Cross-modal representation of chewing food in posterior parietal and visual cortex.

Even though the oral cavity is not visible, food chewing can be performed without damaging the tongue, oral mucosa, or other intraoral parts, with cross-modal perception of chewing possibly critical for appropriate recognition of its performance. This study was conducted to clarify the relationship of chewing food cross-modal perception with cortex activities based on examinations of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and visual cortex during chewing in comparison with sham chewing without food, imaginary chewing, and rest using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Additionally, the effects of a deafferent tongue dorsum on PPC/visual cortex activities during chewing performance were examined.

Clemastine enhances exercise-induced motor improvement in hypoxic ischemic rats.

Neonatal hypoxic ischemia (HI) occurs owing to reduced cerebral oxygen levels and perfusion during the perinatal period. Brain injury after HI triggers neurological manifestations such as motor impairment, and the improvement of impaired brain function remains challenging. Recent studies suggest that cortical myelination plays a role in motor learning, but its involvement in motor improvement after HI injury is not well understood.

Difficulty with the preceding visual search affects brain activity in the following resting period.

It has been well-documented that brain regions related to a task are activated during the task performance. We investigated whether brain activity and functional connectivity during the rest period are affected by the preceding task. Participants performed visual search tasks with three search conditions, which were followed by a rest period.

Age-related effects of executive function on takeover performance in automated driving.

The development of highly automated vehicles can meet elderly drivers' mobility needs; however, worse driving performance after a takeover request (TOR) is frequently found, especially regarding non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). This study aims to detect the correlation between takeover performance and underlying cognitive factors comprising a set of higher order cognitive processes including executive functions. Thirty-five young and 35 elderly participants were tested by computerized cognitive tasks and simulated driving tasks to evaluate their executive functions and takeover performance.

Activation of Prefrontal Cortex in Process of Oral and Finger Shape Discrimination: fNIRS Study.

Background: The differences in the brain activities of the insular and the visual association cortices have been reported between oral and manual stereognosis. However, these results were not conclusive because of the inherent differences in the task performance-related motor sequence conditions. We hypothesized that the involvement of the prefrontal cortex may be different between finger and oral shape discrimination.

Putative ratios of facial attractiveness in a deep neural network.

Empirical evidence has shown that there is an ideal arrangement of facial features (ideal ratios) that can optimize the attractiveness of a person's face. These putative ratios define facial attractiveness in terms of spatial relations and provide important rules for measuring the attractiveness of a face. In this paper, we show that a deep neural network (DNN) model can learn putative ratios from face images based only on categorical annotation when no annotated facial features for attractiveness are explicitly given.

Correspondence Between Effective Connections in the Stop-Signal Task and Microstructural Correlations.

Response inhibition is considered to involve the fronto-basal ganglia circuit including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA)/SMA, subthalamic nucleus (STN), and the motor cortices, but it remains unclear whether there exists a correspondence between the anatomical and effective connections between these regions. We defined regions of interest (ROI) based on the results of our previous study, and subsequently used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), especially probabilistic fiber tractography, for the identification of white matter tracts of interest. Accordingly, we extracted the fractional anisotropy (FA) from the tracts of interest and applied data-driven hierarchical clustering to examine whether a specific pattern exists in white matter tracts.

Mental rotation ability and spontaneous brain activity: a magnetoencephalography study.

We performed experiments using magnetoencephalography to clarify the relationship between three-dimensional visuospatial abilities and spontaneous visual thinking characteristics. Subjects were divided into two groups based on the rate of correct answers to mental rotation tasks: those with good performances (Group G) and those with bad performances (Group B). We found the followings: (1) in the mental rotation tasks, the 25-35 Hz lower γ band activities in the superior parietal lobule/intraparietal sulcus regions and in the occipitotemporal region were significantly larger in Group G than in Group B and (2) in the spontaneous mental imagery tasks, the 20-Hz band activity in the left premotor cortex and the 35-Hz band activity in the supplementary motor area were significantly larger in Group G.

Causally linking neural dominance to perceptual dominance in a multisensory conflict.

When different senses are in conflict, one sense may dominate the perception of other sense, but it is not known whether the sensory cortex associated with the dominant modality exerts directional influence, at the functional brain level, over the sensory cortex associated with the dominated modality; in short, the link between sensory dominance and neuronal dominance is not established. In a task involving audio-visual conflict, using magnetoencephalography recordings in humans, we first demonstrated that the neuronal dominance - auditory cortex functionally influencing visual cortex - was associated with the sensory dominance - sound qualitatively altering visual perception. Further, we found that prestimulus auditory-to-visual connectivity could predict the perceptual outcome on a trial-by-trial basis.

Counteracting effect of verbal ratings of sleepiness on dual task interference.

The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the effect of verbal ratings on arousal in the electroencephalogram (EEG) and psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) performance. Thirty participants underwent the PVT for 40 min in three experimental conditions: (1) Rating condition, in which they verbally rated subjective sleepiness with Karolinska sleepiness scale, following pure tone sound played every 20 s during PVT, (2) No-rating condition, in which they underwent PVT with the similar sound as the Rating experiment but without the verbal rating task, and (3) Control condition, in which they underwent PVT with a no-sound stimulus and without the verbal rating task. The results show that during the first half of the task epoch, alpha power density was lower in the Rating than in the No-rating condition, while performance was not different between the conditions.

Prefrontal Consolidation and Compensation as a Function of Wearing Denture in Partially Edentulous Elderly Patients.

Background: The cognitive effects of wearing a denture are not well understood. This study was conducted to clarify the effects of denture use on prefrontal and chewing muscle activities, occlusal state, and subjective chewing ability in partially edentulous elderly individuals.

Methods: A total of 16 partially edentulous patients were enrolled.

Altered visual character and object recognition in Japanese-speaking adolescents with developmental dyslexia.

Many studies have confirmed a brain dysfunction in people with developmental dyslexia (DD) in certain brain regions, including the left superior temporal gyrus and the left fusiform gyrus. However, the neurobiological substrates in Japanese-speaking people with dyslexia are not fully understood, mostly due to the uniqueness of the orthographic systems. Since a substantial part of the written Japanese includes the logographic Kanji as well as the phonographic Kana systems, the reading disability might be caused not only by a dysfunction in the phonological system, but also by a dysfunction in the visual recognition system.

Common Neural Network for Different Functions: An Investigation of Proactive and Reactive Inhibition.

Successful behavioral inhibition involves both proactive and reactive inhibition, allowing people to prepare for restraining actions, and cancel their actions if the response becomes inappropriate. In the present study, we utilized the stop-signal paradigm to examine whole-brain contrasts and functional connectivity for proactive and reactive inhibition. The results of our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data analysis show that the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the supplementary motor area (SMA), the subthalamic nucleus (STN), and the primary motor cortex (M1) were activated by both proactive and reactive inhibition.

Hearing own or other's name has different effects on monotonous task performance.

We examined the effect of hearing two types of self-relevant words, one's own name and the name of others, on vigilant attention, arousal, and subjective sleepiness during performing the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT). Participants performed the PVT under three experimental conditions, (a) hearing own full name (high self-relevant condition), (b) hearing other's name (low self- relevant condition) and (c) the control condition with no stimuli. Participants heard the names every 20 sec.

Prefrontal modulation during chewing performance in occlusal dysesthesia patients: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Objectives: Neuropsychological associations can be considerable in occlusal dysesthesia (OD) patients who routinely complain of persistent occlusal discomfort, and somatization effects in the superior medial prefrontal cortex and the temporal and parietal regions are also present. However, the relationship between physical activity, i.e.

Interactive effects of visuomotor perturbation and an afternoon nap on performance and the flow experience.

The present study was designed (1) to clarify the relationship between the flow experience and improvements in visuomotor skills, (2) to examine the effects of rotating the axis of a computer mouse on visuomotor skills, and (3) to investigate the effects of sleep for improving visuomotor skills. Participants (N = 18) responded to Perturbation and nap (PER+Nap), No-perturbation and nap (NoPER+Nap) and Perturbation and rest (PER+Rest) conditions. In the PER+Nap condition, participants conducted a visuomotor tracking task using a computer mouse, which was accompanied by perturbation caused by rotating the axis of their mouse.

Temporal prediction modulates the evaluative processing of "good" action feedback: An electrophysiological study.

The present study aimed to investigate whether or not the evaluative processing of action feedback can be modulated by temporal prediction. For this purpose, we examined the effects of the predictability of the timing of action feedback on an ERP effect that indexed the evaluative processing of action feedback, that is, an ERP effect that has been interpreted as a feedback-related negativity (FRN) elicited by "bad" action feedback or a reward positivity (RewP) elicited by "good" action feedback. In two types of experimental blocks, the participants performed a gambling task in which they chose one of two cards and received an action feedback that indicated monetary gain or loss.

Improved Prefrontal Activity and Chewing Performance as Function of Wearing Denture in Partially Edentulous Elderly Individuals: Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of wearing a denture on prefrontal activity during chewing performance. We specifically examined that activity in 12 elderly edentulous subjects [63.1±6.

Brain activities of visual thinkers and verbal thinkers: A MEG study.

In this study we measured activation patterns in the primary visual cortex and the frontal language areas and compared them in individuals with strong and weak capacities to mentally visualize information during spontaneous thinking. Subjects were first administered a 5-item questionnaire to assess their ability to create mental pictures, and were divided into two groups (strong and weak visualizers) on this basis. They then performed tasks requiring visual imagery and verbal recollection, and their local neural activities were measured, using magnetoencephalography (MEG).

Latency of modality-specific reactivation of auditory and visual information during episodic memory retrieval.

This study used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine the latency of modality-specific reactivation in the visual and auditory cortices during a recognition task to determine the effects of reactivation on episodic memory retrieval. Nine right-handed healthy young adults participated in the experiment. The experiment consisted of a word-encoding phase and two recognition phases.

Does shape discrimination by the mouth activate the parietal and occipital lobes? - near-infrared spectroscopy study.

A cross-modal association between somatosensory tactile sensation and parietal and occipital activities during Braille reading was initially discovered in tests with blind subjects, with sighted and blindfolded healthy subjects used as controls. However, the neural background of oral stereognosis remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated whether the parietal and occipital cortices are activated during shape discrimination by the mouth using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Electrophysiological measurement of interest during walking in a simulated environment.

A reliable neuroscientific technique for objectively estimating the degree of interest in a real environment is currently required in the research fields of neuroergonomics and neuroeconomics. Toward the development of such a technique, the present study explored electrophysiological measures that reflect an observer's interest in a nearly-real visual environment. Participants were asked to walk through a simulated shopping mall and the attractiveness of the shopping mall was manipulated by opening and closing the shutters of stores.

Coherent Activity in Bilateral Parieto-Occipital Cortices during P300-BCI Operation.

The visual P300 brain-computer interface (BCI), a popular system for electroencephalography (EEG)-based BCI, uses the P300 event-related potential to select an icon arranged in a flicker matrix. In earlier studies, we used green/blue (GB) luminance and chromatic changes in the P300-BCI system and reported that this luminance and chromatic flicker matrix was associated with better performance and greater subject comfort compared with the conventional white/gray (WG) luminance flicker matrix. To highlight areas involved in improved P300-BCI performance, we used simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings and showed enhanced activities in bilateral and right lateralized parieto-occipital areas.

Oxidative stress is involved in fatigue induced by overnight deskwork as assessed by increase in plasma tocopherylhydroqinone and hydroxycholesterol.

In this study, we examined the relationship between fatigue and plasma concentrations of antioxidants and lipid peroxidation products. Fourteen healthy volunteers performed overnight desk work for 18h then took a nap for 4h. Participants answered questionnaires of subjective symptoms of fatigue (QSSF) and completed a self-assessment of fatigue using a visual analog scale (VAS).

Induced gamma-band brain responses to direct eye contact in the frontal and parietal cortices.

We used simultaneous recordings of the neuromagnetic (MEG) and electrooculogram (EOG) recordings on a pair of directly facing subjects, i.e., the sender and the observer of the eye gaze, to measure changes in the spontaneous brain activities while the observer perceives changes in eye gaze direction of the sender.