Journal of integrative neuroscience最新文献

{"title":"High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) Enhances Cognitive Recovery After Traumatic Brain Injury Through Synaptic PlasticityRelated Changes.","authors":"Zijia Guo, Nan Bai, Wenxuan Xin, Maosheng Xiang, Yuanming Geng, Weiyi Xie, Chiyuan Ma","doi":"10.31083/JIN52353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN52353","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often leads to long-term cognitive deficits. High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation approach with potential to enhance cognitive recovery. However, the underlying mechanisms by which tDCS influences neural synapses following mild TBI remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify the optimal HD-tDCS intervention cycle for improving cognition after repetitive mild TBI (rmTBI) in mice and to elucidate synaptic mechanisms.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Male C57BL/6J mice underwent mild closed-head injury and received HD-tDCS (0.5 mA, 20 min/day) over the right parietal cortex. Cognitive performance was evaluated after 5, 10, and 15 days of stimulation using Y-maze and novel object recognition tests. Synaptic protein expression (PSD-95, SYN, NMDAR, GluA1) and BDNF/TrkB/CREB signaling pathway components were assessed via Western blot, while c-Fos expression was examined by immunofluorescence staining. Dendritic spine density was examined using Golgi staining. In addition, exploratory molecular modeling was performed to assess potential interactions between electric fields and the BDNF-TrkB complex. Separately, to contextualize our experimental findings, we also analyzed the public single-cell RNA-sequencing dataset GSE180862 as part of the study design.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>HD-tDCS improved learning and memory performance, with the 15-day protocol showing the most robust effects among the tested schedules at the same post-injury endpoint. Behavioral improvements were accompanied by increased expression of BDNF-associated signaling proteins, elevated synaptic marker levels, and enhanced dendritic spine density in the hippocampus. In the 15-day stimulation group, a numerical trend toward sustained cognitive benefit was observed at 2 weeks after the end of stimulation, although the difference did not reach statistical significance. Molecular modeling suggested potential field-protein interactions but did not establish direct conformational modulation <i>in vivo</i>.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Cognitive recovery improved following HD-tDCS intervention, accompanied by upregulation of BDNF/TrkB/CREB pathway-related proteins, synaptic markers, and dendritic spine density. These findings suggest a close association between repeated HD-tDCS and plasticity-related molecular changes after brain injury, although causal evidence for pathway activation requires further investigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"52353"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ketone Bodies in Ischemic Stroke: A Review of Neuroprotective Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications.","authors":"Jun Tan, He Li, Minghao Song, Haoyu Cheng, Mengyu Zhao, Nan Zhang, Hongyu Ma, Xiaoxi Zhang, Pengfei Yang, Jianmin Liu","doi":"10.31083/JIN52390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN52390","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ischemic stroke disrupts cerebral metabolism and initiates a cascade of pathological events, including excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. These interconnected processes drive neuronal apoptosis, necrosis, and synaptic loss, ultimately leading to irreversible brain injury, persistent neurological deficits, and high rates of long-term disability and mortality. Ketone bodies, including β-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and acetone, have demonstrated neuroprotective properties through multiple mechanisms. These include sustaining cerebral energy supply and mitochondrial stability, attenuating excitotoxicity and calcium overload, suppressing inflammatory responses, and promoting neural remodeling and functional recovery. Accordingly, ketone bodies are increasingly recognized as a promising therapeutic strategy for ischemic stroke. However, evidence supporting their clinical application and systematic implementation in humans remains limited. In this review we summarize ketone body metabolism and the mechanisms underlying its neuroprotective effects, evaluate the evidence supporting translation from preclinical studies to clinical application, and highlight key challenges that must be addressed in future investigations. Based on the current evidence, we also propose priorities for short-term clinical research and outline future perspectives.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"52390"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Expression and Effects of Rev-Erbα in Different Cerebral Regions of Mice With Acute and Chronic Epilepsy.","authors":"Xuening Jiang, Wenjuan Wu, Zhitang Yang, Cancan Meng","doi":"10.31083/JIN54266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN54266","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Epileptic seizures exhibit distinct circadian rhythms. Disruption of this rhythm creates a vicious cycle that further exacerbates the seizures. Rev-Erbα is a key circadian regulator that plays a significant role in epilepsy. In this study we aimed to investigate the expression and effects of Rev-Erbα and its agonist SR9009 across different brain regions during acute status epilepticus (SE) and chronic epilepsy (CE).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into control, epilepsy (SE and CE), and SR9009+epilepsy (SR9009-E) groups. The distribution and expression of Rev-Erbα in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus (HP), and occipital visual cortex (V2M) of mice with SE and CE mice were detected using immunofluorescence and western blotting. Electroencephalography (EEG), the open-field test, and the Y-maze test were applied to evaluate epileptic activity, anxiety, and spatial memory.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Rev-Erbα expression differed significantly across cerebral regions among the control, epilepsy (SE and CE), and the SR9009-E groups (<i>p</i> < 0.05). SR9009-E mice had fewer seizures and less abnormal EEG discharge (<i>p</i> < 0.05) and showed better behavioral outcomes, including reduced anxiety-related behaviors and improved spatial memory, compared with epileptic mice (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Immunofluorescence showed higher neuronal numbers in the SR9009-E group than in the epilepsy group (<i>p</i> < 0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Rev-Erbα dysregulation is tightly linked to epilepsy progression. Activation of Rev-Erbα exerts antiepileptic and neuroprotective effects and improves epilepsy-related neurobehavioral deficits, thereby offering a novel strategy for epilepsy treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"54266"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gray Matter Volume and Intrinsic Timescale and Their Spatial Coupling Alterations in the Brains of Preterm Infants.","authors":"Yingxing Zhang, Ya Wang, Yuchan Liu, Jian Zhang","doi":"10.31083/JIN50729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN50729","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Extensive neuroimaging abnormalities in multiple brain regions constitute the neural basis of preterm infants (PTIs). However, the function of the brain and its spatial coupling with brain structure remain unknown, leaving a considerable gap in understanding the neural mechanism underlying atypical neurodevelopment in PTIs.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Combining structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 14 PTIs and 14 term infants (TEIs), we quantified gray matter volume (GMV) via voxel-based morphometry, estimated intrinsic timescales from fMRI signals via autocorrelation function (ACF) analysis, and further assessed spatial structure-function coupling across individuals.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>PTIs exhibited GMV alterations in multiple brain regions encompassing high-order cortical and subcortical regions (<i>p</i> < 0.001, corrected by family-wise error (FWE)), which were significantly associated with clinical variables such as gestational age (<i>R</i> = 0.716, <i>p</i> < 0.0001), postnatal age (<i>R</i> = -0.698, <i>p</i> < 0.0001) and birth weight (<i>R</i> = 0.727, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). Alterations in intrinsic timescales were revealed at both the spatial distribution (voxel-level <i>p</i> < 0.001, Gaussian random field (GRF)-corrected <i>p</i> < 0.05) and local regional levels, highlighting functional alterations of the medial frontal gyrus in PTIs (voxel-level <i>p</i> < 0.001, GRF-corrected <i>p</i> < 0.05). Furthermore, alterations in spatial structure-function coupling were also found in both high-order cortical and subcortical regions, with ACF decay in these regions significantly correlated with serum iron levels (<i>R</i> = -0.664, <i>p</i> = 0.0096) in PTIs.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings suggest that preterm birth-related neurodevelopmental alterations may be associated with differences in the coordination between brain structure and function, which could be related to variations in neurobehavioral outcomes, and indicate that neuroimaging may provide useful insights into early neurodevelopmental differences in PTIs.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"50729"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Event-Related Spectral Signatures of Prospective Memory.","authors":"Eliza Baby, Teresa S Warren, Amelia G Schaefer, Shansa Viswanathan, Raksha A Mudar","doi":"10.31083/JIN52483","DOIUrl":"10.31083/JIN52483","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Prospective memory (PM) relies on the ability to form, maintain, and retrieve intentions during an ongoing activity. In this study we examined the neural oscillatory dynamics underlying distinct PM stages: intention formation (Cue trials), intention retention (Ongoing trials), and intention retrieval (PM Retrieval trials). These stages were investigated using two newly developed PM tasks: the Animal-cued Prospective Retrieval Task (Ac-PRT) and the Object-cued Prospective Retrieval Task (Oc-PRT).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this cross-sectional observational study, twenty-three young adults (mean age = 20.50 years, standard deviation = 2.35) completed the tasks while electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Behavioral results showed that participants responded more slowly during the Ongoing trials compared with the Cue and PM Retrieval trials and were less accurate during PM Retrieval trials across both tasks. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) analyses revealed differences in PM stages in both tasks. PM Retrieval trials had significantly greater alpha (8-12 Hz) and low beta (12-20 Hz) desynchronization within 350-650 ms relative to the Ongoing trials, potentially reflecting increased attentional control and task-set reconfiguration during intention retrieval. Cue trials showed enhanced alpha and low beta desynchronization relative to Ongoing trials, suggesting preparatory attentional engagement triggered by the cue. Task-specific effects included lower theta synchronization in addition to greater alpha and beta desynchronization in the Oc-PRT compared with the Ac-PRT, which may reflect differential engagement of cognitive control and semantic processing mechanisms.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The observed patterns in theta, alpha, and beta activity suggest that these oscillations are associated with task demands that vary across PM stages. Together, these findings identify neurophysiological signatures that may guide future research on age-related changes in prospective memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"52483"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gamma and Beta Neurofeedback Training Can Improve Visual Perception With Spectral and Regional Specificity.","authors":"Lu Wang, Yong Wang, Zhaohuan Ding, He Chen, Xiaoli Li","doi":"10.31083/JIN46741","DOIUrl":"10.31083/JIN46741","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Gamma and beta oscillations of electroencephalography (EEG) are involved in multiple perceptual information processing. Neurofeedback training (NFB) is a non-invasive neuromodulation approach that provides an endogenous paradigm to investigate the causal relationship between brain oscillations and cognitive abilities. In this study we investigated the effectiveness and specificity of gamma and combined gamma-beta NFB training for improving visual perception in healthy adults.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 48 healthy participants were recruited and randomly assigned into three groups. Four participants withdrew during the study, leaving 44 participants for final analysis : a sham group (n = 14), a gamma NFB training group (n = 16) targeting parieto-occipital (PO) gamma rhythms, and a gamma-beta training group (n = 14) targeting both PO gamma and central beta rhythms. All participants underwent six NFB sessions, each containing nine blocks. Baseline tasks for resting state and visual perception measurements were conducted before and after NFB training.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both training groups showed significant improvements in reaction time and accuracy. Importantly, EEG data obtained during the training process and baseline tests showed that relative PO gamma rhythms were increased in both groups, while relative central beta rhythms were enhanced only in the gamma-beta group. EZ-diffusion model analysis revealed that these improvements were primarily driven by increased drift rates and reduced non-decision times, suggesting enhanced efficiency in perceptual evidence accumulation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The current results validate the effectiveness of NFB training and demonstrate clear spectral and regional specificity, revealing different functional contributions of the two oscillations during visual perception. In the context of a randomized, sham-controlled design, these results provide preliminary causal evidence for the involvement of gamma- and beta-band activity in visual processing.</p><p><strong>Clinical trial registration: </strong>No: ChiCTR2600124537. https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=292703.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"46741"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Multimodal Abnormalities of Brain Structure and Function in Chronic Neck Pain.","authors":"Chenyang Jia, Xingyao Chen, Jiacheng Liu, Natthaphak Patchaivuttikul, Yunuo Zhao, Peng Lai, Jinyi He, Deliang Zhu, Ming Xin, Shirui Cheng","doi":"10.31083/JIN50345","DOIUrl":"10.31083/JIN50345","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Previous neuroimaging studies of patients with chronic neck pain (CNP) have revealed abnormal functional activity and structure of brain regions. However, these results often exhibit variability. Therefore, we have integrated existing research findings using a multimodal meta-analysis to obtain consistent and reliable results on brain functional activity and structural changes in CNP patients.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Studies of the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations, regional homogeneity, or voxel-based morphometry that investigated the differences in brain function and structure between CNP patients and healthy controls were searched for in seven Chinese and English databases up to November 12, 2025. Meta-analysis of the relevant neuroimaging data from the eligible literature was performed using anisotropic effect size signed differential mapping.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This meta-analysis included a total of 36 datasets from 33 articles. The analytic results of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging indicate that the CNP patients exhibited abnormal functional activity in the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), left median cingulate gyrus, right calcarine fissure cortex, right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and left inferior parietal gyrus. Further, CNP patients exhibit abnormal gray matter volume (GMV) of the left paracentral lobule, right superior temporal gyrus (STG), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), bilateral SFG, right cerebellum, right cuneus cortex, and left MTG. Additionally, the meta-regression analysis revealed that age is associated with increased functional activity in the right MTG, while disease duration is associated with decreased functional activity in the left median cingulate gyrus, as well as increased GMV in both the right MFG and STG.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>CNP patients exhibit widespread neuroimaging abnormalities, mainly involving pain perception, advanced cognition, and emotion regulation. These results may offer additional ideas for understanding the central mechanisms of CNP and the exploration of potential targets for CNP treatment.The PROSPERO Registration:CRD420251018254, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251018254.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"50345"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"EEG Analysis of Visual Attention Under Perception of Affective Prosody in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.","authors":"Muhammad Zakir Ullah, Hongan Wang, Na Ta, Dongchuan Yu","doi":"10.31083/JIN49624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN49624","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Multiple object tracking (MOT) tasks are widely used to examine attention impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, existing research has predominantly relied on behavioral measures and has barely incorporated physiological data, such as electroencephalography (EEG). Additionally, how cognition and emotion interact in individuals with ASD during MOT tasks remains unclear.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study we addressed these gaps using a publicly available dataset containing EEG recordings and clinical measurement from 28 children with ASD and 28 typically developing (TD) individuals. Participants listened to speech recordings reflecting prosodic happiness and sadness while completing three attention-level tasks: neutral image viewing (low-attention), one-target four-disc MOT-4 (intermediate-attention), and one-target eight-disc MOT-8 (high-attention). For each participant's EEG data, we calculated the theta-beta ratio (TBR) for each channel and then extracted five EEG features: averaged TBR for all channels (allTBR), averaged TBR for channels in the frontal brain region (fTBR), averaged TBR for channels in the temporal brain region (tTBR), averaged TBR for channels in the central brain region (cTBR), and averaged TBR for channels in the parietal brain region (pTBR). Correlation analysis was also conducted to explore the association between EEG features and clinical measures.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Findings showed that: (1) the interaction effect between attentional level and emotion was significant for allTBR and tTBR; (2) Significant main effects of group were observed for all five TBR metrics (allTBR, fTBR, tTBR, cTBR, and pTBR), with the ASD group showing higher values than the TD group; (3) only tTBR showed a significant difference between happiness and sadness stimuli during the MOT-8 task after Bonferroni correction; (4) during the MOT-4 task, the TD group had higher correlations between five EEG features and clinical measures than the ASD group; and (5) the tTBR finding during the MOT-8 task suggests that emotional valence may modulate neural processing in the temporal region under high cognitive load.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings could provide new insights into attentional impairments and cognition-emotion interactions in ASD, offering potential implications for the development of clinical intervention strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"49624"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advances in Depression Research.","authors":"Drozdstoy Stoyanov","doi":"10.31083/JIN56539","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN56539","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"56539"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Superordinate Concepts - Semantic Sources, Cognitive Properties and Neural Representation.","authors":"Rüdiger J Seitz, Hans-Ferdinand Angel, Raymond F Paloutzian","doi":"10.31083/JIN52392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31083/JIN52392","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Concepts are cognitive constructs that are fundamental to neuroscience. Superordinate concepts such as world, life, and person are widely used in common language but typically ill-defined. In an interdisciplinary approach we present superordinate concepts as three-part accounts that encompass the articulated concepts of objects, events, and narratives. Thereby, superordinate concepts integrate the physical, relational, and narrated nature of our environmental information into comprehensive verbal expressions. Owing to their distributed representations in large-scale neural networks that in addition to the prefrontal cortex involve the temporoparietal cortex and subcortical structures such as the amygdala, superordinate concepts evolve in relation to language development in childhood. They may gain prominent emotional relevance and continue to mature throughout a person's lifetime. Conversely, they are susceptible to neuropsychiatric disorders of the brain that affect cortico-cortical connectivity. In conclusion, superordinate concepts are metastable descriptors of integrated verbalized information that provide a novel perspective on the mind-brain relationship.</p>","PeriodicalId":16160,"journal":{"name":"Journal of integrative neuroscience","volume":"25 8","pages":"52392"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}