Search Results (15)

Objectives: Habitual exercise has been associated with a lower risk of emotional disorders and greater emotional stability. However, it remains unclear whether the beneficial effects of habitual aerobic exercise primarily emerge during the stage of emotion elicitation or during the subsequent regulation of negative emotions. The present study examined the association of habitual aerobic exercise with the intensity of negative emotion elicitation, the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies, and patterns of prefrontal activation measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Methods: Sixty-four participants were recruited, including individuals with habitual aerobic exercise (trained group, n = 32) and those without regular exercise habits (untrained group, n = 32). Participants completed an emotion regulation task consisting of four conditions: viewing neutral images, viewing negative images, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression. The comparison between neutral and negative viewing conditions was used to assess emotional elicitation, whereas comparisons between the regulation conditions and passive viewing of negative images were used to assess emotion regulation effects. Results: Compared with the untrained group, the trained group showed a lower emotional elicitation effect, accompanied by lower right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) activation during picture viewing at a more liberal threshold. The two groups showed similar reductions in negative emotional experience during emotion regulation, whereas individuals with habitual exercise showed a trend toward lower right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) activation during expressive suppression. Conclusions: Habitual aerobic exercise is associated with greater emotional stability, characterized by reduced initial emotional reactivity during emotion elicitation. Habitual exercisers may also show more efficient neural processing, reflected in distinct prefrontal activation patterns during emotional processing and regulation, although these exploratory findings require confirmation in future research. Full article

Background: Self-controlled motor imagery combined with assistive devices is promising for enhancing neurorehabilitation. This study developed a soft, Flexible Exoskeleton (flexEXO) for finger movements and investigated whether self-controlled motor tasks facilitate stronger cortical activation than externally controlled conditions. Methods: Twenty-one healthy participants performed grasping tasks under four conditions: Self-Controlled Motion (SCC), Other-Controlled Motion (OCC), Self-Controlled Imagery Only (SCIOC), and Other-Controlled Imagery Only (OCIOC). EEG data were recorded, focusing on event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the μ and β bands during imagery and motion and event-related synchronization (ERS) in the β band during feedback. Source localization was performed using eLORETA. Results: Higher μERD and βERD were observed during self-controlled tasks, particularly in the primary motor cortex and supplementary motor area. Externally controlled tasks showed enhanced activation in the inferior parietal lobule and secondary somatosensory cortex. βERS did not differ significantly across conditions. Source localization revealed that self-controlled tasks engaged motor planning and error-monitoring regions more robustly. Conclusions: The flexEXO device and the comparison of brain activity under different conditions provide insights into the neural mechanisms of motor control and have implications for neurorehabilitation. Full article

Background: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a debilitating mental health condition characterized by emotional dysregulation and interpersonal dysfunction, with perceived social rejection exacerbating these issues. Emerging evidence suggests that a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) may decrease the unique tendency of BPD patients to feel rejected even when socially included during a laboratory task. Objectives: This protocol outlines a double-blind, sham-controlled study evaluating the longitudinal effects of repeated anodal tDCS over the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) on rejection-related emotions (RRE) during real-life social interactions in individuals with BPD. Methods: Sixty BPD patients will be randomized to receive real or sham tDCS across 10 daily sessions, coupled with an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol capturing emotional and behavioral responses to real-life social interactions over four timepoints: baseline, during treatment, ten days post-treatment, and three months post-treatment. Primary outcomes include changes in RRE, with exploratory analyses examining feelings of social connection, aggressive tendencies, trust toward others, and interpersonal and affective dynamics. Multilevel modeling will assess temporal and group-level effects. Expected Results and Impact: This study aims to establish the efficacy of tDCS in reducing BPD patients’ negative emotional response in real-life social situations and to determine whether such effects are maintained in time. The findings could advance the clinical application of tDCS as an adjunctive intervention to alleviate social–emotional impairments in BPD, addressing gaps in current treatment approaches and guiding future research into the neural mechanisms of social emotion regulation. Full article

Negative emotions can shape human visual perception, which is mainly investigated using basic emotions such as fear. Whether guilt emotion, which is a negative moral emotion originating late in our evolutionary ancestry, has similar modulatory effects as basic emotions is largely unexplored. Here, we employed a dot estimation task to induce feelings of guilt and subsequently measured the Ebbinghaus illusion strength. The photos of victims’ faces were projected on the central circle of the Ebbinghaus configuration. The results showed that guilt significantly strengthened the illusion effect relative to control condition, which was observed only for female participants playing with same-gender partners and reversed to the opposite pattern with disruption of left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that guilt can sculpt early visual perception in a gender-specific and prefrontal-dependent manner, thus broaden our understanding of guilt emotion and have implications for relevant neuropsychiatric disorders. Full article

Background: Problematic social media (SM) use is a growing concern, particularly among adolescents who are drawn to these platforms for social interactions important to their age group. SM dependence is characterized by excessive, uncontrolled usage that impairs personal, social, and professional aspects. Despite the ongoing debate over recognizing SM addiction as a distinct diagnostic category, the impact of social feedback, particularly through the “like” button, on brain activity remains under scrutiny. Objective: This systematic review aims to study the neural correlates of online social feedback, focusing on the effects of the “like” feedback on brain activity using fMRI and EEG. Methods: The review followed the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA). Results: The review included 11 studies with 504 participants, identifying key brain structures such as the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and ventral striatum involved in reward processing. Positive feedback (“likes”) activates areas like the nucleus accumbens (NACC), vmPFC, and amygdala, with NACC correlating with increased SM use intensity. Negative feedback activates the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Behavioral data indicates that positive feedback influences subsequent social interactions. Conclusions: The review highlights disparities in the literature regarding the neural response to social feedback, emphasizing the need for further research to clarify the roles of sex, personality traits, and the person giving feedback. Overall, understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of SM engagement is essential for developing effective interventions to prevent or address the negative effects of excessive SM use. Full article

Due to the current limitations of three-dimensional (3D) simulation graphics technology, mind wandering commonly occurs in virtual reality tasks, which has impeded it being applied more extensively. The right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays a vital role in executing continuous two-dimensional (2D) mental paradigms, and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over this cortical region has been shown to successfully modulate sustained 2D attention. Accordingly, we further explored the effects of electrical activation of the rVLPFC on 3D attentional tasks using anodal high-definition (HD)-tDCS. A 3D Go/No-go (GNG) task was developed to compare the after effects of real and sham brain stimulation. Specifically, GNG tasks were periodically interrupted to assess the subjective perception of attentional level, behavioral reactions were tracked and decomposed into an underlying decision cognition process, and electroencephalography data were recorded to calculate event-related potentials (ERPs) in rVLPFC. The p-values statistically indicated that HD-tDCS improved the subjective mentality, led to more cautious decisions, and enhanced neuronal discharging in rVLPFC. Additionally, the neurophysiological P300 ERP component and stimulation being active or sham could effectively predict several objective outcomes. These findings indicate that the comprehensive approach including brain stimulation, 3D mental paradigm, and cross-examined performance could significantly lengthen and robustly compare sustained 3D attention. Full article

(1) Cognitive impairments such as working memory (WM) deficits are amongst the most common dysfunctions characterizing bipolar disorder (BD) patients, severely contributing to functional impairment. We aimed to investigate WM performance and associated brain activation during the acute phase of BD and to observe changes in the same patients during remission. (2) Frontal brain activation was recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during n-back task conditions (one-back, two-back and three-back) in BD patients in their acute depressive (n = 32) and remitted (n = 15) phases as well as in healthy controls (n = 30). (3) Comparison of BD patients during their acute phase with controls showed a trend (p = 0.08) towards lower dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activation. In the remitted phase, BD patients showed lower dlPFC and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) activation (p = 0.02) compared to controls. No difference in dlPFC and vlPFC activation between BD patients’ phases was found. (4) Our results showed decreased working memory performance in BD patients during the working memory task in the acute phase of disease. Working memory performance improved in the remitted phase of the disease but was still particularly attenuated for the more demanding conditions. Full article

Background: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is effective for treating major depressive disorder (MDD). We aimed to explore the modulating effect of prolonged longitudinal taVNS on the striatal subregions’ functional connectivity (FC) in MDD patients. Methods: Sixteen MDD patients were enrolled and treated with taVNS for 8 weeks. Sixteen healthy control subjects (HCs) were recruited without intervention. The resting-state FC (rsFC) based on striatal subregion seed points and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) were evaluated in the MDD patients and HCs at baseline and after 8 weeks. A two-way ANCOVA test was performed on each rsFC metric to obtain the (group-by-time) interactions. Results: The rsFC values between the left ventral caudate (vCa) and right ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC), and between the right nucleus accumbens (NAc) and right dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) are lower in the MDD patients compared to the HCs at baseline, and increase following taVNS; the rsFC values between the left vCa and right, superior occipital gyrus (SOG), and between the left dorsal caudate (dCa) and right cuneus are higher in MDD patients and decrease following taVNS. Conclusions: Prolonged longitudinal taVNS can modulate the striatum rsFC with the prefrontal cortex, occipital cortex, temporal cortex, and intra-striatum, and these changes partly underlie any symptomatic improvements. The results indicate that prolonged longitudinal taVNS may produce beneficial treatment effects by modulating the cortical striatum circuitry in patients with MDD. Full article

Background: Mapping memory ability is highly correlated with an orienteer’s level, and spatial memory tasks of different difficulties can reveal the spatial cognitive characteristics of high-level athletes. Methods: An “expert–novice” experimental paradigm was used to monitor behavioral performance and changes in cerebral blood oxygen concentration in orienteering athletes with tasks of different difficulty and cognitive load using functional near-infrared spectroscopic imaging (fNIRS). Results: (1) there was no difference between high-/low-level athletes’ map recognition and memory abilities in the non-orienteering scenario; (2) with increasing task difficulty, both high-/low-level athletes showed significantly decreasing behavioral performance, reduced correctness, longer reaction time, and strengthened cerebral blood oxygen activation concentration. There was no significant difference in L-DLPFC cerebral oxygen concentration between high-/low-level athletes in the simple map task, and the cerebral oxygen concentration in all brain regions was lower in the expert group than in the novice group in the rest of the task difficulty levels; (3) the correctness rate in the expert group in the complex task was closely related to the activation of the right hemisphere (R-DLPFC, R-VLPFC). Conclusions: Experts have a specific cognitive advantage in map-recognition memory, showing higher task performance and lower cerebral blood oxygen activation; cognitive load constrains map-recognition memory-specific ability and produces different performance effects and brain activation changes on spatial memory processing. Full article

Cognitive conflict effects are well characterized within unimodality. However, little is known about cross-modal conflicts and their neural bases. This study characterizes the two types of visual and auditory cross-modal conflicts through working memory tasks and brain activities. The participants consisted of 31 healthy, right-handed, young male adults. The Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) and the Paced Visual Serial Addition Test (PVSAT) were performed under distractor and no distractor conditions. Distractor conditions comprised two conditions in which either the PASAT or PVSAT was the target task, and the other was used as a distractor stimulus. Additionally, oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) concentration changes in the frontoparietal regions were measured during tasks. The results showed significantly lower PASAT performance under distractor conditions than under no distractor conditions, but not in the PVSAT. Oxy-Hb changes in the bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and inferior parietal cortex (IPC) significantly increased in the PASAT with distractor compared with no distractor conditions, but not in the PVSAT. Furthermore, there were significant positive correlations between Δtask performance accuracy and ΔOxy-Hb in the bilateral IPC only in the PASAT. Visual cross-modal conflict significantly impairs auditory task performance, and bilateral VLPFC and IPC are key regions in inhibiting visual cross-modal distractors. Full article

Aggressive behaviour is at the basis of many harms in society, such as violent crime. The efforts to explain, study, and possibly reduce aggression span various disciplines, including neuroscience. The specific brain networks which are involved in the modulation of aggressive behaviour include cortical asymmetry and brain areas such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Recent non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) research suggests that both transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) can play a role in the modulation of aggressive behaviour by directly changing brain activity. In this review, we systematically explore and discuss 11 experimental studies that aimed to modulate aggressive behaviour or self-reported aggression using NIBS. Out of these 11 studies, nine significantly up- or downregulated aggression by using tDCS or cTBS targeting the DLPFC, VLPFC or VMPFC. The potential applications of these findings span both the clinical and the forensic psychological domains. However, the results are limited by the methodological heterogeneity in the aggression measures used across the studies, and by their generally small sample sizes. Future research should consider improving the localization and specificity of NIBS by employing neuro-navigational instruments and standardized scoring methods. Full article

Background: The differences in brain activity between patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy adults have been confirmed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and electroencephalography (EEG). The prefrontal lobe and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) are related to emotional regulation in patients with MDD. However, the high cost and poor time resolution of fMRI and PET limit their clinical application. Recently, researchers have used high time resolution of standardized weighted low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (swLORETA) to investigate deep brain activity. This study aimed to convert raw EEG signals into swLORETA images and explore deep brain activity in patients with MDD and healthy adults. Methods: BrainMaster EEG equipment with a 19-channel EEG cap was used to collect resting EEG data with eyes closed for 5 min. NeuroGuide software was used to remove the EEG artifacts, and the swLORETA software was used to analyze 12,700 voxels of current source density (CSD) for 139 patients with MDD and co-morbid anxiety symptoms (mean age = 43.08, SD = 13.76; 28.78% were male) and 134 healthy adults (mean age = 40.60, SD = 13.52; 34.33% were male). Deep brain activity in the frontal lobe and PCC at different frequency bands was analyzed, including delta (1–4 Hz), theta (5–7 Hz), alpha (8–11 Hz), beta (12–24 Hz), beta1 (12–14 Hz), beta2 (15–17 Hz), beta3 (18–24 Hz), and high beta (25–29 Hz). Results: There was lower delta and theta and higher beta, beta1, beta2, beta3, and high-beta activity at the prefrontal lobe (dorsal medial prefrontal cortex [dmPFC], ventral medial prefrontal cortex [vmPFC], and dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC], ventral lateral prefrontal cortex [vlPFC], orbital frontal cortex [OFC]) and PCC in MDD patients compared with healthy adults. There was no significant difference in alpha activity between the two groups. Conclusion: This study indicates brain hyperactivity in the right prefrontal lobe (dlPFC and vmPFC) and PCC in patients with MDD with co-morbid anxiety symptoms, and the dlPFC and PCC were also related to emotion regulation in MDD. Inhibiting high-beta activity or restoring delta and theta activity to the normal range in the right frontal lobe and PCC may be possible in z-score neurofeedback protocols for patients with MDD in future studies. Full article

(1) Background: Recently, a series of clinical neuroimaging studies on fibromyalgia (FM) have shown a reduction in cortical volume and abnormally high glutamate (Glu) and glutamate + glutamine (Glx) levels in regions associated with pain modulation. However, it remains unclear whether the volumetric decreases and increased Glu levels in FM are related each other. We hypothesized that higher Glu levels are related to decreases in cortical thickness (CT) and volume in FM patients. (2) Methods: Twelve females with FM and 12 matched healthy controls participated in a session of combined 3.0 Tesla structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and single-voxel MR spectroscopy focused on the thalami and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices (VLPFC). The thickness of the cortical and subcortical gray matter structures and the Glu/Cr and Glx/Cr ratios were estimated. Statistics included an independent t-test and Spearman’s test. (3) Results: The Glu/Cr ratio of the left VLPFC was negatively related to the CT of the left inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis (p = 0.01; r = −0.75) and triangularis (p = 0.01; r = −0.70)). Moreover, the Glx/Cr ratio of the left VLPFC was negatively related to the CT of the left middle anterior cingulate gyrus (p = 0.003; r = −0.81). Significantly lower CTs in FM were detected in subparts of the cingulate gyrus on both sides and in the right inferior occipital gyrus (p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: Our findings are in line with previous observations that high glutamate levels can be related, in a concentration-dependent manner, to the morphological atrophy described in FM patients. Full article

Heavy episodic drinking is prevalent among young adults and is a public issue of increasing importance. Its initiation and maintenance are associated with deficits in the capacity to inhibit automatic processing in favor of non-habitual responses. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine behavioral and brain activity indices of cognitive control during the Stroop task as a function of binge drinking. Heavy episodic drinkers (HED) reported consuming 5+/6+ drinks in two hours at least five times in the past six months and were compared to light drinkers (LED) who reported two or fewer binge episodes but were matched on demographics, intelligence and family history of alcoholism. Greater conflict-induced activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and thalamus was observed in HED participants and it was positively correlated with alcohol intake and alcohol-related harmful consequences. HEDs maintained intact accuracy but at a cost of prolonged reaction times to high-conflict trials and increased ratings of task difficulty. Greater activation of the areas implicated in cognitive control is consistent with compensatory network expansion to meet higher cognitive demands. These results provide further insight into degradation of cognitive control in HEDs which may benefit development of detection and prevention strategies. Full article

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM) manifests in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) tested during depressed (dMDD) or remitted phases (rMDD), and healthy individuals at high-risk (HR) for developing MDD. The current study aimed to elucidate differences in hemodynamic correlates of AM recall between rMDDs, HRs, and controls (HCs) to identify neural changes following previous depressive episodes without the confound of current depressed mood. HCs, HRs, and unmedicated rMDDs (n = 20/group) underwent fMRI while recalling AMs in response to emotionally valenced cue words. HRs and rMDDs recalled fewer specific and more categorical AMs relative to HCs. During specific AM recall, HRs had increased activity relative to rMDDs and HCs in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. During positive specific AM recall, HRs and HCs had increased activity relative to rMDDs in bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and left precuneus. During negative specific AM recall HRs and HCs had increased activity in left VLPFC and right DMPFC, while rMDDs had increased activity relative to HRs and HCs in right DLPFC and precuneus. Differential recruitment of medial prefrontal regions implicated in emotional control suggests experiencing a depressive episode may consequently reduce one’s ability to regulate emotional responses during AM recall. Full article