Subgenual Cingulum Microstructure Supports Control of Emotional Conflict
This study explored whether individual differences in selective attention to negatively valenced stimuli are related to interindividual differences in subgenual CB microstructure. Forty-six individuals (21 with remitted MDD, 25 never depressed) completed an emotional Stroop task, using happy and angry distractor faces overlaid by pleasant or unpleasant target words and a control gender-based Stroop task. CBs were reconstructed in 38 individuals using diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography, and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) computed for the subgenual, retrosplenial, and parahippocampal subdivisions. No significant co...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Keedwell, P. A., Doidge, A. N., Meyer, M., Lawrence, N., Lawrence, A. D., Jones, D. K. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Cortical Structure Alterations and Social Behavior Impairment in p50-Deficient Mice
In this study, we evaluated whether mice lacking the NF-B p50 subunit (KO) present alterations in cortical structure and associated behavioral impairment. We found that, compared with wild type (WT), KO mice at postnatal day 2 present an increase in radial glial cells, an increase in Reelin protein expression levels, in addition to an increase of specific layer thickness. Moreover, adult KO mice display abnormal columnar organization in the somatosensory cortex, a specific decrease in somatostatin- and parvalbumin-expressing interneurons, altered neurite orientation, and a decrease in Synapsin I protein levels. Concerning ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Bonini, S. A., Mastinu, A., Maccarinelli, G., Mitola, S., Premoli, M., La Rosa, L. R., Ferrari-Toninelli, G., Grilli, M., Memo, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Tuning Eye-Gaze Perception by Transitory STS Inhibition
Processing eye-gaze information is a key step to human social interaction. Neuroimaging studies have shown that superior temporal sulcus (STS) is highly implicated in eye-gaze perception. In autism, a lack of preference for the eyes, as well as anatomo-functional abnormalities within the STS, has been described. To date, there are no experimental data in humans showing whether it is possible to interfere with eye-gaze processing by modulating STS neural activity. Here, we measured eye-gaze perception before and after inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the posterior STS (pSTS) in young healthy v...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Saitovitch, A., Popa, T., Lemaitre, H., Rechtman, E., Lamy, J.-C., Grevent, D., Calmon, R., Meunier, S., Brunelle, F., Samson, Y., Boddaert, N., Zilbovicius, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Laminar Differences in Dendritic Structure of Pyramidal Neurons in the Juvenile Rat Somatosensory Cortex
Pyramidal cell structure varies between different cortical areas and species, indicating that the cortical circuits that these cells participate in are likely to be characterized by different functional capabilities. Structural differences between cortical layers have been traditionally reported using either the Golgi method or intracellular labeling, but the structure of pyramidal cells has not previously been systematically analyzed across all cortical layers at a particular age. In the present study, we investigated the dendritic architecture of complete basal arbors of pyramidal neurons in layers II, III, IV, Va, Vb, a...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Rojo, C., Leguey, I., Kastanauskaite, A., Bielza, C., Larranaga, P., DeFelipe, J., Benavides-Piccione, R. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
The Dorsoventral Boundary of the Germinal Zone is a Specialized Niche for the Generation of Cortical Oligodendrocytes during a Restricted Temporal Window
Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) appear in the late embryonic brain, mature to become oligodendrocytes (OLs), and form myelin in the postnatal brain. Recently, it has been proposed that early-born OPCs derived from the ventral forebrain are eradicated postnatally and that late-born OLs predominate in the cortex of the adult mouse brain. However, intrinsic and extrinsic factors that specify the ability of self-renewing multipotent neural stem cells in the embryonic brain to generate cortical OL-lineage cells remain largely unknown. Using an inducible Cre/loxP system to permanently label Nestin- and Olig2-lineage cells...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Naruse, M., Ishino, Y., Kumar, A., Ono, K., Takebayashi, H., Yamaguchi, M., Ishizaki, Y., Ikenaka, K., Hitoshi, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Evidence for Development of Prefrontal Engagement in Working Memory in Early Through Middle Childhood
This study investigates the development of prefrontal cortex function between the ages of 3 and 7. Children (n = 68) participated in a novel spatial working memory task while their middle and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) was monitored using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We found increased activation of the LPFC when comparing working memory to rest. Greater LPFC increase was noted for longer compared with shorter delay periods. Increase in LPFC activation, accuracy, and response speed were positively correlated with child age, suggesting that developmental changes in prefrontal function might underlie ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Perlman, S. B., Huppert, T. J., Luna, B. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Activation of AMPA Receptors Mediates the Antidepressant Action of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Infralimbic Prefrontal Cortex
We examined the antidepressant-like activity of short (1 h) DBS applied to the infralimbic prefrontal cortex in the forced swim test (FST) and the novelty-suppressed feeding test (NSFT). We also used in vivo microdialysis to evaluate the release of glutamate, -aminobutyric acid, serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline in the prefrontal cortex and c-Fos immunohistochemistry to determine the brain regions activated by DBS. One hour of DBS of the infralimbic prefrontal cortex has antidepressant-like effects in FST and NSFT, and increases prefrontal efflux of glutamate, which would activate AMPA receptors (AMPARs). This effect ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Jimenez-Sanchez, L., Castane, A., Perez-Caballero, L., Grifoll-Escoda, M., Lopez-Gil, X., Campa, L., Galofre, M., Berrocoso, E., Adell, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Cortical Connections of the Caudal Portion of Posterior Parietal Cortex in Prosimian Galagos
Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of prosimian galagos includes a rostral portion (PPCr) where electrical stimulation evokes different classes of complex movements from different subregions, and a caudal portion (PPCc) where such stimulation fails to evoke movements in anesthetized preparations ( Stepniewska, Fang et al. 2009). We placed tracer injections into PPCc to reveal patterns of its cortical connections. There were widespread connections within PPCc as well as connections with PPCr and extrastriate visual areas, including V2 and V3. Weaker connections were with dorsal premotor cortex, and the frontal eye field. The...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Stepniewska, I., Cerkevich, C. M., Kaas, J. H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Ketamine Alters Outcome-Related Local Field Potentials in Monkey Prefrontal Cortex
A subanesthetic dose of the noncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine is known to induce a schizophrenia-like phenotype in humans and nonhuman primates alike. The transient behavioral changes mimic the positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms of the disease but the neural mechanisms behind these changes are poorly understood. A growing body of evidence indicates that the cognitive control processes associated with prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions relies on groups of neurons synchronizing at narrow-band frequencies measurable in the local field potential (LFP). Here, we recorded LFPs from the caudo-l...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Skoblenick, K. J., Womelsdorf, T., Everling, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Repetition Suppression in the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus Predicts Tone Learning Performance
Do individuals differ in how efficiently they process non-native sounds? To what extent do these differences relate to individual variability in sound-learning aptitude? We addressed these questions by assessing the sound-learning abilities of Dutch native speakers as they were trained on non-native tone contrasts. We used fMRI repetition suppression to the non-native tones to measure participants' neuronal processing efficiency before and after training. Although all participants improved in tone identification with training, there was large individual variability in learning performance. A repetition suppression effect t...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Asaridou, S. S., Takashima, A., Dediu, D., Hagoort, P., McQueen, J. M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Differential Recruitment of Dentate Gyrus Interneuron Types by Commissural Versus Perforant Pathways
Gamma-aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) interneurons (INs) in the dentate gyrus (DG) provide inhibitory control to granule cell (GC) activity and thus gate incoming signals to the hippocampus. However, how various IN subtypes inhibit GCs in response to different excitatory input pathways remains mostly unknown. By using electrophysiology and optogenetics, we investigated neurotransmission of the hilar commissural pathway (COM) and the medial perforant path (MPP) to the DG in acutely prepared mouse slices. We found that the short-term dynamics of excitatory COM–GC and MPP–GC synapses was similar, but that the d...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Hsu, T.-T., Lee, C.-T., Tai, M.-H., Lien, C.-C. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Brain Mechanisms for Processing Affective (and Nonaffective) Touch Are Atypical in Autism
C-tactile (CT) afferents encode caress-like touch that supports social–emotional development, and stimulation of the CT system engages the insula and cortical circuitry involved in social–emotional processing. Very few neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of touch processing in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who often exhibit atypical responses to touch. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we evaluated the hypothesis that children and adolescents with ASD would exhibit atypical brain responses to CT-targeted touch. Children and adolescents with ASD, relative to typi...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Kaiser, M. D., Yang, D. Y.- J., Voos, A. C., Bennett, R. H., Gordon, I., Pretzsch, C., Beam, D., Keifer, C., Eilbott, J., McGlone, F., Pelphrey, K. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Selective Thalamic Innervation of Rat Frontal Cortical Neurons
Most glutamatergic inputs in the neocortex originate from the thalamus or neocortical pyramidal cells. To test whether thalamocortical afferents selectively innervate specific cortical cell subtypes and surface domains, we investigated the distribution patterns of thalamocortical and corticocortical excitatory synaptic inputs in identified postsynaptic cortical cell subtypes using intracellular and immunohistochemical staining combined with confocal laser scanning and electron microscopic observations in 2 thalamorecipient sublayers, lower layer 2/3 (L2/3b) and lower layer 5 (L5b) of rat frontal cortex. The dendrites of GA...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Shigematsu, N., Ueta, Y., Mohamed, A. A., Hatada, S., Fukuda, T., Kubota, Y., Kawaguchi, Y. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Occipital MEG Activity in the Early Time Range (
Two electrophysiological components have been extensively investigated as candidate neural correlates of perceptual consciousness: An early, occipitally realized component occurring 130–320 ms after stimulus onset and a late, frontally realized component occurring 320–510 ms after stimulus onset. Recent studies have suggested that the late component may not be uniquely related to perceptual consciousness, but also to sensory expectations, task associations, and selective attention. We conducted a magnetoencephalographic study; using multivariate analysis, we compared classification accuracies when decoding perc...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Andersen, L. M., Pedersen, M. N., Sandberg, K., Overgaard, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Thalamic Responses to Nociceptive-Specific Input in Humans: Functional Dichotomies and Thalamo-Cortical Connectivity
While nociceptive cortical activation is now well characterized in humans, understanding of the nociceptive thalamus remains largely fragmentary. We used laser stimuli and intracerebral electrodes in 17 human subjects to record nociceptive-specific field responses in 4 human thalamic nuclei and a number of cortical areas. Three nuclei known to receive spinothalamic (STT) projections in primates (ventro-postero-lateral [VPL], anterior pulvinar [PuA], and central lateral [CL]) exhibited responses with similar latency, indicating their parallel activation by nociceptive afferents. Phase coherence analysis, however, revealed m...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - May 16, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Bastuji, H., Frot, M., Mazza, S., Perchet, C., Magnin, M., Garcia-Larrea, L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
