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1. A multicohort geometric deep learning study of age dependent cortical and subcortical morphologic interactions for fluid intelligence prediction

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22313-x  

   Wu, Yunan; Besson, Pierre; Azcona, Emanuel A.; Bandt, S. Kathleen; Parrish, Todd B.; Breiter, Hans C.; Katsaggelos, Aggelos K. (December 2022, Scientific Reports)

   Abstract The relationship of human brain structure to cognitive function is complex, and how this relationship differs between childhood and adulthood is poorly understood. One strong hypothesis suggests the cognitive function of Fluid Intelligence (Gf) is dependent on prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex. In this work, we developed a novel graph convolutional neural networks (gCNNs) for the analysis of localized anatomic shape and prediction of Gf. Morphologic information of the cortical ribbons and subcortical structures was extracted from T1-weighted MRIs within two independent cohorts, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD; age: 9.93 ± 0.62 years) of children and the Human Connectome Project (HCP; age: 28.81 ± 3.70 years). Prediction combining cortical and subcortical surfaces together yielded the highest accuracy of Gf for both ABCD (R = 0.314) and HCP datasets (R = 0.454), outperforming the state-of-the-art prediction of Gf from any other brain measures in the literature. Across both datasets, the morphology of the amygdala, hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens, along with temporal, parietal and cingulate cortex consistently drove the prediction of Gf, suggesting a significant reframing of the relationship between brain morphology and Gf to include systems involved with reward/aversion processing, judgment and decision-making, motivation, and emotion. 

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2. Mapping Causal Brain Interactions in fMRI Decoded Neurofeedback

   Arab, Fahimeh; Ghassami, AmirEmad; Peters, Megan_A K; Nozari, Erfan (August 2024, Proceedings of the 7th Annual Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN))

   Neurofeedback (NF), including its specialized form De- coded Neurofeedback (DecNef), holds great promise for improving mental health and cognitive function by al- lowing individuals to voluntarily control their brain ac- tivity. However, there exists vast subject-to-subject and region-to-region variability in neurofeedback outcomes and the causal mechanisms involved in successful neu- rofeedback are largely unknown. In this paper, we inves- tigate the neural mechanisms behind this variability us- ing whole-brain causal connectomes derived from func- tional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data from a DecNef study aimed at reducing common fears via sub- conscious induction of feared images. During NF, we found strongest causal connections among regions of the attention and somatomotor subnetworks. Addition- ally, the net strength of causal effects between most pairs of subnetworks was significantly correlated with mean NF score, though with different signs. Specifically, we found most connections among visual, subcortical, de- fault mode, and dorsal attention subnetworks to support NF success, while most connections among ventral at- tention, somatomotor, limbic, and control subnetworks correlated negatively with NF scores. 

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3. Altered directional functional connectivity underlies post-stroke cognitive recovery

   https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcad149  

   Soleimani, Behrad; Dallasta, Isabella; Das, Proloy; Kulasingham, Joshua P; Girgenti, Sophia; Simon, Jonathan Z; Babadi, Behtash; Marsh, Elisabeth B (January 2023, Brain Communications)

   Abstract Cortical ischaemic strokes result in cognitive deficits depending on the area of the affected brain. However, we have demonstrated that difficulties with attention and processing speed can occur even with small subcortical infarcts. Symptoms appear independent of lesion location, suggesting they arise from generalized disruption of cognitive networks. Longitudinal studies evaluating directional measures of functional connectivity in this population are lacking. We evaluated six patients with minor stroke exhibiting cognitive impairment 6–8 weeks post-infarct and four age-similar controls. Resting-state magnetoencephalography data were collected. Clinical and imaging evaluations of both groups were repeated 6- and 12 months later. Network Localized Granger Causality was used to determine differences in directional connectivity between groups and across visits, which were correlated with clinical performance. Directional connectivity patterns remained stable across visits for controls. After the stroke, inter-hemispheric connectivity between the frontoparietal cortex and the non-frontoparietal cortex significantly increased between visits 1 and 2, corresponding to uniform improvement in reaction times and cognitive scores. Initially, the majority of functional links originated from non-frontal areas contralateral to the lesion, connecting to ipsilesional brain regions. By visit 2, inter-hemispheric connections, directed from the ipsilesional to the contralesional cortex significantly increased. At visit 3, patients demonstrating continued favourable cognitive recovery showed less reliance on these inter-hemispheric connections. These changes were not observed in those without continued improvement. Our findings provide supporting evidence that the neural basis of early post-stroke cognitive dysfunction occurs at the network level, and continued recovery correlates with the evolution of inter-hemispheric connectivity. 

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4. Heritability and interindividual variability of regional structure-function coupling

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25184-4  

   Gu, Zijin; Jamison, Keith Wakefield; Sabuncu, Mert Rory; Kuceyeski, Amy (December 2021, Nature Communications)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract White matter structural connections are likely to support flow of functional activation or functional connectivity. While the relationship between structural and functional connectivity profiles, here called SC-FC coupling, has been studied on a whole-brain, global level, few studies have investigated this relationship at a regional scale. Here we quantify regional SC-FC coupling in healthy young adults using diffusion-weighted MRI and resting-state functional MRI data from the Human Connectome Project and study how SC-FC coupling may be heritable and varies between individuals. We show that regional SC-FC coupling strength varies widely across brain regions, but was strongest in highly structurally connected visual and subcortical areas. We also show interindividual regional differences based on age, sex and composite cognitive scores, and that SC-FC coupling was highly heritable within certain networks. These results suggest regional structure-function coupling is an idiosyncratic feature of brain organisation that may be influenced by genetic factors. 

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5. Segregation of Three Resting-State Brain Networks Predicts Reappraisal Success Across The Lifespan

   https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaf055  

   Pierce, Jordan E; Neta, Maital (May 2025, Social Cognitive And Affective Neuroscience)

   Abstract Cognitive reappraisal is a form of emotion regulation that involves the reinterpretation of stimuli to change one’s emotional state, often to reduce negative affect. Emotion regulation fMRI tasks generally yield increased activation in prefrontal cortex and, less consistently, decreased amygdala activation. Only a few studies, however, have examined how intrinsic brain organization, characterized via resting-state fMRI, relates to reappraisal, typically focusing on the same task-derived brain regions. Here, we administered an emotion regulation task where participants (n = 227, 6-80 years) viewed or downregulated responses to negative images, then completed a resting-state fMRI scan. We examined the functional connectivity in 300 whole-brain regions of interest comprising 13 functional networks. We found that the network segregation, or relative balance of within- and between-network connectivity, in the default mode (DMN), dorsal attention (DAN), and dorsal somatomotor (SMd) networks was associated with reappraisal success (controlling for age and movement). Specifically, greater connectivity within the DMN and DAN, lower connectivity within the SMd, and greater connectivity between the SMd and lateral SM networks predicted better reappraisal ability. These networks also partially overlapped with brain areas supporting emotion regulation and reactivity, suggesting that functional brain organization is a key factor in shaping emotion regulation across the lifespan. 

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