Local activity alterations in individuals with autism correlate with neurotransmitter properties and ketamine-induced brain changes.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition associated with altered resting-state brain function. An increased excitation-inhibition ratio is discussed as a pathomechanism but in-vivo evidence of disturbed neurotransmission underlying functional alterations remains scarce. We compare local resting-state brain activity and neurotransmitter co-localizations between autism (N = 405, N = 395) and neurotypical controls (N = 473, N = 474) in two independent cohorts and correlate them with excitation-inhibition changes induced by glutamatergic (ketamine) and GABAergic (midazolam) medication.

Neural correlates of peripartum depression: a systematic review, meta-analysis and comparison to major depressive disorder.

Background: Peripartum depression (PPD) is a form of major depressive disorder (MDD) that begins during the peripartum period and poses a significant mental health challenge affecting 10 to 29% of women.

Objective: This systematic review and multimodal activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis explored the distinct structural, functional, and metabolic features of the PPD brain as compared to female non-peripartum MDD.

Methods: For this purpose, we conducted a comprehensive literature search in PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases to identify peer-reviewed original studies investigating the neural correlates associated with PPD or fMDD.

Breaking the chains: Toward a neural-level account of episodic memory.

It has been suggested that episodic memory relies on the well-studied machinery of spatial memory. This influential notion faces hurdles that become evident with dynamically changing spatial scenes and an immobile agent. Here I propose a model of episodic memory that can accommodate such episodes via temporal indexing.

Serum Galectin-9 and Decorin in relation to brain aging and the green-Mediterranean diet: A secondary analysis of the DIRECT PLUS randomized trial.

Background And Aims: We explored whether changes in serum proteomic profiles differed between participants with distinct brain aging trajectories, and whether these changes were influenced by dietary intervention.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of the 18-month DIRECT PLUS trial, 294 participants were randomized to one of three arms: 1) Healthy dietary guidelines (HDG); 2) Mediterranean (MED) diet (+440 mg/day polyphenols from walnuts); or 3) low red/processed meat green-MED diet (+1240 mg/day polyphenols from walnuts, Mankai plant, and green tea). We measured 87 serum proteins (Olink-CVDII).

Acquisition and Utilization of Recursive Rules in Motor Sequence Generation.

Recursive hierarchical embedding allows humans to generate multiple hierarchical levels using simple rules. We can acquire recursion from exposure to linguistic and visual examples, but only develop the ability to understand "multiple-level" structures like "[[second] red] ball]" after mastering "same-level" conjunctions like "[second] and [red] ball." Whether we can also learn recursion in motor production remains unexplored.

Neurons ensheathed by perineuronal nets are prone to hyperphosphorylation of tau protein in the hibernating Syrian hamster brain.

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are a specialized form of neuronal extracellular matrix that often ensheath highly active cells, such as parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons. Net-bearing neurons have been shown to be devoid of pathological aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein (p-tau), suggesting they may serve neuroprotective functions. P-tau is a major hallmark of tauopathies like Alzheimer's disease (AD) but is also naturally present in the brains of hibernating mammals during the torpor phase.

Adding to the burden: the tendency to resonate with others' stress is linked to higher PTSD symptom severity in individuals with war-related trauma.

Many refugees experience multiple traumatic events, which set them at increased risk to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To refine interventions aimed at improving refugees' mental health, a better understanding of the factors modulating vulnerability to war-related trauma is needed. In the present study, we focused on stress resonance as a potential vulnerability factor.

Criminal minds in dementia: A systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis.

Introduction: Subjects with dementia might exhibit criminal risk behavior (CB), even in early disease stages.

Methods: This systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis investigated CB prevalence across all neurodegenerative syndromes according to PRISMA criteria and preregistered in PROSPERO. Mean frequencies and odds ratios were calculated and compared.

Neurodevelopmentally rooted epicenters in schizophrenia: sensorimotor-association spatial axis of cortical thickness alterations.

Pathological disturbances in schizophrenia have been suggested to propagate via the functional and structural connectome across the lifespan. However, how the connectome guides early cortical reorganization of developing schizophrenia remains unknown. Here, we used early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) as a neurodevelopmental disease model to investigate putative early pathologic origins propagating through the functional and structural connectome.

HeteroMRI: Robust white matter abnormality classification across multi-scanner MRI data.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is commonly used for analyzing white matter abnormalities in the human brain. Integrating machine learning into MRI analysis can enhance diagnostic processes. However, the application of such techniques for white matter analysis in clinical practice is often limited when MRI data are multi-scanner (i.

How mindfulness-based training improves stress-related health: a selective review of randomized clinical trials comparing psychological mechanisms of action.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been shown to reduce both subjective experiences and physiological markers of stress, a central pathway to improving health and wellbeing. Yet, understanding of the causal mechanism through which MBIs affect stress-related health outcomes remains poor. Most MBIs rely on training programs that simultaneously target multiple and distinct mental processes, hampering mechanistic conclusions.

Multivariate white matter microstructure alterations in older adults with coronary artery disease.

Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) face an increased risk of cognitive impairment, dementia, and stroke. While white matter (WM) lesions are frequently reported in patients with CAD, the effects on WM microstructure alterations remain largely unknown. We aimed to identify WM microstructural alterations in individuals with CAD compared to healthy controls (HC), and to examine their relationships with cognitive performance.

Systemic analyses show that the biosynthesis and spatial distribution of fatty acids, triglycerides and lipids differed in male and female mice and humans.

Recent work has shown that the prevalence and character of metabolic diseases differs between male and female mammals. This strongly suggests that the control mechanisms that govern, for example lipid metabolism, differ between the sexes. If true, a one-size-fits-all approach to treating metabolic disease will not be effective in all patients.

Shared and distinct alterations in brain structure of youth with internalizing or externalizing disorders: Findings from the ENIGMA Antisocial Behavior, ADHD, MDD, and Anxiety Working Groups.

Background: Externalizing and internalizing disorders are common in youth but are often studied separately, preventing researchers from identifying shared (i.e., transdiagnostic) alterations in brain structure.

Approaches to map cortical excitability beyond the primary motor cortex - Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience, multimodal imaging and clinical applications.

Excitability is a neuronal property quantified as the magnitude of neural response to stimuli. It plays a crucial role in information processing and is disrupted in various neuropsychiatric conditions. In humans, non-invasive measurements of brain excitability have been mostly limited to the primary motor cortex.

Electrophysiological decoding captures the temporal trajectory of face categorization in infants.

The adult human brain rapidly distinguishes between faces at around 170 ms after stimulus onset. During early brain development, however, face discrimination is thought to require almost twice as much processing time. To re-examine this long-standing assumption, we presented human and nonhuman primate faces to five to thirteen-month-old infants in an event-related electroencephalography experiment.

Connectivity as a universal predictor of tau progression in atypical Alzheimer's disease.

The link between regional tau load and clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) highlights the importance of characterizing spatial tau distribution across disease variants. In typical (memory-predominant) AD, the spatial progression of tau pathology mirrors the functional connections from temporal lobe epicenters. However, given the limited spatial heterogeneity of tau in typical AD, atypical (non-amnestic-predominant) AD variants with distinct tau patterns provide a key opportunity to investigate the universality of connectivity as a scaffold for tau progression.

Bilingual language control in oral language production: an overview and outlook.

This review focuses on bilingual language control in oral language production, synthesizing key methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and its relationship with domain-general cognitive control. Although behavioral and neural studies have advanced understanding of the mechanisms involved, greater integration across approaches and the use of more ecologically valid methods remain necessary. Much of the current research emphasizes reactive control; however, exploring its interplay with proactive control may offer deeper insights into the dynamic nature of bilingual language control.

The reliability of bilateral cerebral laterality for word generation: Who is left in the middle?

Although word production is considered a strongly left hemispheric lateralized function, its cerebral asymmetry varies among individuals. The most popular way of determining hemisphere dominance is to calculate a laterality index (LI) by comparing brain activity between the two hemispheres. Large LIs can readily be classified as left or right dominant, but there is no consensus on how to treat bilateral LIs indicating (near) symmetrical activity.

Identifying and characterizing scene representations relevant for categorization behavior.

Scene recognition is a core sensory capacity that enables humans to adaptively interact with their environment. Despite substantial progress in the understanding of the neural representations underlying scene recognition, the relevance of these representations for behavior given varying task demands remains unknown. To address this, we aimed to identify behaviorally relevant scene representations, to characterize them in terms of their underlying visual features, and to reveal how they vary across different tasks.

Exploring neuroendocrine influences on the sensorimotor-association axis in a female and a male individual.

Human neuroimaging studies consistently show multimodal patterns of variabilityalong a key principle of macroscale cortical organization-thesensorimotor-association (S-A) axis. However, little is known about day-to-dayfluctuations in functional activity along this axis within an individual,including sex-specific neuroendocrine factors contributing to such transientchanges. We leveraged data from two densely sampled healthy young adults, onefemale and one male, to investigate intra-individual daily variability along theS-A axis, which we computed as our measure of functional cortical organizationby reducing the dimensionality of functional connectivity matrices.

Concurrent representations of reinstated and transformed memories and their modulation by reward.

An integral part of episodic retrieval is the reinstatement of neural activity that was present in the medial temporal lobe during encoding. However, neural memory representations do not remain static. Consolidation promotes the transformation of representations that are specific to individual episodes toward more generalized representations that reflect commonalities across episodes.