Resting State

Soft-mode turbulence (SMT) is a recently discovered type of spatiotemporal chaos observed in the electrohydrodynamic instability (EHD) of a nematic liquid crystal with homeotropic alignment. Its novelty is that it occurs as the first supercritical bifurcation from a stable stationary state in the weakly nonlinear regime of EHD. A particle, small compared to the characteristic length of the macroscopic flow, injected in SMT travels with random velocity similar to a particle in Brownian motion. We find that the particle trajectory exhibits anomalous Brownian motion such as pumped flight and that the macroscopic diffusion constant due to weak turbulence is about 103 times larger than the diffusion constant associated with the rest state. The stochastic properties of SMT are discussed.

EEG intrahemispheric coherences (HCohs) in the resting state in twenty-four 4 Hz frequency windows between 1 and 51 Hz were studied in 18 children with "non-verbal learning disorder" (NLD) and compared to a group of 18 children with "verbal learning disorder" (VLD). New facts were found in the NLD group. These concern hemispheric balance, expressed as left minus right (L-R) homologous HCohs: 1a). In the high frequencies (25-51 HZ) the number of long-distance HCohs, higher in the right hemisphere (RH), is lower than HCohs, which are higher in the left hemisphere (LH). A reversed interhemispheric asymmetry is seen for short distance HCohs in that band. These asymmetries are not found in the VLD group, and the tendency is even reversed. 1b). In the low frequencies (1-27 Hz) all higher HCohs are more numerous in the RH, irrespective of interelectrode distance (IED). In these bands there are no NLD-VLD group differences; 2). In NLD there is a significant inverse relat...

Muscle fatigue has been known to differentially affect the activation level of the primary motor cortices (MIs) of the brain's two hemispheres. Whether this fatigue-related decoupling influence on the motor cortical signals extends beyond the motor action to the after-fatigue-task resting state is unknown. This question can be addressed by analyzing functional connectivity (FC) of low-frequency oscillations of resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) signals of the MIs. Low-frequency oscillations (<0.08 Hz) have been detected in many fMRI studies and appear to be synchronized between functionally related areas. These patterns of FC have been shown to differ between normal and various pathological states. The purpose of this study was to examine muscle fatigue-induced resting-state interhemispheric motor cortex FC changes in healthy subjects. We hypothesized that muscle fatigue would create a temporary “disrupted state” in the brain, and would decrease resting state interhemispheric motor cortical FC. Ten healthy subjects performed repetitive unilateral handgrip contractions that induced significant muscle fatigue, with resting state fMRI data collected before and after the task. After excluding two subjects due to gross head motion, interhemispheric motor cortex FC was assessed by cross-correlating the MI fMRI signal time courses. We found that the number of significant interhemispheric correlations in the MI fMRI signals decreased significantly after the performance of the fatigue task. These results suggest that resting state interhemispheric motor cortex FC may be used as an index of recovery from fatigue.

To detect erroneous action outcomes is necessary for flexible adjustments and therefore a prerequisite of adaptive, goal-directed behavior. While performance monitoring has been studied intensively over two decades and a vast amount of knowledge on its functional neuroanatomy has been gathered, much less is known about conscious error perception, often referred to as error awareness. Here, we review and discuss the conditions under which error awareness occurs, its neural correlates and underlying functional neuroanatomy. We focus specifically on the anterior insula, which has been shown to be (a) reliably activated during performance monitoring and (b) modulated by error awareness. Anterior insular activity appears to be closely related to autonomic responses associated with consciously perceived errors, although the causality and directions of these relationships still needs to be unraveled. We discuss the role of the anterior insula in generating versus perceiving autonomic responses and as a key player in balancing effortful task-related and resting-state activity. We suggest that errors elicit reactions highly reminiscent of an orienting response and may thus induce the autonomic arousal needed to recruit the required mental and physical resources. We discuss the role of norepinephrine activity in eliciting sufficiently strong central and autonomic nervous responses enabling the necessary adaptation as well as conscious error perception.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to identify abnormal areas of regional synchronization in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampus sclerosis (mTLE-HS) compared to healthy controls, by applying a relatively novel method, the Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) method to resting state fMRI (RS-fMRI) data. METHODS: Eyes closed RS-fMRI data were acquired from 10 mTLE-HS patients (four right-side, six left-side) and 15 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects, and were analyzed by using ReHo. For group analysis, four right-side MTLE-HS patients&#39; functional images were flipped, in order to make a homogeneous left MTLE-HS group (10 cases) and increase the sample size. KEY FINDINGS: Compared to the healthy control group, patients showed significantly increased ReHo in ipsilateral parahippocampal gyrus, midbrain, insula, corpus callosum, bilateral sensorimotor cortex, and frontoparietal subcortical structures, whereas decreased ReHo was observed mainly in default...

Many meditation exercises aim at increased awareness of ongoing experiences through sustained attention and at detachment, i.e., non-engaging observation of these ongoing experiences by the intent not to analyze, judge or expect anything. Long-term meditation practice is believed to generalize the ability of increased awareness and greater detachment into everyday life. We hypothesized that neuroplasticity effects of meditation (correlates of increased awareness and detachment) would be detectable in a no-task resting state. EEG recorded during resting was compared between Qigong meditators and controls. Using LORETA (low resolution electromagnetic tomography) to compute the intracerebral source locations, differences in brain activations between groups were found in the inhibitory delta EEG frequency band. In the meditators, appraisal systems were inhibited, while brain areas involved in the detection and integration of internal and external sensory information showed increased activation. This suggests that neuroplasticity effects of long-term meditation practice, subjectively described as increased awareness and greater detachment, are carried over into non-meditating states.

The associations among personality and psychopathology scores and individually adjusted EEG spectral power measures were investigated in 195 Ss aged 7 to 37 years. Personality was assessed in Ss older than 11 years by questionnaires based on Eysenck&#x27;s and Gray&#x27;s ...

Amygdala hemodynamic responses to positive stimuli are attenuated in major depressive disorder (MDD) and normalize with remission. Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback (rtfMRI-nf) training with the goal of upregulating amygdala activity during recall of happy autobiographical memories (AMs) has been suggested, and recently explored, as a novel therapeutic approach that resulted in improvement in self-reported mood in depressed subjects. In this study, we assessed the possibility of sustained brain changes as well as the neuromodulatory effects of rtfMRI-nf training of the amygdala during recall of positive AMs in MDD and matched healthy subjects. MDD and healthy subjects went through one visit of rtfMRI-nf training. Subjects were assigned to receive active neurofeedback from the left amygdale (LA) or from a control region putatively not modulated by AM recall or emotion regulation, that is, the left horizontal segment of the intraparietal sulcus. To assess l...