Cultural and linguistic influence on neural bases of 'Theory of Mind': an fMRI study with Japanese bilinguals

Theory of mind (ToM)-our ability to predict behaviors of others in terms of their underlying intentions-has been thought to be universal and invariant across different cultures. However, several ToM studies conducted outside the Anglo-American cultural or linguistic boundaries have obtained mixed results. To examine the influence of culture/language on neural bases of ToM, we studied 16 American English-speaking monolinguals and 16 Japanese-English bilinguals with second-order false-belief story tasks, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Several neural correlates of ToM including medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were recruited by both cultural/linguistic groups. However, some other brain areas including inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were employed in a culture/language-specific manner, during the ToM tasks. These results suggest that the ways in which adults understand ToM are not entirely universal.     

中国儿童青少年跨期决策的发展与脑发育机制

跨期决策是指人们对时间成本与收益进行权衡, 进而做出评价与选择, 其研究主要围绕时间折扣, 是指与当前或近期的损益相比, 人们赋予未来损益更小的权重。虽然有争议, 但Mischel等人很早就通过著名的“棉花糖实验”证明了延迟满足能力越强的儿童有着更高的学业成就。延迟满足与跨期决策都是在时间维度上进行的决策。研究者通过脑成像技术发现了成人大脑内支持跨期决策的三个神经网络系统, 但关于儿童的研究鲜有报道。这三大脑网络系统都位于额叶皮层, 该皮层在儿童青少年时期快速发育。通过采用横断研究和纵向研究相结合的实验设计, 对处于跨期决策发展关键期的中国儿童青少年人群进行测查和追踪; 借助神经影像技术, 考察跨期决策发展与脑发育的关系; 整合多模态神经影像技术, 构建可以预测跨期决策能力的脑影像指标。     

Brain network interactions in auditory, visual and linguistic processing

In the paper, we discuss the importance of network interactions between brain regions in mediating performance of sensorimotor and cognitive tasks, including those associated with language processing. Functional neuroimaging, especially PET and fMRI, provide data that are obtained essentially simultaneously from much of the brain, and thus are ideal for enabling one to assess interregional functional interactions. Two ways to use these types of data to assess network interactions are presented. First, using PET, we demonstrate that anterior and posterior perisylvian language areas have stronger functional connectivity during spontaneous narrative production than during other less linguistically demanding production tasks. Second, we show how one can use large-scale neural network modeling to relate neural activity to the hemodynamically-based data generated by fMRI and PET. We review two versions of a model of object processing - one for visual and one for auditory objects. The regions comprising the models include primary and secondary sensory cortex, association cortex in the temporal lobe, and prefrontal cortex. Each model incorporates specific assumptions about how neurons in each of these areas function, and how neurons in the different areas are interconnected with each other. Each model is able to perform a delayed match-to-sample task for simple objects (simple shapes for the visual model; tonal contours for the auditory model). We find that the simulated electrical activities in each region are similar to those observed in nonhuman primates performing analogous tasks, and the absolute values of the simulated integrated synaptic activity in each brain region match human fMRI/PET data. Thus, this type of modeling provides a way to understand the neural bases for the sensorimotor and cognitive tasks of interest.     

A computational model of anterior cingulate function in speeded response tasks: effects of frequency,sequence, and conflict

A growing body of evidence from functional neuroimaging and computational modeling studies indicates that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) detects the presence of response conflict and conveys this information to other brain regions, enabling subsequent adjustments in cognitive control. The present study examined previous empirical findings of increased ACC for low-frequency stimuli across three distinct speeded response tasks (two-alternative forced choice, go/no-go, and oddball). Simulations conducted in a neural network model incorporating sequential priming mechanisms (developed in Cho et al., 2002) confirmed that a computational measure of response conflict was higher on low-frequency trials across all three tasks. In addition, the model captured detailed aspects of behavioral reaction time and accuracy data, predicted the dynamics of ACC activity related to trial sequence effects, and provided evidence for the functional role of conflict information in performance monitoring and optimization. The results indicate that the conflict-monitoring hypothesis, augmented by mechanisms for encoding stimulus history, can explain key phenomena associated with performance in sequential speeded response tasks.     

Neural correlates of emotional intelligence in adolescent children

The somatic marker hypothesis posits a key role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insula in the ability to utilize emotions to guide decision making and behavior. However, the relationship between activity in these brain regions and emotional intelligence (EQ) during adolescence, a time of particular importance for emotional and social development, has not been studied. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we correlated scores from the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory, Youth Version (EQ-i:YV) with brain activity during perception of fearful faces in 16 healthy children and adolescents. Consistent with the neural efficiency hypothesis, higher EQ correlated negatively with activity in the somatic marker circuitry and other paralimbic regions. Positive correlations were observed between EQ and activity in the cerebellum and visual association cortex. The findings suggest that the construct of self-reported EQ in adolescents is inversely related to the efficiency of neural processing within the somatic marker circuitry during emotional provocation.     

Affective personality differences in neural processing efficiency confirmed using fMRI

To test for a relation between individual differences in personality and neural-processing efficiency, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess brain activity within regions associated with cognitive control during a demanding working memory task. Fifty-three participants completed both the self-report behavioral inhibition sensitivity (BIS) and behavioral approach sensitivity (BAS) personality scales and a standard measure of fluid intelligence (Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices). They were then scanned as they performed a three-back working memory task. A mixed blocked/ event-related fMRI design enabled us to identify both sustained and transient neural activity. Higher BAS was negatively related to event-related activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate, the lateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal areas in regions of interest identified in previous work. These relationships were not explained by differences in either behavioral performance or fluid intelligence, consistent with greater neural efficiency. The results reveal the high specificity of the relationships among personality, cognition, and brain activity. The data confirm that affective dimensions of personality are independent of intelligence, yet also suggest that they might be interrelated in subtle ways, because they modulate activity in overlapping brain regions that appear to be critical for task performance.     

Dimensional emotions are represented by distinct topographical brain networks

The ability to recognize others’ facial emotions has become increasingly important after the COVID-19 pandemic, which causes stressful situations in emotion regulation. Considering the importance of emotion in maintaining a social life, emotion knowledge to perceive and label emotions of oneself and others requires an understanding of affective dimensions, such as emotional valence and emotional arousal. However, limited information is available about whether the behavioral representation of affective dimensions is similar to their neural representation. To explore the relationship between the brain and behavior in the representational geometries of affective dimensions, we constructed a behavioral paradigm in which emotional faces were categorized into geometric spaces along the valence, arousal, and valence and arousal dimensions. Moreover, we compared such representations to neural representations of the faces acquired by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found that affective dimensions were similarly represented in the behavior and brain. Specifically, behavioral and neural representations of valence were less similar to those of arousal. We also found that valence was represented in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields, precuneus, and early visual cortex, whereas arousal was represented in the cingulate gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and early visual cortex. In conclusion, the current study suggests that dimensional emotions are similarly represented in the behavior and brain and are presented with differential topographical organizations in the brain.     

Short-Term Violent Video Game Play by Adolescents Alters Prefrontal Activity During Cognitive Inhibition

Prior research has indicated an association between exposure to violent media and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior, potentially as a result of effects on inhibitory mechanisms. However, the role of violence in video games in modulating subsequent neural activity related to cognitive inhibition has received little attention. To examine short-term effects of playing a violent video game, 45 adolescents were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes immediately prior to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During the fMRI procedure, participants performed a go/no-go task that required them to press a button for each target stimulus and withhold the response for non-target stimuli. Participants who played the violent game demonstrated a lower BOLD response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when responses were appropriately inhibited. The DLPFC is involved with executive functioning, including suppression of unwanted thoughts and behaviors. In addition, responses in the DLPFC demonstrated stronger inverse connectivity with precuneus in the nonviolent game players. These results provide evidence that playing a violent video game can modulate prefrontal activity during cognitive inhibition.     

Prefrontal cortex regulates inhibition and excitation in distributed neural networks.

Prefrontal cortex provides both inhibitory and excitatory input to distributed neural circuits required to support performance in diverse tasks. Neurological patients with prefrontal damage are impaired in their ability to inhibit task-irrelevant information during behavioral tasks requiring performance over a delay. The observed enhancements of primary auditory and somatosensory cortical responses to task-irrelevant distractors suggest that prefrontal damage disrupts inhibitory modulation of inputs to primary sensory cortex, perhaps through abnormalities in a prefrontal-thalamic sensory gating system. Failure to suppress irrelevant sensory information results in increased neural noise, contributing to the deficits in decision making routinely observed in these patients. In addition to a critical role in inhibitory control of sensory flow to primary cortical regions, and tertiary prefrontal cortex also exerts excitatory input to activity in multiple sub-regions of secondary association cortex. Unilateral prefrontal damage results in multi-modal decreases in neural activity in posterior association cortex in the hemisphere ipsilateral to damage. This excitatory modulation is necessary to sustain neural activity during working memory. Thus, prefrontal cortex is able to sculpt behavior through parallel inhibitory and excitatory regulation of neural activity in distributed neural networks.     

冲动性对不同成瘾行为发展的调控及其神经机制

近年来越来越多的研究证据提示, 个体冲动性在成瘾疾患发生发展机制中具有关键作用, 可能成为成瘾行为的潜在易感标记以及早期识别和干预的重要靶点, 但冲动性对不同成瘾行为变化发展的调控机制尚不明确。项目拟综合跨成瘾谱系比较、纵向追踪设计、冲动行为干预等研究途径, 采用人格测量、神经认知、神经影像等技术, 首先比较尼古丁依赖者与网络游戏成瘾者的冲动性结构及其在前额叶–纹状体环路的结构功能改变; 然后采用混合分组设计筛选出具有高低冲动性的非成瘾青少年进行连续追踪研究, 考察冲动性对尼古丁依赖与网络游戏成瘾的预测效力; 并采用认知行为训练, 对吸烟成瘾者与网络游戏成瘾者进行冲动干预, 考察行为干预对冲动性水平及前额叶–纹状体环路功能的改变, 以及对不同成瘾行为发展的抑制后效。旨在探索冲动性作为成瘾的潜在易感标记及干预靶点的效力。     

Neural Correlates of Emotional Reactivity in Sensation Seeking

ABSTRACT— High sensation seeking has been linked to increased risk for drug abuse and other negative behavioral outcomes. This study explored the neurobiological basis of this personality trait using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). High sensation seekers (HSSs) and low sensation seekers (LSSs) viewed high- and low-arousal pictures. Comparison of the groups revealed that HSSs showed stronger fMRI responses to high-arousal stimuli in brain regions associated with arousal and reinforcement (right insula, posterior medial orbitofrontal cortex), whereas LSSs showed greater activation and earlier onset of fMRI responses to high-arousal stimuli in regions involved in emotional regulation (anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate). Furthermore, fMRI response in anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate was negatively correlated with urgency. Finally, LSSs showed greater sensitivity to the valence of the stimuli than did HSSs. These distinct neurobiological profiles suggest that HSSs exhibit neural responses consistent with an overactive approach system, whereas LSSs exhibit responses consistent with a stronger inhibitory system.     

Differential activation patterns of occipital and prefrontal cortices during motion processing: Evidence from normal and schizophrenic brains

Visual motion perception is normally mediated by neural processing in the posterior cortex. Focal damage to the middle temporal area (MT), a posterior extrastriate region, induces motion perception impairment. It is unclear, however, how more broadly distributed cortical dysfunction affects this visual behavior and its neural substrates. Schizophrenia manifests itself in a variety of behavioral and perceptual abnormalities that have proved difficult to understand through a dysfunction of any single brain system. One of these perceptual abnormalities involves impaired motion perception. Motion processing provides an opportunity to clarify the roles of multiple cortical networks in both healthy and schizophrenic brains. Using fMRI, we measured cortical activation while participants performed two visual motion tasks (direction discrimination and speed discrimination) and one nonmotion task (contrast discrimination). Normal controls showed robust cortical activation (BOLD signal changes) in MT during the direction and speed discrimination tasks, documenting primary processing of sensory input in this posterior region. In patients with schizophrenia, cortical activation was significantly reduced in MT and significantly increased in the inferior convexity of the prefrontal cortex, an area that is normally involved in higher level cognitive processing. This shift in cortical responses from posterior to prefrontal regions suggests that motion perception in schizophrenia is associated with both deficient sensory processing and compensatory cognitive processing. Furthermore, this result provides evidence that in the context of broadly distributed cortical dysfunction, the usual functional specificity of the cortex becomes modified, even across the domains of sensory and cognitive processing.     

The cognitive and neural basis of option generation and subsequent choice

Decision-making research has thoroughly investigated how people choose from a set of externally provided options. However, in ill-structured real-world environments, possible options for action are not defined by the situation but have to be generated by the agent. Here, we apply behavioral analysis (Study 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 2) to investigate option generation and subsequent choice. For this purpose, we employ a new experimental task that requires participants to generate options for simple real-world scenarios and to subsequently decide among the generated options. Correlational analysis with a cognitive test battery suggests that retrieval of options from long-term memory is a relevant process during option generation. The results of the fMRI study demonstrate that option generation in simple real-world scenarios recruits the anterior prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, we show that choice behavior and its neural correlates differ between self-generated and externally provided options. Specifically, choice between self-generated options is associated with stronger recruitment of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. This impact of option generation on subsequent choice underlines the need for an expanded model of decision making to accommodate choice between self-generated options.     

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in bipolar disorder

Abnormalities in brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during cognitive and emotional tasks have been identified in bipolar disorder patients, in frontal, subcortical and limbic regions. Several studies also indicate that mood state may be differentiated by lateralization of brain activation in fronto-limbic regions. The interpretation of fMRI studies in bipolar disorder is limited by the choice of regions of interest, medication effects, comorbidity, and task performance. These studies suggest that there is a complex alteration in regions important for neural networks underlying cognition and emotional processing in bipolar disorder. However, measuring changes in specific brain regions does not identify how these neural networks are affected. New analytical techniques of fMRI data are needed in order to resolve some of these issues and identify how changes in neural networks relate to cognitive and emotional processing in bipolar disorder.     

认知重评和表达抑制情绪调节策略的脑网络分析：来自EEG和ERP的证据

本文旨在对认知重评和表达抑制两种常用情绪调节策略的自发脑网络特征及认知神经活动进行深入探讨。研究采集36名在校大学生的静息态和任务态脑电数据, 经过源定位和图论分析发现节点效率与两种情绪调节显著相关的脑区, 以及脑区之间的功能连接。研究结果表明, 在使用认知重评进行情绪调节时会激活前额叶皮质、前扣带回、顶叶、海马旁回和枕叶等多个脑区, 在使用表达抑制进行情绪调节时会激活前额叶皮质、顶叶、海马旁回、枕叶、颞叶和脑岛等多个脑区。因此, 这些脑区的节点效率或功能连接强度可能成为评估个体使用认知重评和表达抑制调节情绪效果的指标。     

A neural predictor of cultural popularity

We use neuroimaging to predict cultural popularity — something that is popular in the broadest sense and appeals to a large number of individuals. Neuroeconomic research suggests that activity in reward-related regions of the brain, notably the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, is predictive of future purchasing decisions, but it is unknown whether the neural signals of a small group of individuals are predictive of the purchasing decisions of the population at large. For neuroimaging to be useful as a measure of widespread popularity, these neural responses would have to generalize to a much larger population that is not the direct subject of the brain imaging itself. Here, we test the possibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict the relative popularity of a common good: music. We used fMRI to measure the brain responses of a relatively small group of adolescents while listening to songs of largely unknown artists. As a measure of popularity, the sales of these songs were totaled for the three years following scanning, and brain responses were then correlated with these “future” earnings. Although subjective likability of the songs was not predictive of sales, activity within the ventral striatum was significantly correlated with the number of units sold. These results suggest that the neural responses to goods are not only predictive of purchase decisions for those individuals actually scanned, but such responses generalize to the population at large and may be used to predict cultural popularity.     

情绪加工的脑时空动态机制

本文综述了罗倩博士及其同事在近年来开展的情绪研究工作。他们通过认知行为和脑成像技术(包括fMRI、MEG), 系统考察了情绪刺激的自动化、优先加工的神经机制, 具体包括三个方面的研究内容：(1)阈下情绪加工(相对于阈上水平)的神经机制; (2)参与情绪加工的脑区之间的动态时空关系及功能联结; (3)情绪与注意之间的交互作用。     

Cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory encoding

This paper presents a cognitive neuroscientific perspective on how human episodic memories are formed. Convergent evidence from multiple brain imaging studies using positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests a role for frontal cortex in episodic memory encoding. Activity levels within frontal cortex can predict episodic memory encoding across a wide range of behavioral manipulations known to influence memory performance, such as those present during levels of processing and divided attention manipulations. Activity levels within specific frontal and medial temporal regions can even predict, on an item by item basis, whether an episodic memory is likely to form. Furthermore, separate frontal regions appear to participate in supplying code-specific information, including distinct regions which process semantic attributes of verbal information as well as right-lateralized regions which process nonverbal information. We hypothesize that activity within these multiple frontal regions provides a functional influence (input) to medical temporal regions that bind the information together into a lasting episodic memory trace.     

基本情绪的神经基础：来自fMRI与机器视觉技术研究的证据

基本情绪理论(basic emotion theory)是情绪科学领域最具代表性的理论, 该理论认为人类情绪是由有限的几种基本情绪组成的, 如恐惧、愤怒、喜悦、悲伤等。基本情绪是为了完成基本生命任务(fundamental life task)进化而来的, 每一种基本情绪都有独特的神经结构和生理基础。尽管基本情绪理论被广泛接受, 但是对于基本情绪的种类却莫衷一是。近几十年来, 许多fMRI研究试图确定各种基本情绪的独特神经结构基础, 而且取得了许多重要发现, 比如厌恶和脑岛有关, 悲伤和前扣带回有关, 杏仁核是与恐惧有关的重要边缘结构等。但是, 最近有人进行了元分析研究, 发现许多基本情绪存在混淆的大脑区域, 因此对基本情绪的特定脑区理论提出质疑, 甚至否定基本情绪理论。通过对基本情绪及其神经基础的探讨, 以及对基本情绪理论的最新功能性磁共振成像研究进行梳理分析, 提出有关基本情绪理论的争论来源于基本情绪种类的确定, 因为许多所谓的不同基本情绪实际上是同一种基本情绪, 提出人类可能只有3种基本情绪。未来研究可以利用机器视觉技术进一步推动基本情绪脑影像研究。     

Adding fear to conflict: A general purpose cognitive control network is modulated by trait anxiety

Studies of cognitive control show that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are involved in the detection and resolution of cognitive conflict. However, the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying emotional interference effects are less consistent. We used fMRI during emotional and nonemotional versions of a facial Stroop task to investigate the effects of emotional stimuli on cognitive control. In the full group there was limited evidence that different prefrontal circuits manage conflict arising from emotional and nonemotional distractors. However, individual differences in trait anxiety affected both behavioral performance and neural activity during the emotional task. Relative to low-anxiety (LA) subjects, high-anxiety (HA) subjects showed greater amygdala activity to task-relevant emotional information and impaired performance and greater conflict-related activity in the dACC when emotional content was task-irrelevant. Only LA subjects activated rostral ACC during the emotional task. This is consistent with cognitive models of individual differences that hypothesize deficient control of task-irrelevant emotional information in HA subjects. Additional behavioral and fMRI results from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals .org/content/supplemental.