The Neural Architecture of General Knowledge

Cognitive performance varies widely between individuals and is highly influenced by structural and functional properties of the brain. In the past, neuroscientific research was principally concerned with fluid intelligence, while neglecting its equally important counterpart crystallized intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is defined as the depth and breadth of knowledge and skills that are valued by one's culture. The accumulation of crystallized intelligence is guided by information storage capacities and is likely to be reflected in an individual's level of general knowledge. In spite of the significant role general knowledge plays for everyday life, its neural foundation largely remains unknown. In a large sample of 324 healthy individuals, we used standard magnetic resonance imaging along with functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to examine different estimates of brain volume and brain network connectivity and assessed their predictive power with regard to both general knowledge and fluid intelligence. Our results demonstrate that an individual's level of general knowledge is associated with structural brain network connectivity beyond any confounding effects exerted by age or sex. Moreover, we found fluid intelligence to be best predicted by cortex volume in male subjects and functional network connectivity in female subjects. Combined, these findings potentially indicate different neural architectures for information storage and information processing. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Altered lateralization of dorsal language tracts in 6‐week‐old infants at risk for autism

Altered structural connectivity has been identified as a possible biomarker of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in the developing brain. Core features of ASD include impaired social communication and early language delay. Thus, examining white matter tracts associated with language may lend further insight into early signs of ASD risk and the mechanisms that underlie language impairments associated with the disorder. Evidence of altered structural connectivity has previously been detected in 6‐month‐old infants at high familial risk for developing ASD. However, as language processing begins in utero, differences in structural connectivity between language regions may be present in the early infant brain shortly after birth. Here we investigated key white matter pathways of the dorsal language network in 6‐week‐old infants at high (HR) and low (LR) risk for ASD to identify atypicalities in structural connectivity that may predict altered developmental trajectories prior to overt language delays and the onset of ASD symptomatology. Compared to HR infants, LR infants showed higher fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF); in contrast, in the right SLF, HR infants showed higher FA than LR infants. Additionally, HR infants showed more rightward lateralization of the SLF. Across both groups, measures of FA and lateralization of these pathways at 6 weeks of age were related to later language development at 18 months of age as well as ASD symptomatology at 36 months of age. These findings indicate that early differences in the structure of language pathways may provide an early predictor of future language development and ASD risk.     

互联网连接性降低自主性的机制与后效

万物可互联了, 时间却稀缺了, 情感也耗竭了。把这三种现实工作中的趋势关联起来的关键概念是自主性：员工不能自主控制工作时间引发时间稀缺和情感耗竭。过往研究认为, 在一般情景中, 互联网连接性会增加自主性。但是, 当处于一种不对称的权力依赖关系中时, 互联网连接性反而会降低自主性。借助权力依赖理论, 相对依赖性和家长式领导监控氛围是逆转互联网连接性增强自主性的关键条件。通过引入权力依赖理论, 从一个新颖的视角探讨互联网连接性降低自主性的作用机制及其后效, 所构建的理论模型挑战了以往文献中互联网连接性增加自主性的主流理论观点, 也为互联网连接性环境下的自主性问题构建了一个新的理论基础。     

Relations between dynamics of parent-infant interactions and baseline EEG functional connectivity

Parent-infant interactions are one of the most critical and enduring aspects of infants’ experience. Qualities of parent-infant interactions are related to social-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes, yet how parent-infant interactions shape the functional organization of the brain is only beginning to be understood. Functional connectivity provides information about how brain regions communicate. Patterns of functional connectivity, thus far understudied in infants, have emerged as markers of abnormalities in the organization of the brain in at-risk infants as well as individuals with neurodevelopmetnal and neurodegenerative disorders. The current study sought to inform our understanding of relations between qualities of parent-infant interactions and functional connectivity. We report relations between responsiveness, reciprocity, and emotional tone and functional connectivity in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma in infants ranging from 6 to 11 month of age (N = 51). Results showed frontal-posterior connectivity in theta was inversely related to all three dimensions of parent-infant interactions. Gamma and alpha connectivity were positively associated with responsiveness and emotional tone, respectively. Results are discussed in the context of the experience-dependent nature of brain development, emphasizing how parent-infant interactions might be leveraged to structure early organization of the brain to foster healthy social-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes.     

人脑自适应多尺度功能连接的性别差异

已有脑成像研究展示了男女脑功能差异, 但功能磁共振信号的频率划分通常基于主观经验, 使脑功能性别差异的生物学解释遭遇瓶颈。本文提出人脑自适应多尺度功能连接算法, 刻画功能连接的时空多尺度特性, 揭示出0.06~0.10 Hz的性别差异：男性较强的连接主要与边缘网络和腹侧注意网络有关, 女性较强的连接主要与腹侧注意网络、视觉网络和额顶网络有关。     

The Biological Function Paradigm Applied to the Immunological Self-Non-Self Discrimination: Critique of Tauber's Phenomenological Analysis

Biological self reference idioms in brain-centered or nervous-system-centered self determination of the consious Self reveal an interesting contrast with biological self-determination by immunological self/non-self discrimination. This contrast is both biological and epistemological. In contrast to the consciousness conscious of itself, the immunological self-determination imposes a protective mechanism against self-recognition (Coutinho et al. 1984), which adds to a largely unconscious achievement of the biological Self (Popper 1977; Medawar 1959). The latter viewpoint is in contrast with the immunological Self-determination as an essentially cognitive process as expressed in the analysis of Tauber (1994). Comparison of the immune system in vertebrates and invertebrates, according to new biological insights, has contributed to a better understanding of the relative role of innate (or inherited) immunity versus immunity acquired during each individual life. Also in this respect, immunological self-achievement shows both a striking analogy and a fundamental discrepancy with the activity of the nervous system. The analysis of immunological Self/non-self discrimination versus brain-centered self-determination adds to the understanding of the function paradigm in biological self-reference idioms, especially when regarding the importance of the connectivity notion in both systems. Adopting functional explanatory schemes for understanding immunological self-non-self discrimination, as well as for the understanding of functional mapping of the brain at (conscious) activity (Friston et al. 1993; Frith et al. 1995), forwards the notion of effective/functional connectivity. Network connectivity not only is a primary question in solving the dimensionality question for immunological ‘idiotypic networks’ (Jerne 1974a, b; 1984), it may also have an important value in describing phase transitions in the development of both immune and nervous systems. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

反刍思维的脑功能网络机制

反刍思维是指个体在经历了消极生活事件后不由自主地反复思考该事件的产生原因、经过和结果, 表现出负性自我参照加工、消极情绪性以及持续性的特点。采用脑功能网络分析方法, 研究者发现反刍思维的上述三个特点分别与默认网络内部的异常活动模式、突显网络功能连接的改变以及注意相关网络之间的异常耦合有关。未来研究应进一步明确反刍思维与相关脑网络活动之间的因果关系, 探究反刍思维脑功能网络的结构基础, 同时也应关注反刍思维及其脑网络的老龄化特征, 并致力于探索有效干预反刍思维的神经调控技术。     

Effects of motor intention on the perception of somatosensory events: A behavioural and functional magnetic resonance imaging study

The intention to execute a movement can modulate our perception of sensory events, and this modulation is observed ahead of both ocular and upper limb movements. However, theoretical accounts of these effects, and also the empirical data, are often contradictory. Accounts of “active touch”, and the premotor theory of attention, have emphasized how movement intention leads to enhanced perceptual processing at the target of a movement, or on the to-be-moved effector. By contrast, recent theories of motor control emphasize how internal “forward” model (FM) estimates may be used to cancel or attenuate sensory signals that arise as a result of self-generated movements. We used behavioural and functional brain imaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) to investigate how perception of a somatosensory stimulus differed according to whether it was delivered to a hand that was about to execute a reaching movement or the alternative, nonmoving, hand. The results of our study demonstrate that a somatosensory stimulus delivered to a hand that is being prepared for movement is perceived to have occurred later than when that same stimulus is delivered to a nonmoving hand. This result indicates that it takes longer for a tactile stimulus to be detected when it is delivered to a moving limb and may correspond to a change in perceptual threshold. Our behavioural results are paralleled by the results of our fMRI study that demonstrated that there were significantly reduced blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses within the parietal operculum and insula following somatosensory stimulation of the hand being prepared for movement, compared to when an identical stimulus was delivered to a nonmoving hand. These findings are consistent with the prediction of FM accounts of motor control that postulate that central sensory suppression of somatosensation accompanies self-generated limb movements, and with previous reports indicating that effects of sensory suppression are observed in higher order somatosensory regions.