Neural Modulation Alteration to Positive and Negative Emotions in Depressed Patients: Insights from fMRI Using Positive/Negative Emotion Atlas.

Background: Although it has been noticed that depressed patients show differences in processing emotions, the precise neural modulation mechanisms of positive and negative emotions remain elusive. FMRI is a cutting-edge medical imaging technology renowned for its high spatial resolution and dynamic temporal information, making it particularly suitable for the neural dynamics of depression research.

Methods: To address this gap, our study firstly leveraged fMRI to delineate activated regions associated with positive and negative emotions in healthy individuals, resulting in the creation of the positive emotion atlas (PEA) and the negative emotion atlas (NEA).

Delineating Region-Specific contributions and connectivity patterns for semantic association and categorization through ROI and Granger causality analysis.

The neural mechanisms supporting semantic association and categorization are examined in this study. Semantic association involves linking concepts through shared themes, events, or scenes, while semantic categorization organizes meanings hierarchically based on defining features. Twenty-three adults participated in an fMRI study performing categorization and association judgment tasks.

Lifespan developmental changes in neural substrates and functional connectivity for visual semantic processing.

Human learning and cognitive functions change with age and experience, with late-developed complex cognitive functions, particularly those served by the prefrontal cortex, showing more age-dependent variance. Reading as a complex process of constructing meaning from print uses the left prefrontal cortex and may show a similar aging pattern. In this study, we delineated the lifespan developmental changes in the neural substrates and functional connectivity for visual semantic processing from childhood (age 6) to late adulthood (age 74).

Functional connectivity during orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing of Chinese characters identifies distinct visuospatial and phonosemantic networks.

While neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions associated with single word reading, its three constituents, namely, orthography, phonology, and meaning, and the functional connectivity of their networks remain underexplored. This study examined the neurocognitive underpinnings of these neural activations and functional connectivity of the identified brain regions using a within-subject design. Thirty-one native Mandarin speakers performed orthographic, phonological, and semantic judgment tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Is phonological deficit a necessary or sufficient condition for Chinese reading disability?

While phonological skills have been found to be correlated with reading across different writing systems, recent findings have shown that developmental dyslexia in Chinese individuals has multiple deficits, and no single factor has ever been identified as crucial for learning this writing system. To examine whether a deficit in the phonological or another cognitive domain is a necessary or sufficient condition for Chinese reading disability, this study examined the cognitive profiles of 521 good readers and 502 dyslexic readers in Chinese primary schools using a battery of behavioral measures covering phonological, visual, orthographic, visual-motor coordination and working memory skills. The results showed that among all cognitive measures, phonological skills correlated more strongly with character reading performance but that poor phonological skills did not necessarily or sufficiently lead to poor reading performance in Chinese.

Intracranial recording in patients with aphasia using nanomaterial-based flexible electronics: promises and challenges.

In recent years, researchers have studied how nanotechnology could enhance neuroimaging techniques. The application of nanomaterial-based flexible electronics has the potential to advance conventional intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) by utilising brain-compatible soft nanomaterials. The resultant technique has significantly high spatial and temporal resolution, both of which enhance the localisation of brain functions and the mapping of dynamic language processing.

A Heteromodal Word-Meaning Binding Site in the Visual Word Form Area under Top-Down Frontoparietal Control.

The integral capacity of human language together with semantic memory drives the linkage of words and their meaning, which theoretically is subject to cognitive control. However, it remains unknown whether, across different language modalities and input/output formats, there is a shared system in the human brain for word-meaning binding and how this system interacts with cognitive control. Here, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment based on a large cohort of subjects (50 females, 50 males) to comprehensively measure the brain responses evoked by semantic processing in spoken and written word comprehension and production tasks (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

A Lifespan fMRI Study of Neurodevelopment Associated with Reading Chinese.

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the neural systems involved in reading Chinese in 125 participants 6-74 years old to examine two theoretical issues: how brain structure and function are related in the context of the lifetime neural development of human cognition and whether the neural network for reading is universal or different across languages. Our findings showed that a common network of left frontal and occipital regions typically involved in reading Chinese was recruited across all participants. Crucially, activation in left mid-inferior frontal regions, fusiform and striate-extrastriate sites, premotor cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral insula, and supplementary motor area all showed linearly decreasing changes with age.

Differential impacts of different keyboard inputting methods on reading and writing skills.

Nowadays, typewriting has become an important mode of written communication. A report that typewriting may hinder Chinese children's reading development has sparked substantial concern about whether typing on electronic devices would increase the rate of reading disorders, wherein children used a pronunciation-based input system that associates alphabet letters with phonemes in standard Chinese (Putonghua) and may conflict with the traditional visuomotor-based learning processes for written Chinese. If orthographic-based input methods that require good awareness of the orthographic structure of characters are used, different outcomes might be observed.

Abnormal neural response to phonological working memory demands in persistent developmental stuttering.

Persistent developmental stuttering is a neurological disorder that commonly manifests as a motor problem. Cognitive theories, however, hold that poorly developed cognitive skills are the origins of stuttering. Working memory (WM), a multicomponent cognitive system that mediates information maintenance and manipulation, is known to play an important role in speech production, leading us to postulate that the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying stuttering may be associated with a WM deficit.

A Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Mathematics Ability.

Mathematics ability is a complex cognitive trait with polygenic heritability. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) has been an effective approach to investigate genetic components underlying mathematic ability. Although previous studies reported several candidate genetic variants, none of them exceeded genome-wide significant threshold in general populations.

The role of anxiety in stuttering: Evidence from functional connectivity.

Persistent developmental stuttering is a neurologically based speech disorder associated with cognitive-linguistic, motor and emotional abnormalities. Previous studies investigating the relationship between anxiety and stuttering have yielded mixed results, but it has not yet been examined whether anxiety influences brain activity underlying stuttering. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the functional connectivity associated with state anxiety in a syllable repetition task, and trait anxiety during rest in adults who stutter (N=19) and fluent controls (N=19).

Chinese Character and English Word processing in children's ventral occipitotemporal cortex: fMRI evidence for script invariance.

Learning to read is thought to involve the recruitment of left hemisphere ventral occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) by a process of "neuronal recycling", whereby object processing mechanisms are co-opted for reading. Under the same theoretical framework, it has been proposed that the visual word form area (VWFA) within OTC processes orthographic stimuli independent of culture and writing systems, suggesting that it is universally involved in written language. However, this "script invariance" has yet to be demonstrated in monolingual readers of two different writing systems studied under the same experimental conditions.

Altered functional connectivity in persistent developmental stuttering.

Persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) is a speech disorder that impairs communication skills. Despite extensive research, the core causes of PDS are elusive. Converging evidence from task-induced neuroimaging methods has demonstrated the contributions of the basal ganglia and the cerebellum to PDS, but such task-state neuroimaging findings are often confounded by behavioral performance differences between subjects who stutter and normal controls.

Association study of stuttering candidate genes GNPTAB, GNPTG and NAGPA with dyslexia in Chinese population.

Background: Dyslexia is a polygenic speech and language disorder characterized by an unexpected difficulty in reading in children and adults despite normal intelligence and schooling. Increasing evidence reveals that different speech and language disorders could share common genetic factors. As previous study reported association of GNPTAB, GNPTG and NAGPA with stuttering, we investigated these genes with dyslexia through association analysis.

Association study of developmental dyslexia candidate genes DCDC2 and KIAA0319 in Chinese population.

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is characterized by difficulties in reading and spelling independent of intelligence, educational backgrounds and neurological injuries. Increasing evidences supported DD as a complex genetic disorder and identified four DD candidate genes namely DYX1C1, DCDC2, KIAA0319 and ROBO1. As such, DCDC2 and KIAA0319 are located in DYX2, one of the most studied DD susceptibility loci.

Stuttering candidate genes DRD2 but not SLC6A3 is associated with developmental dyslexia in Chinese population.

Background: Dyslexia is a polygenic developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in reading and spelling despite normal intelligence, educational backgrounds and perception. Increasing evidences indicated that dyslexia may share similar genetic mechanisms with other speech and language disorders. We proposed that stuttering candidate genes, DRD2 and SLC6A3, might be associated with dyslexia.

China's language input system in the digital age affects children's reading development.

Written Chinese as a logographic system was developed over 3,000 y ago. Historically, Chinese children have learned to read by learning to associate the visuo-graphic properties of Chinese characters with lexical meaning, typically through handwriting. In recent years, however, many Chinese children have learned to use electronic communication devices based on the pinyin input method, which associates phonemes and English letters with characters.

Activity levels in the left hemisphere caudate-fusiform circuit predict how well a second language will be learned.

How second language (L2) learning is achieved in the human brain remains one of the fundamental questions of neuroscience and linguistics. Previous neuroimaging studies with bilinguals have consistently shown overlapping cortical organization of the native language (L1) and L2, leading to a prediction that a common neurobiological marker may be responsible for the development of the two languages. Here, by using functional MRI, we show that later skills to read in L2 are predicted by the activity level of the fusiform-caudate circuit in the left hemisphere, which nonetheless is not predictive of the ability to read in the native language.

Lateralization of the arcuate fasciculus and its differential correlation with reading ability between young learners and experienced readers: a diffusion tensor tractography study in a Chinese cohort.

As Chinese reading engages a different neural network from alphabetic language reading, we investigate whether leftward lateralization of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), as observed in the Western population, is also present in the Chinese population and if it does, whether it is associated with better reading ability. Diffusion tensor tractography analysis on 75 Chinese subjects of three age groups (first graders, fourth graders, and college students) showed that 70-83% of them had leftward lateralization of the AF. The pattern of lateralization did not differ significantly among the three groups, suggesting that lateralization of the AF is formed at an early age and before one enters first grade.

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by the co-existence of visuospatial and phonological disorders in Chinese children.

Developmental dyslexia is a neurological condition that is characterized by severe impairment in reading skill acquisition in people with adequate intelligence and typical schooling. For English readers, reading impairment is critically associated with a phonological processing disorder, which may co-occur with an orthographic (visual word form) processing deficit, but not with a general visual processing dysfunction in most dyslexics. The pathophysiology of dyslexia varies across languages: for instance, unlike English, written Chinese maps visually intricate graphic forms (characters) onto meanings; pronunciation of Chinese characters must be rote memorized.

Language regions of brain are operative in color perception.

The effect of language on the categorical perception of color is stronger for stimuli in the right visual field (RVF) than in the left visual field, but the neural correlates of the behavioral RVF advantage are unknown. Here we present brain activation maps revealing how language is differentially engaged in the discrimination of colored stimuli presented in either visual hemifield. In a rapid, event-related functional MRI study, we measured subjects' brain activity while they performed a visual search task.