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Manelis A, Hu H, Miceli R, Satz S, Schwalbe M. Neural correlates of the sound facilitation effect in the modified Simon task in older adults. Front Aging Neurosci 2023; 15:1207707. [PMID: 37644962 PMCID: PMC10461020 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1207707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction The ability to resolve interference declines with age and is attributed to neurodegeneration and reduced cognitive function and mental alertness in older adults. Our previous study revealed that task-irrelevant but environmentally meaningful sounds improve performance on the modified Simon task in older adults. However, little is known about neural correlates of this sound facilitation effect. Methods Twenty right-handed older adults [mean age = 72 (SD = 4), 11 female] participated in the fMRI study. They performed the modified Simon task in which the arrows were presented either in the locations matching the arrow direction (congruent trials) or in the locations mismatching the arrow direction (incongruent trials). A total of 50% of all trials were accompanied by task-irrelevant but environmentally meaningful sounds. Results Participants were faster on the trials with concurrent sounds, independently of whether trials were congruent or incongruent. The sound effect was associated with activation in the distributed network of auditory, posterior parietal, frontal, and limbic brain regions. The magnitude of the behavioral facilitation effect due to sound was associated with the changes in activation of the bilateral auditory cortex, cuneal cortex, and occipital fusiform gyrus, precuneus, left superior parietal lobule (SPL) for No Sound vs. Sound trials. These changes were associated with the corresponding changes in reaction time (RT). Older adults with a recent history of falls showed greater activation in the left SPL than those without falls history. Conclusion Our findings are consistent with the dedifferentiation hypothesis of cognitive aging. The facilitatory effect of sound could be achieved through recruitment of excessive neural resources, which allows older adults to increase attention and mental alertness during task performance. Considering that the SPL is critical for integration of multisensory information, individuals with slower task responses and those with a history of falls may need to recruit this region more actively than individuals with faster responses and those without a fall history to overcome increased difficulty with interference resolution. Future studies should examine the relationship among activation in the SPL, the effect of sound, and falls history in the individuals who are at heightened risk of falls.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Manelis
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - Hang Hu
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - Rachel Miceli
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - Skye Satz
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - Marie Schwalbe
- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
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Li H, Song L, Wang P, Weiss PH, Fink GR, Zhou X, Chen Q. Impaired body-centered sensorimotor transformations in congenitally deaf people. Brain Commun 2022; 4:fcac148. [PMID: 35774184 PMCID: PMC9240416 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2021] [Revised: 02/26/2022] [Accepted: 06/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital deafness modifies an individual’s daily interaction with the environment and alters the fundamental perception of the external world. How congenital deafness shapes the interface between the internal and external worlds remains poorly understood. To interact efficiently with the external world, visuospatial representations of external target objects need to be effectively transformed into sensorimotor representations with reference to the body. Here, we tested the hypothesis that egocentric body-centred sensorimotor transformation is impaired in congenital deafness. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that congenital deafness induced impairments in egocentric judgements, associating the external objects with the internal body. These impairments were due to deficient body-centred sensorimotor transformation per se, rather than the reduced fidelity of the visuospatial representations of the egocentric positions. At the neural level, we first replicated the previously well-documented critical involvement of the frontoparietal network in egocentric processing, in both congenitally deaf participants and hearing controls. However, both the strength of neural activity and the intra-network connectivity within the frontoparietal network alone could not account for egocentric performance variance. Instead, the inter-network connectivity between the task-positive frontoparietal network and the task-negative default-mode network was significantly correlated with egocentric performance: the more cross-talking between them, the worse the egocentric judgement. Accordingly, the impaired egocentric performance in the deaf group was related to increased inter-network connectivity between the frontoparietal network and the default-mode network and decreased intra-network connectivity within the default-mode network. The altered neural network dynamics in congenital deafness were observed for both evoked neural activity during egocentric processing and intrinsic neural activity during rest. Our findings thus not only demonstrate the optimal network configurations between the task-positive and -negative neural networks underlying coherent body-centred sensorimotor transformations but also unravel a critical cause (i.e. impaired body-centred sensorimotor transformation) of a variety of hitherto unexplained difficulties in sensory-guided movements the deaf population experiences in their daily life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Li
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education , China
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University , China
| | - Li Song
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education , China
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University , China
| | - Pengfei Wang
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education , China
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University , China
| | - Peter H. Weiss
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Centre Jülich, Germany, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse , 52428 Jülich, Germany
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne University , 509737 Cologne, Germany
| | - Gereon R. Fink
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Centre Jülich, Germany, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse , 52428 Jülich, Germany
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne University , 509737 Cologne, Germany
| | - Xiaolin Zhou
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University , 200062 Shanghai, China
| | - Qi Chen
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Centre Jülich, Germany, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse , 52428 Jülich, Germany
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education , China
- School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University , China
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Impulsive prepotent actions and tics in Tourette disorder underpinned by a common neural network. Mol Psychiatry 2021; 26:3548-3557. [PMID: 32994553 PMCID: PMC8505252 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-020-00890-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2020] [Revised: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Tourette disorder (TD), which is characterized by motor and vocal tics, is not in general considered as a product of impulsivity, despite a frequent association with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and impulse control disorders. It is unclear which type of impulsivity, if any, is intrinsically related to TD and specifically to the severity of tics. The waiting type of motor impulsivity, defined as the difficulty to withhold a specific action, shares some common features with tics. In a large group of adult TD patients compared to healthy controls, we assessed waiting motor impulsivity using a behavioral task, as well as structural and functional underpinnings of waiting impulsivity and tics using multi-modal neuroimaging protocol. We found that unmedicated TD patients showed increased waiting impulsivity compared to controls, which was independent of comorbid conditions, but correlated with the severity of tics. Tic severity did not account directly for waiting impulsivity, but this effect was mediated by connectivity between the right orbito-frontal cortex with caudate nucleus bilaterally. Waiting impulsivity in unmedicated patients with TD also correlated with a higher gray matter signal in deep limbic structures, as well as connectivity with cortical and with cerebellar regions on a functional level. Neither behavioral performance nor structural or functional correlates were related to a psychometric measure of impulsivity or impulsive behaviors in general. Overall, the results suggest that waiting impulsivity in TD was related to tic severity, to functional connectivity of orbito-frontal cortex with caudate nucleus and to structural changes within limbic areas.
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