Journal of Neuroscience Methods最新文献

{"title":"A robust method for primary cerebellar culture and genetic manipulation of Purkinje cells from postnatal mice","authors":"Heiling Lu ,&nbsp;Friederike Stephani ,&nbsp;Myrna Aulia ,&nbsp;Edwin Mientjes ,&nbsp;Martijn Schonewille ,&nbsp;Catarina Osório","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110627","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110627","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Primary cerebellar cultures are a powerful system for studying genes and pathways involved in development and disease. However, maintaining the survival of Purkinje cells <em>in vitro</em> remains challenging. These neurons represent a small fraction of the cerebellar population and are highly sensitive to culture conditions, making genetic manipulation difficult. Existing protocols often use more than one culture medium, vary in the developmental stage of the cerebellar tissue used, and may require supplementary support cell cultures.</div></div><div><h3>New method</h3><div>We describe a robust method for dissociated cerebellar cultures that supports Purkinje cell development and enables efficient genetic manipulation using two techniques.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Our protocol supports the development of Purkinje cells from embryonic day 18 and postnatal day 1 mouse cerebellar tissue, with P1-derived neurons more closely resembling their <em>in vivo</em> counterparts. Genetic manipulation was achieved via cell-specific adeno-associated viral transduction and non-cell-specific antisense oligonucleotide transfection. Functional neuronal activity was confirmed using calcium imaging with Fluo-4 AM.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods</h3><div>Our approach unifies key aspects of existing protocols. It uses a single-medium composition, eliminating the need for separate seeding and maintenance media. Culturing each cerebellum individually preserves the intrinsic number of supporting cells, eliminating the need for parallel cultures. Using postnatal tissue also reduces animal usage. Additionally, gene expression can be successfully modulated using antisense oligonucleotides.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>This protocol provides an efficient framework for the culture, development, and genetic manipulation of Purkinje cells, facilitating their application in molecular, cellular, and functional studies of cerebellar development and disease models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110627"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145596700","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":"A high-resolution approach for cerebrospinal fluid cytokine detection using push-pull sampling and nano dot blot: Minute by minute TNF-α dynamics during epileptiform activity","authors":"Salvador M. Martinez-Gallegos ,&nbsp;Alberto Morales-Villagrán ,&nbsp;Laura Medina-Ceja ,&nbsp;Kenia Pardo-Peña ,&nbsp;Silvia Casillas-Romero","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110641","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110641","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>TNF-α is a key proinflammatory cytokine implicated in the initiation and progression of neuroinflammatory responses. However, conventional detection techniques pose sample volume limitations that hinder the temporal resolution that can be achieved using animal models.</div></div><div><h3>New method</h3><div>In this study, we developed a novel system designed to quantify</div><div>cytokines via continuous sampling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) via low-flow push<img>pull perfusion coupled with immunodetection via nanodot blotting. The system was tested in a 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) model of acute epileptiform activity, and the time course of TNF-α was characterized with a 1-min temporal resolution.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We observed rapid release of TNF-α within minutes of 4-AP administration. The peak of this release coincided temporally with the onset of epileptiform discharge trains, highlighting the relevance of TNF-α in the early phase of seizurelike activity. TNF-α levels returned to baseline within the first hour, a dynamic that would likely be missed by conventional low temporal resolution methodologies.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods and conclusions</h3><div>Our findings demonstrate the utility of this minute-by-minute approach in capturing transient neuroinflammatory events and suggest that TNF-α may play a role in the initiation or modulation of acute epileptiform activity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110641"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145582211","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":"CUSP: Complex spike sorting from multi-electrode array recordings with U-net sequence-to-sequence prediction","authors":"Chenhao Bao ,&nbsp;Robyn L. Mildren ,&nbsp;Adam S. Charles ,&nbsp;Kathleen E. Cullen","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110631","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110631","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Complex spikes (CSs) in cerebellar Purkinje cells convey unique signals complementary to Simple spike (SS) action potentials, but are infrequent and variable in waveform. Their variability and low spike counts, combined with recording artifacts such as electrode drift, make automated detection challenging.</div></div><div><h3>New Method</h3><div>We introduce CUSP (CS sorting via U-net Sequence Prediction), a fully automated deep learning framework for CS sorting in high-density multi-electrode array recordings. CUSP uses a U-Net architecture with hybrid self-attention inception blocks to integrate local field potential and action potential signals and outputs CS event probabilities in a sequence-to-sequence manner. Detected events are clustered and paired with concurrently detected SSs to reconstruct the complete Purkinje cell activity.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Trained on cerebellar neuropixels recordings in rhesus macaques, CUSP achieves human-expert performance (F1 = 0.83 ± 0.03) and even captures valid CS events overlooked during manual annotation.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with Existing Methods</h3><div>CUSP outperforms traditional and state-of-the-art CS and SS sorting algorithms on CS detection. It remains robust to waveform variability, spikelet composition, and electrode drift, enabling accurate CS tracking in long-term recordings. In contrast, existing methods often show false-positive biases or degrade under drift.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>CUSP provides a scalable, robust framework for analyzing burst-like or dynamically complex spike patterns. Its generalizability makes it valuable for large-scale cerebellar datasets and other neural systems, such as hippocampal pyramidal cells, where complex bursts are critical for computation. By combining expert-level accuracy with automation, CUSP offers a broadly applicable solution for studying information coding across circuits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110631"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145564362","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":"Outcome processing response coupled to feedback-related EEG dynamics during discrete and continuous performance monitoring","authors":"Ruijie Luo ,&nbsp;Jianjun Meng ,&nbsp;Yuxuan Wei ,&nbsp;Ximing Mai ,&nbsp;Guangye Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110629","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110629","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Error-related potential (ErrP) reflects the inconsistency between internal expectation and external feedback outcome. Despite the exploration of numerous experimental paradigms, ErrP components exhibit distinct latency and amplitude across different paradigms. However, previous studies have not quantitatively correlated potential influencing factors with this ErrP variability. Additionally, these qualitatively analyzed factors offer limited predictions for ErrP in new paradigms.</div></div><div><h3>New method</h3><div>We proposed that a neutral condition removing goal-directed outcome expectations reflects cross-paradigm variability in correct and erroneous outcome responses. This neutral condition was designed as a control condition for each paradigm. Three different paradigms were designed to provide discrete and continuous varied feedback outcomes. Correlations were assessed between neutral condition responses and correct and erroneous outcome responses in latency and amplitude. The predictive effectiveness of neutral condition responses for new paradigms was further evaluated through single-trial cross-paradigm classification.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Correct and erroneous outcome responses were observed to have significant latency and amplitude coupling with these neutral condition responses in the middle frontal and bilateral parietal regions. Results from source reconstruction, pupillometry data, and workload score confirm that the neutral condition serves as the baseline response for outcome processing responses. This baseline relationship explains the cross-paradigm ErrP variability.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods</h3><div>The single-trial decoding results show that utilizing neutral condition responses can significantly increase the accuracy of cross-paradigm classification by up to 7 % and 17 % with covariance-based and amplitude-based approaches.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>These findings provide a quantitative physiological explanation for cross-paradigm ErrP variability and promote transfer learning applications in ErrP-based BCIs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110629"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145564369","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":"Parkinson's disease diagnostic support based on voxel fusion of resting BOLD signals and DTI features using multimodal pretraining","authors":"Qingchuan Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhenqiao Liu ,&nbsp;Zexi Song ,&nbsp;Shaoyi Song ,&nbsp;Xuan Li ,&nbsp;Zihan Li ,&nbsp;Min Zuo","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110646","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110646","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Parkinson’s disease (PD) involves concurrent changes in brain functional activity and white matter microstructure, yet single-modality analyses often fail to capture these complex alterations.</div></div><div><h3>New Methods</h3><div>We propose a voxel-level dual-stream Swin Transformer fusion framework (DSTFP) to investigate multimodal structure–function relationships in PD. DSTFP employs parallel transformer branches to extract temporal dynamics from resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and topological features from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fractional anisotropy maps. A cross-modal attention fusion module establishes voxel-wise correspondence between functional and structural features.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Applied to the publicly available Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) dataset, DSTFP discriminates PD, prodromal, and control groups with high robustness. Structural decoupling index (SDI) and structure–function coupling (SFC) analyses of fused features reveal distributed brain regions with characteristic alterations in functional–structural interactions.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with Existing Methods</h3><div>DSTFP outperforms conventional single-modality and baseline multimodal models in both classification accuracy and interpretability, providing more detailed insight into voxel-level structure–function relationships.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The proposed framework offers a robust, interpretable approach for multimodal neuroimaging analysis in PD. All source code is publicly available to support reproducibility (<span><span>https://github.com/MAOmgg/DSTFP</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110646"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145654543","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":"Comparing methods for mass univariate analyses of human EEG: Empirical data and simulations","authors":"Anna-Lena Tebbe ,&nbsp;Christian Panitz ,&nbsp;Andreas Keil","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110630","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110630","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Electroencephalography (EEG) is a widely used method for investigating human brain dynamics. However, EEG analyses are frequently conducted with limited a priori knowledge regarding locations or latencies of meaningful statistical effects. This makes it difficult for researchers to form regions of interest (ROIs), which are then analyzed using traditional statistical models such as analysis of variance. To address this, mass univariate analyses have become a valuable complement to ROI-based approaches. These methods attempt to correct for multiple comparisons while mitigating the risk of false positives and false negatives, thus enabling statistical inference in high-dimensional EEG data.</div></div><div><h3>New method</h3><div>Here, we review and evaluate different approaches for delineating spatial and temporal effect boundaries in three datasets. Specifically, we focus on permutation-based approaches and their Bayesian alternatives to address within-subjects condition differences in i) steady-state evoked responses, ii) event-related potentials, and iii) time-frequency data.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Overall, simulation results showed variability in the number of datapoints indicating statistical condition differences.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods</h3><div>Cluster-based permutation tests provide a relatively liberal approach to correct for multiple comparisons across domains, with high sensitivity for detecting large effects. In contrast, the permutation-based <em>t</em>_max procedure yields the most conservative method across datasets. Bayesian approaches are continuous in nature and thus strongly depend on the selection of thresholds for when support for a hypothesis is considered meaningful.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings provide insights into the strengths and limitations of current mass univariate approaches with the goal of supporting more informed decision-making in the analysis of EEG data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110630"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145582183","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":"3-dimensional morphological analysis of microglia in the sheep brain","authors":"Victoria Stock ,&nbsp;Emily Hadzajlic ,&nbsp;Angela A. Connelly ,&nbsp;Jaspreet K. Bassi ,&nbsp;Alemayehu H. Jufar ,&nbsp;Clive N. May ,&nbsp;Yugeesh R. Lankadeva ,&nbsp;Song T. Yao ,&nbsp;Lindsea C. Booth","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110624","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110624","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Activated microglia change their morphology from small cell bodies with highly ramified branches to become more amoeboid with shorter branches. Accurate morphometric assessment is key to detecting subtle changes in microglia state. Whilst there are many existing methods of analysis, 3-dimensional analysis using Imaris® software is widely used. Despite its widespread use, there is a lack of reporting on what is required from users to ensure accurate and reproducible tracing – including little to no rational for the parameters chosen, and no comparisons between microscope types and magnifications.</div></div><div><h3>New method</h3><div>We first investigated the possibilities and pitfalls of using Imaris, exploring the effect of microscope type, magnification and different investigators on analysis of microglia from naïve Merino ewes.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Tracings of widefield images were highly variable, whereas tracings of confocal images provided more accurate results. The greatest consistency between analysts was achieved using confocal images taken with a 20x objective; however, the greatest tracing accuracy was achieved using confocal images taken with a 40x objective.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods</h3><div>Having established this, changes in microglia morphology were assessed in two groups of sheep; naïve and a group that underwent cardiopulmonary bypass, a procedure known to induce microglial activation. Three-dimensional microglial analysis allowed detection of more markers of activation than previous 2-dimensional analysis.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>This paper describes step-by-step instructions, as well as notes of caution at critical points in the analysis workflow, with the aim of helping those new to microglial analysis avoid pitfalls and improve analysis consistency and accuracy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110624"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145534587","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":"Do it yourself: Creating 3D brain-surface models and custom-made brain matrices for guided sectioning using photogrammetry and three-dimensional printing technology","authors":"Sophie Holtz ,&nbsp;Julio Hechavarria ,&nbsp;Mirjam Knörnschild ,&nbsp;Constance Scharff","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110626","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110626","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Neuroethologists study many non-model animals. The development of techniques for precise and standardized histological brain analysis is key for understanding neural mechanisms across species.</div></div><div><h3>New method</h3><div>Here we present a novel cost-effective approach to generate species-specific brain matrices for precise and reproducible trimming, blocking, and sectioning of brain tissue. To produce the matrix, we took high-quality photographs of two male <em>CP</em> brains and then used the open-source 3D graphics suite Blender and its inexpensive photogrammetry plug-in SnapMesh to generate the 3D brain surface model. The brain matrix was then modeled in Blender, and 3D printed.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Using this approach, we produced the first 3D brain surface model and brain matrix for Seba’s short-tailed fruit bat <em>Carollia perspicillata, CP,</em> and assessed its quality using <em>CP</em> brains. Our brain matrix facilitates and standardizes trimming or blocking of brains, providing consistent access to brain regions of <em>CP</em> in the sagittal and coronal planes. This workflow should be suitable for most vertebrate brains.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods</h3><div>Photogrammetry offers a viable, inexpensive alternative to 3D- or CT-scanners. Our workflow is not only cheaper than alternatives, but does not require blocking the brain during preparation of the 3D surface model, resulting in no tissue loss.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The cost-effectiveness and the tissue-preserving features will benefit researchers globally, particularly those with limited financial means and/or few valuable specimens. By providing an accessible, customizable and reproducible workflow, our study represents a significant step toward democratizing advanced neuroscience across diverse species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110626"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145534659","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":"Automated ladder rung test for evaluating motor coordination in Parkinson’s disease mouse models","authors":"Peng Zhang ,&nbsp;Wei Xu ,&nbsp;Wei Jiang ,&nbsp;Xiaofei Jin ,&nbsp;Yajun Lou ,&nbsp;Tianyi Yang ,&nbsp;Weitao Li ,&nbsp;Keqiang Gao ,&nbsp;Fan Gao ,&nbsp;Zhiyu Qian","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110642","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110642","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The ladder rung walking test assesses fine motor coordination in Parkinson’s disease (PD) mouse models but relies on labor-intensive, subjective manual scoring, necessitating an automated, objective system.</div></div><div><h3>New Method</h3><div>We developed a cost-effective automated ladder rung test system with a ladder featuring regular and irregular rung patterns, array through-beam optical sensors for foot-error detection, and an Arduino microcontroller. Custom Python software enables intuitive control, real-time visualization, dynamic sensor mapping, adjustable debounce, and CSV data export.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>In an MPTP-induced PD mouse model, the system detected increased foot errors on irregular rungs (5.13 ± 1.04 vs. 1.78 ± 0.69 in controls, p &lt; 0.0001) and longer traversal times (18.04 ± 2.64 s vs. 13.38 ± 1.95 s, p = 0.001), corroborated by open field and rotarod tests and a 68.7 % reduction in substantia nigra neurons.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with Existing Methods</h3><div>Unlike costly camera-based systems requiring complex algorithms, our system uses simple photoelectric sensors and costs approximately 127 USD for all components, achieving 96.4 % precision and 99.3 % recall, making it accessible and user-friendly.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>This automated system offers a reproducible, high-throughput tool for objective motor assessment in PD and neurological models, enhancing preclinical research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110642"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145654469","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":"Detecting abnormal dynamic patterns of phase changes in schizophrenia from complex-valued fMRI data","authors":"Yan-Wei Niu ,&nbsp;Qiu-Hua Lin ,&nbsp;Jia-Yang Song ,&nbsp;Bai-Yu Chen ,&nbsp;Vince D. Calhoun","doi":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jneumeth.2025.110622","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Dynamic analysis has shown advantages in detecting psychiatric-related functional alterations using magnitude-only fMRI data. However, polarity dynamics in source phase derived from complex-valued fMRI data remain largely unexplored, though it offers additional information about brain networks.</div></div><div><h3>New methods</h3><div>We propose a framework for analyzing source phase polarity dynamics. We first extract dynamic source phase maps using independent component analysis from sliding-window complex-valued fMRI data. Then, we detect voxel-wise polarity changes between adjacent windows and compute their cumulative distributions. Next, we model the distributions with a piecewise linear function under constraints of a minimal segment length and polarity change stability. Finally, we form three dynamic patterns of phase polarity changes via clustering of the model parameters, and obtain pattern-specific sub-regions within activation maps.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We test the proposed framework using complex-valued fMRI data from schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. The dynamic patterns demonstrate that rapid polarity changes occur frequently in the central region of an activation map, occasionally appear in the intermediate region, but rarely occur at the edges. Cluster centroids and the number of voxels within each pattern-specific sub-region show significant group differences.</div></div><div><h3>Comparison with existing methods</h3><div>Our approach reveals a positively correlated relationship between the average number of polarity changes and activation magnitude, and provides unique sensitivity of the phase polarity to disease-related alterations beyond magnitude-based features.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>This work provides new evidence of abnormal dynamic phase patterns in schizophrenia, offering insights into the underlying mechanisms of mental disorders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16415,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Neuroscience Methods","volume":"426 ","pages":"Article 110622"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145513061","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}