Psychometric Evaluation of Cognitive and Positive Valence Tasks Chosen for the NIMH Research Domain Criteria Project.

The NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative seeks to utilize multidimensional patterns of socio-cognitive behavior to improve understanding of mental illness. We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a subset of RDoC tasks. Specifically, we investigated two positive valence tasks and five cognitive tasks.

Intrinsic Infant Hippocampal Function Supports Inhibitory Processing.

Impaired cerebral inhibition is commonly observed in neurodevelopmental disorders and may represent a vulnerability factor for their development. The hippocampus plays a key role in inhibition among adults and undergoes significant and rapid changes during early brain development. Therefore, the structure represents an important candidate region for early identification of pathology that is relevant to inhibitory dysfunction.

Hierarchical Principal Components for Data-Driven Multiresolution fMRI Analyses.

Understanding the organization of neural processing is a fundamental goal of neuroscience. Recent work suggests that these systems are organized as a multiscale hierarchy, with increasingly specialized subsystems nested inside general processing systems. Current neuroimaging methods, such as independent component analysis (ICA), cannot fully capture this hierarchy since they are limited to a single spatial scale.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of headache: Issues, best-practices, and new directions, a narrative review.

Objective: To ensure readers are informed consumers of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research in headache, to outline ongoing challenges in this area of research, and to describe potential considerations when asked to collaborate on fMRI research in headache, as well as to suggest future directions for improvement in the field.

Background: Functional MRI has played a key role in understanding headache pathophysiology, and mapping networks involved with headache-related brain activity have the potential to identify intervention targets. Some investigators have also begun to explore its use for diagnosis.

Sex Differences in Effects of Mood, Eating-Related Behaviors, and BMI on Food Appeal and Desire to Eat: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

Although sex differences in food intake have been observed consistently, contributing factors are not well understood. Using a cross-sectional online survey ( = 306; 151 men, 155 women), this study aimed to assess how sex impacts relationships between food ratings (appeal/desire to eat for high-calorie (HC) and low-calorie (LC) food images) and eating-related attitudes/behaviors, body mass index (BMI), and mood. Across participants, increased state- and trait-based hunger, disinhibition, and cravings were associated with both increased HC appeal and desire ( < 0.

Hippocampal, basal ganglia and olfactory connectivity contribute to cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease.

Cognitive impairment is increasingly recognized as a characteristic feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), yet relatively little is known about its underlying neurobiology. Previous investigations suggest that dementia in PD is associated with subcortical atrophy, but similar studies in PD with mild cognitive impairment have been mixed. Variability in cognitive phenotypes and diversity of PD symptoms suggest that a common neuropathological origin results in a multitude of impacts within the brain.

Appetitive and Metabolic Responses to an Exercise versus Dietary Intervention in Adults with Obesity.

Introduction/purpose: Dietary restriction (DIET) and aerobic exercise (AEX) interventions may impact energy balance differently. Our aim was to describe the effects of weight loss interventions via DIET or AEX on measures of energy balance.

Methods: Adults with overweight or obesity were randomized to 12 weeks of DIET or AEX with similar calorie deficit goals.

An implicit priming intervention alters brain and behavioral responses to high-calorie foods: a randomized controlled study.

Background: Conditioned food cues (e.g., smell, sight) can affect intake of foods associated with those cues, regardless of homeostatic need.

Spike-Associated Networks Predict Postsurgical Outcomes in Children With Refractory Epilepsy.

Purpose: Up to half of the children undergoing epilepsy surgery will continue to have seizures (szs) despite a cortical resection or ablation. Functional connectivity has shown promise in better identifying the epileptogenic zone. We hypothesized that cortical areas showing high information outflow during interictal epileptiform discharges are part of the epileptogenic zone.

Stable Meta-Networks, Noise, and Artifacts in the Human Connectome: Low- to High-Dimensional Independent Components Analysis as a Hierarchy of Intrinsic Connectivity Networks.

Connectivity within the human connectome occurs between multiple neuronal systems-at small to very large spatial scales. Independent component analysis (ICA) is potentially a powerful tool to facilitate multi-scale analyses. However, ICA has yet to be fully evaluated at very low (10 or fewer) and ultra-high dimensionalities (200 or greater).

Effects of Exercise during Weight Loss Maintenance on Appetite Regulation in Women.

Exercise is accepted as a method to improve weight loss maintenance; however, the mechanisms by which this occurs have yet to be elucidated. In this pilot study, 13 women with obesity underwent a structured weight loss program (goal 8%-10% weight loss) and were then randomized to either a 12-wk diet ( = 7) or an aerobic exercise training ( = 6) intervention aimed at maintaining weight loss. At baseline, post-weight loss, and following the weight loss maintenance interventions, measurements of appetite (hunger and satiety) and appetite-regulating hormones (leptin, ghrelin, peptide tyrosine tyrosine, and glucagon-like peptide 1) were obtained after an overnight fast and for 3 h after a standardized test meal.

Altered between-network connectivity in individuals prone to obesity.

Objective: Investigating intrinsic brain functional connectivity may help identify the neurobiology underlying cognitive patterns and biases contributing to obesity propensity. To address this, the current study used a novel whole-brain, data-driven approach to examine functional connectivity differences in large-scale network interactions between obesity-prone (OP) and obesity-resistant (OR) individuals.

Methods: OR (N = 24) and OP (N = 25) adults completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during rest.

In Utero Exposure to Maternal Overweight or Obesity is Associated with Altered Offspring Brain Function in Middle Childhood.

Objective: The impact of in utero exposure to maternal overweight and obesity on offspring metabolic health is well documented. Neurodevelopmental outcomes among these children are, however, less well studied. To address this gap, the current study investigated brain function among 4- to 6-year-old children exposed to maternal overweight or obesity during gestation compared with that of children born to mothers with healthy BMI in pregnancy.

Spike-associated networks and intracranial electrographic findings.

Functional connectivity is providing new insights into the network nature of epilepsy with growing clinical applications. Our objective was to validate a novel magnetoencephalography-based method to non-invasively measure the epileptic network. We retrospectively identified pediatric and adult patients with refractory focal epilepsy who underwent pre-surgical magnetoencephalography with subsequent intracranial electrographic monitoring.

Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms are Associated with Connectivity Between Large-Scale Neural Networks and Brain Regions Involved in Social Processing.

The neurobiology of autism spectrum disorder remains poorly understood. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the relationship between functional brain connectivity and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores using publicly available data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) database (N = 107). This relationship was tested across all brain voxels, without a priori assumptions, using a novel statistical approach.

Hemodynamic responses are abnormal in isolated cervical dystonia.

Neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation levels, are advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of dystonia. Neurobiological disturbances in dystonia, however, may affect neurovascular coupling and impact the interpretability of fMRI studies. We evaluated here whether the hemodynamic response patterns during a behaviorally matched motor task are altered in isolated cervical dystonia (CD).

The epileptic network and cognition: What functional connectivity is teaching us about the childhood epilepsies.

Our objective was to summarize and evaluate the rapidly expanding body of literature studying functional connectivity in childhood epilepsy. In the self-limited childhood epilepsies, awareness of cognitive comorbidities has been steadily increasing, and recent advances in our understanding of the network effects of these disorders promise insights into the underlying neurobiology. We reviewed publications addressing functional connectivity in children with epilepsy with an emphasis on studies of children with self-limited childhood epilepsies.

Association of Working Memory With Distributed Executive Control Networks in Schizophrenia.

Objective: Working memory impairments represent a core cognitive deficit in schizophrenia, predictive of patients' daily functioning, and one that is unaffected by current treatments. To address this, working memory is included in the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), a standardized cognitive battery designed to facilitate drug development targeting cognitive symptoms. However, the neurobiology underlying these deficits in MCCB working memory is currently unknown, mirroring the poor understanding in general of working memory deficits in schizophrenia.

Comparison of surgical versus diet-induced weight loss on appetite regulation and metabolic health outcomes.

Bariatric surgery is associated with significant and sustained weight loss and improved metabolic outcomes. It is unclear if weight loss alone is the main mechanism of improved metabolic health. The purpose of this trial was to compare indices of appetite regulation, insulin sensitivity and energy intake (EI) between participants achieving 10 kg of weight loss via Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) or dietary restriction (DIET); intake of a very low calorie liquid diet (800 kcal/d; 40% protein, 40% fat, 20% carbohydrate that matched the post-RYGB dietary protocol).

Kernel machine tests of association between brain networks and phenotypes.

Applications of quantitative network analysis to functional brain connectivity have become popular in the last decade due to their ability to describe the general topological principles of brain networks. However, many issues arise when standard statistical analysis techniques are applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) connectivity maps. Frequently, summary measures of these maps, such as global efficiency and clustering coefficients, collapse the changing structures of graph topology from many scales to one.