Effects of trace element dysregulation on brain structure and function in spinocerebellar Ataxia type 3.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), a neurodegenerative disorder caused by excess CAG repeats in the ATXN3 gene, leads to progressive cerebellar ataxia and other symptoms. The results of previous studies suggest that trace element dysregulation contributes to neurodegenerative disorder onset. Here, we investigated the relationships of trace element dysregulation with CAG repeat length, clinical severity, and brain structural and functional connectivity in 45 patients with SCA3 and 44 healthy controls (HCs).

Imbalanced optimal feedback motor control system in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3.

Background And Purpose: Human motor planning and control depend highly on optimal feedback control systems, such as the neocortex-cerebellum circuit. Here, diffusion tensor imaging was used to verify the disruption of the neocortex-cerebellum circuit in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), and the circuit's disruption correlation with SCA3 motor dysfunction was investigated.

Methods: This study included 45 patients with familial SCA3, aged 17-67 years, and 49 age- and sex-matched healthy controls, aged 21-64 years.

A More Female-Characterized Resting-State Brain: Graph Similarity Analyses of Sex Influence on the Human Brain Intrinsic Functional Network.

It remains unclear whether human species exhibits sexual dimorphism in brain activities, and how the dimorphisms associated with sex-characterized behaviors. Here, in a large dataset from Human Connectome Project, we investigated sex differences of resting-state network structure by using local and global network graph similarity analysis. The "typical male" and "typical female" resting-state networks were highly similar.

WITHDRAWN: Primary school math anxiety and physical and mental health using mental health risk assessment.

Ahead of Print article withdrawn by publisher.

Local and whole-network topologies reveal that pulvinar and semantic hub interactions correlate with picture vocabulary.

Evidence from cognitive neuroscience indicates that subcortical regions, especially the pulvinar region of the thalamus, are involved in semantic processing. In the current study, graph-based methods were used to investigate whether a cortical-subcortical network is involved in vocabulary processing. In addition to traditional resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analysis between local brain areas, we applied a novel method to validate the interaction between semantic network hubs and the pulvinar.

Middle temporal cortex is involved in processing fractions.

Numerous studies have examined how the brain processes numbers. However, although much attention has been paid to whole numbers, little is known about fractions, despite their pervasive use and the large number of people who have difficulty in learning them. We hypothesized that effective processing of fractions relies on conceptual knowledge.

Item-Wise Interindividual Brain-Behavior Correlation in Task Neuroimaging Analysis.

Brain-behavior correlations are commonly used to explore the associations between the brain and human behavior in cognitive neuroscience studies. There are many critics of the correlation approach, however. Most problems associated with correlation approaches originate in the weak statistical power of traditional correlation procedures (i.

The semantic system is involved in mathematical problem solving.

Numerous studies have shown that the brain regions around bilateral intraparietal cortex are critical for number processing and arithmetical computation. However, the neural circuits for more advanced mathematics such as mathematical problem solving (with little routine arithmetical computation) remain unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study (N = 24 undergraduate students) compared neural bases of mathematical problem solving (i.

Mental Numerosity Line in the Human's Approximate Number System.

Previous studies have demonstrated existence of a mental line for symbolic numbers (e.g., Arabic digits).