorimotor activation deficits occurred during executive control in older PLWH. Overlapping activation deficits in posterior cingulate and hippocampal regions point toward similarities in mesocorticolimbic system aberrations among older PLWH and PD. The extent of pathophysiology in PLWH was associated with variations in immune system health, neural signature consistent with subclinical parkinsonism, and mild neurocognitive impairment. The failure to adequately engage these pathways could be an early sign for cognitive and motor functional decline in the aging population of PLWH.
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3
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Wu T, Chen C, Spagna A, Wu X, Mackie M, Russell‐Giller S, Xu P, Luo Y, Liu X, Hof PR, Fan J. The functional anatomy of cognitive control: A domain‐general brain network for uncertainty processing. J Comp Neurol 2020; 528:1265-1292. [DOI: 10.1002/cne.24804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2019] [Revised: 10/12/2019] [Accepted: 10/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Tingting Wu
- Department of Psychology, Queens CollegeThe City University of New York Queens New York
| | - Caiqi Chen
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of PsychologySouth China Normal University Guangzhou China
| | - Alfredo Spagna
- Department of PsychologyColumbia University in the City of New York New York New York
| | - Xia Wu
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal University Tianjin China
| | - Melissa‐Ann Mackie
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesNorthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago Illinois
| | - Shira Russell‐Giller
- Department of Psychology, Queens CollegeThe City University of New York Queens New York
| | - Pengfei Xu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive NeuroscienceShenzhen University Shenzhen China
| | - Yue‐jia Luo
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive NeuroscienceShenzhen University Shenzhen China
| | - Xun Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of PsychologyUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Patrick R. Hof
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain InstituteIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York New York
| | - Jin Fan
- Department of Psychology, Queens CollegeThe City University of New York Queens New York
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4
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Müller-Oehring EM, Le Berre AP, Serventi M, Kalon E, Haas AL, Padula CB, Schulte T. Brain activation to cannabis- and alcohol-related words in alcohol use disorder. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2019; 294:111005. [PMID: 31715379 PMCID: PMC6886708 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2019.111005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2019] [Revised: 10/29/2019] [Accepted: 10/31/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Cannabis abuse commonly co-occurs with alcohol use disorder (AUD). With increased acceptance and accessibility to cannabis in the US, it is imperative to understand the psychological and neural mechanisms of concurrent alcohol and cannabis use. We hypothesized that neural alcohol-cue conditioning may extent to other drug-related stimuli, such as cannabis, and underwrite the loss of control over reward-driven behavior. Task-activated fMRI examined the neural correlates of alcohol- and cannabis-related word cues in 21 abstinent AUD and 18 control subjects. Relative to controls, AUD showed behavioral attentional biases and frontal hypoactivation to both alcohol- and cannabis-related words. This cue-elicited prefrontal hypoactivation was related to higher lifetime alcohol consumption (pcorrected < 0.02) and modulated by past cannabis use histories (p ≦ 0.001). In particular, frontal hypoactivation to both alcohol and cannabis cues was pronounced in AUD without prior cannabis exposure. Overall, frontal control mechanisms in abstinent AUD were not sufficiently engaged to override automatic alcohol and cannabis-related intrusions, enhancing the risk for relapse and potentially for alcohol and cannabis co-use with the increased social acceptance and accessibility in the US.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva M Müller-Oehring
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States
| | - Anne-Pascale Le Berre
- Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States
| | - Matthew Serventi
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States; Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States
| | - Ember Kalon
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States; Dept. of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - Amie L Haas
- Dept. of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - Claudia B Padula
- Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States; VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, United States
| | - Tilman Schulte
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States; Dept. of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, United States.
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5
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Müller-Oehring EM, Sullivan EV, Pfefferbaum A, Huang NC, Poston KL, Bronte-Stewart HM, Schulte T. Task-rest modulation of basal ganglia connectivity in mild to moderate Parkinson's disease. Brain Imaging Behav 2015; 9:619-38. [PMID: 25280970 PMCID: PMC4385510 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-014-9317-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with abnormal synchronization in basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops. We tested whether early PD patients without demonstrable cognitive impairment exhibit abnormal modulation of functional connectivity at rest, while engaged in a task, or both. PD and healthy controls underwent two functional MRI scans: a resting-state scan and a Stroop Match-to-Sample task scan. Rest-task modulation of basal ganglia (BG) connectivity was tested using seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis with task and rest time series as conditions. Despite substantial overlap of BG-cortical connectivity patterns in both groups, connectivity differences between groups had clinical and behavioral correlates. During rest, stronger putamen-medial parietal and pallidum-occipital connectivity in PD than controls was associated with worse task performance and more severe PD symptoms suggesting that abnormalities in resting-state connectivity denote neural network dedifferentiation. During the executive task, PD patients showed weaker BG-cortical connectivity than controls, i.e., between caudate-supramarginal gyrus and pallidum-inferior prefrontal regions, that was related to more severe PD symptoms and worse task performance. Yet, task processing also evoked stronger striatal-cortical connectivity, specifically between caudate-prefrontal, caudate-precuneus, and putamen-motor/premotor regions in PD relative to controls, which was related to less severe PD symptoms and better performance on the Stroop task. Thus, stronger task-evoked striatal connectivity in PD demonstrated compensatory neural network enhancement to meet task demands and improve performance levels. fMRI-based network analysis revealed that despite resting-state BG network compromise in PD, BG connectivity to prefrontal, premotor, and precuneus regions can be adequately invoked during executive control demands enabling near normal task performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva M Müller-Oehring
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305-5723, USA.
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA.
| | - Edith V Sullivan
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305-5723, USA
| | - Adolf Pfefferbaum
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305-5723, USA
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA
| | - Neng C Huang
- Valley Parkinson Clinic, Los Gatos, CA, 95032, USA
| | - Kathleen L Poston
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Helen M Bronte-Stewart
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Tilman Schulte
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA
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6
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Pinho AL, Ullén F, Castelo-Branco M, Fransson P, de Manzano Ö. Addressing a Paradox: Dual Strategies for Creative Performance in Introspective and Extrospective Networks. Cereb Cortex 2015; 26:3052-63. [PMID: 26088973 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhv130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies of internally generated behaviors have shown seemingly paradoxical results regarding the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which has been found to activate, not activate or even deactivate relative to control conditions. On the one hand, the DLPFC has been argued to exert top-down control over generative thought by inhibiting habitual responses; on the other hand, a deactivation and concomitant decrease in monitoring and focused attention has been suggested to facilitate spontaneous associations and novel insights. Here, we demonstrate that prefrontal engagement in creative cognition depends dramatically on experimental conditions, that is, the goal of the task. We instructed professional pianists to perform improvisations on a piano keyboard during fMRI and play, either with a certain emotional content (happy/fearful), or using certain keys (tonal/atonal pitch-sets). We found lower activity in primarily the right DLPFC, dorsal premotor cortex and inferior parietal cortex during emotional conditions compared with pitch-set conditions. Furthermore, the DLPFC was functionally connected to the default mode network during emotional conditions and to the premotor network during pitch-set conditions. The results thus support the notion of two broad cognitive strategies for creative problem solving, relying on extrospective and introspective neural circuits, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Luísa Pinho
- Department of Neuroscience PhD Programme in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine, Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology
| | | | - Miguel Castelo-Branco
- IBILI-Institute for Biomedical Imaging in Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Peter Fransson
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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7
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Cieslik EC, Mueller VI, Eickhoff CR, Langner R, Eickhoff SB. Three key regions for supervisory attentional control: evidence from neuroimaging meta-analyses. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2014; 48:22-34. [PMID: 25446951 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 214] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2014] [Revised: 10/08/2014] [Accepted: 11/02/2014] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The supervisory attentional system has been proposed to mediate non-routine, goal-oriented behaviour by guiding the selection and maintenance of the goal-relevant task schema. Here, we aimed to delineate the brain regions that mediate these high-level control processes via neuroimaging meta-analysis. In particular, we investigated the core neural correlates of a wide range of tasks requiring supervisory control for the suppression of a routine action in favour of another, non-routine one. Our sample comprised n=173 experiments employing go/no-go, stop-signal, Stroop or spatial interference tasks. Consistent convergence across all four paradigm classes was restricted to right anterior insula and inferior frontal junction, with anterior midcingulate cortex and pre-supplementary motor area being consistently involved in all but the go/no-go task. Taken together with lesion studies in patients, our findings suggest that the controlled activation and maintenance of adequate task schemata relies, across paradigms, on a right-dominant midcingulo-insular-inferior frontal core network. This also implies that the role of other prefrontal and parietal regions may be less domain-general than previously thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edna C Cieslik
- Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Centre Jülich, Leo-Brandt-Straße, 52428 Jülich, Germany.
| | - Veronika I Mueller
- Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Centre Jülich, Leo-Brandt-Straße, 52428 Jülich, Germany
| | - Claudia R Eickhoff
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Centre Jülich, Leo-Brandt-Straße, 52428 Jülich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen, University, Pauwelsstraße 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany
| | - Robert Langner
- Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Centre Jülich, Leo-Brandt-Straße, 52428 Jülich, Germany
| | - Simon B Eickhoff
- Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Centre Jülich, Leo-Brandt-Straße, 52428 Jülich, Germany
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8
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Müller-Oehring EM, Jung YC, Sullivan EV, Hawkes WC, Pfefferbaum A, Schulte T. Midbrain-driven emotion and reward processing in alcoholism. Neuropsychopharmacology 2013; 38:1844-53. [PMID: 23615665 PMCID: PMC3746685 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2013.102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2013] [Revised: 03/18/2013] [Accepted: 04/03/2013] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Alcohol dependence is associated with impaired control over emotionally motivated actions, possibly associated with abnormalities in the frontoparietal executive control network and midbrain nodes of the reward network associated with automatic attention. To identify differences in the neural response to alcohol-related word stimuli, 26 chronic alcoholics (ALC) and 26 healthy controls (CTL) performed an alcohol-emotion Stroop Match-to-Sample task during functional MR imaging. Stroop contrasts were modeled for color-word incongruency (eg, word RED printed in green) and for alcohol (eg, BEER), positive (eg, HAPPY) and negative (eg, MAD) emotional word content relative to congruent word conditions (eg, word RED printed in red). During color-Stroop processing, ALC and CTL showed similar left dorsolateral prefrontal activation, and CTL, but not ALC, deactivated posterior cingulate cortex/cuneus. An interaction revealed a dissociation between alcohol-word and color-word Stroop processing: ALC activated midbrain and parahippocampal regions more than CTL when processing alcohol-word relative to color-word conditions. In ALC, the midbrain region was also invoked by negative emotional Stroop words thereby showing significant overlap of this midbrain activation for alcohol-related and negative emotional processing. Enhanced midbrain activation to alcohol-related words suggests neuroadaptation of dopaminergic midbrain systems. We speculate that such tuning is normally associated with behavioral conditioning to optimize responses but here contributed to automatic bias to alcohol-related stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- E M Müller-Oehring
- Neuroscience Program, Center Health Science, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
| | - Y-C Jung
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
| | - E V Sullivan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - W C Hawkes
- Neuroscience Program, Center Health Science, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - A Pfefferbaum
- Neuroscience Program, Center Health Science, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - T Schulte
- Neuroscience Program, Center Health Science, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA
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Abstract
Research suggests that regular aerobic exercise has the potential to improve executive functioning, even in healthy populations. The purpose of this review is to elucidate which components of executive functioning benefit from such exercise in healthy populations. In light of the developmental time course of executive functions, we consider separately children, young adults, and older adults. Data to date from studies of aging provide strong evidence of exercise-linked benefits related to task switching, selective attention, inhibition of prepotent responses, and working memory capacity; furthermore, cross-sectional fitness data suggest that working memory updating could potentially benefit as well. In young adults, working memory updating is the main executive function shown to benefit from regular exercise, but cross-sectional data further suggest that task-switching and post error performance may also benefit. In children, working memory capacity has been shown to benefit, and cross-sectional data suggest potential benefits for selective attention and inhibitory control. Although more research investigating exercise-related benefits for specific components of executive functioning is clearly needed in young adults and children, when considered across the age groups, ample evidence indicates that regular engagement in aerobic exercise can provide a simple means for healthy people to optimize a range of executive functions.
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Schulte T, Oberlin BG, Kareken DA, Marinkovic K, Müller-Oehring EM, Meyerhoff DJ, Tapert S. How acute and chronic alcohol consumption affects brain networks: insights from multimodal neuroimaging. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2012; 36:2017-27. [PMID: 22577873 DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2012.01831.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2012] [Accepted: 03/13/2012] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Multimodal imaging combining 2 or more techniques is becoming increasingly important because no single imaging approach has the capacity to elucidate all clinically relevant characteristics of a network. METHODS This review highlights recent advances in multimodal neuroimaging (i.e., combined use and interpretation of data collected through magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, positron emission tomography, magnetoencephalography, MR perfusion, and MR spectroscopy methods) that leads to a more comprehensive understanding of how acute and chronic alcohol consumption affect neural networks underlying cognition, emotion, reward processing, and drinking behavior. RESULTS Several innovative investigators have started utilizing multiple imaging approaches within the same individual to better understand how alcohol influences brain systems, both during intoxication and after years of chronic heavy use. CONCLUSIONS Their findings can help identify mechanism-based therapeutic and pharmacological treatment options, and they may increase the efficacy and cost effectiveness of such treatments by predicting those at greatest risk for relapse.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilman Schulte
- Neuroscience Program, Center of Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
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11
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Schulte T, Müller-Oehring E, Sullivan E, Pfefferbaum A. Synchrony of corticostriatal-midbrain activation enables normal inhibitory control and conflict processing in recovering alcoholic men. Biol Psychiatry 2012; 71:269-78. [PMID: 22137506 PMCID: PMC3253929 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.10.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2011] [Revised: 09/28/2011] [Accepted: 10/18/2011] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Alcohol dependence is associated with inhibitory control deficits, possibly related to abnormalities in frontoparietal cortical and midbrain function and connectivity. METHODS We examined functional connectivity and microstructural fiber integrity between frontoparietal and midbrain structures using a Stroop Match-to-Sample task with functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging in 18 alcoholic and 17 control subjects. Manipulation of color cues and response repetition sequences modulated cognitive demands during Stroop conflict. RESULTS Despite similar lateral frontoparietal activity and functional connectivity in alcoholic and control subjects when processing conflict, control subjects deactivated the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), whereas alcoholic subjects did not. Posterior cingulum fiber integrity predicted the degree of PCC deactivation in control but not alcoholic subjects. Also, PCC activity was modulated by executive control demands: activated during response switching and deactivated during response repetition. Alcoholics showed the opposite pattern: activation during repetition and deactivation during switching. Here, in alcoholic subjects, greater deviations from the normal PCC activity correlated with higher amounts of lifetime alcohol consumption. A functional dissociation of brain network connectivity between the groups further showed that control subjects exhibited greater corticocortical connectivity among middle cingulate, posterior cingulate, and medial prefrontal cortices than alcoholic subjects. In contrast, alcoholic subjects exhibited greater midbrain-orbitofrontal cortical network connectivity than control subjects. Degree of microstructural fiber integrity predicted robustness of functional connectivity. CONCLUSIONS Thus, even subtle compromise of microstructural connectivity in alcoholism can influence modulation of functional connectivity and underlie alcohol-related cognitive impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- T. Schulte
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
| | - E.M. Müller-Oehring
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - E.V. Sullivan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - A. Pfefferbaum
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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12
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Schulte T, Müller-Oehring EM, Chanraud S, Rosenbloom MJ, Pfefferbaum A, Sullivan EV. Age-related reorganization of functional networks for successful conflict resolution: a combined functional and structural MRI study. Neurobiol Aging 2011; 32:2075-90. [PMID: 20022675 PMCID: PMC2888896 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2009] [Revised: 12/02/2009] [Accepted: 12/02/2009] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Aging has readily observable effects on the ability to resolve conflict between competing stimulus attributes that are likely related to selective structural and functional brain changes. To identify age-related differences in neural circuits subserving conflict processing, we combined structural and functional MRI and a Stroop Match-to-Sample task involving perceptual cueing and repetition to modulate resources in healthy young and older adults. In our Stroop Match-to-Sample task, older adults handled conflict by activating a frontoparietal attention system more than young adults and engaged a visuomotor network more than young adults when processing repetitive conflict and when processing conflict following valid perceptual cueing. By contrast, young adults activated frontal regions more than older adults when processing conflict with perceptual cueing. These differential activation patterns were not correlated with regional gray matter volume despite smaller volumes in older than young adults. Given comparable performance in speed and accuracy of responding between both groups, these data suggest that successful aging is associated with functional reorganization of neural systems to accommodate functionally increasing task demands on perceptual and attentional operations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilman Schulte
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025
| | - Eva M. Müller-Oehring
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Sandra Chanraud
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Margaret J. Rosenbloom
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Adolf Pfefferbaum
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Edith V. Sullivan
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
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Schulte T, Müller-Oehring EM, Sullivan EV, Pfefferbaum A. Disruption of emotion and conflict processing in HIV infection with and without alcoholism comorbidity. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2011; 17:537-50. [PMID: 21418720 PMCID: PMC3537849 DOI: 10.1017/s1355617711000348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Alcoholism and HIV-1 infection each affect components of selective attention and cognitive control that may contribute to deficits in emotion processing based on closely interacting fronto-parietal attention and frontal-subcortical emotion systems. Here, we investigated whether patients with alcoholism, HIV-1 infection, or both diseases have greater difficulty than healthy controls in resolving conflict from emotional words with different valences. Accordingly, patients with alcoholism (ALC, n = 20), HIV-1 infection (HIV, n = 20), ALC + HIV comorbidity (n = 22), and controls (CTL, n = 16) performed an emotional Stroop Match-to-Sample task, which assessed the contribution of emotion (happy, angry) to cognitive control (Stroop conflict processing). ALC + HIV showed greater Stroop effects than HIV, ALC, or CTL for negative (ANGRY) but not for positive (HAPPY) words, and also when the cue color did not match the Stroop stimulus color; the comorbid group performed similarly to the others when cue and word colors matched. Furthermore, emotionally salient face cues prolonged color-matching responses in all groups. HIV alone, compared with the other three groups, showed disproportionately slowed color-matching time when trials featured angry faces. The enhanced Stroop effects prominent in ALC + HIV suggest difficulty in exercising attentional top-down control on processes that consume attentional capacity, especially when cognitive effort is required to ignore negative emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilman Schulte
- SRI International, Neuroscience Program, Menlo Park, California
| | - Eva M. Müller-Oehring
- SRI International, Neuroscience Program, Menlo Park, California
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | | | - Adolf Pfefferbaum
- SRI International, Neuroscience Program, Menlo Park, California
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California
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Contribution of callosal connections to the interhemispheric integration of visuomotor and cognitive processes. Neuropsychol Rev 2010; 20:174-90. [PMID: 20411431 DOI: 10.1007/s11065-010-9130-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2010] [Accepted: 04/06/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, cognitive neuroscience has been concerned with the role of the corpus callosum and interhemispheric communication for lower-level processes and higher-order cognitive functions. There is empirical evidence that not only callosal disconnection but also subtle degradation of the corpus callosum can influence the transfer of information and integration between the hemispheres. The reviewed studies on patients with callosal degradation with and without disconnection indicate a dissociation of callosal functions: while anterior callosal regions were associated with interhemispheric inhibition in situations of semantic (Stroop) and visuospatial (hierarchical letters) competition, posterior callosal areas were associated with interhemispheric facilitation from redundant information at visuomotor and cognitive levels. Together, the reviewed research on selective cognitive functions provides evidence that the corpus callosum contributes to the integration of perception and action within a subcortico-cortical network promoting a unified experience of the way we perceive the visual world and prepare our actions.
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