{"title":"Video communication mitigate feelings of friendliness: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study","authors":"Noriki Yamaya , Hideaki Inagaki , Yuto Shimizu , Shinichi Mitsui , Kazuki Hirao , Senichiro Kikuchi , Takaaki Fujita , Kaori Shimoda , Fusae Tozato , Kenji Tsuchiya","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Friendliness is essential for the development of stable interpersonal relationships. Video communication is growing rapidly in popularity for initiating and maintaining personal relationships, but it is unknown if video communication is as effective as face-to-face communication for promoting friendliness. This study compared the development of subjective friendliness between video and face-to-face communication sessions and investigated the associated neural correlates. Thirty healthy same-sex pairs were recruited and randomly assigned to face-to-face (Face) and video communication (Video) groups. Both groups performed three communication conditions face-to-face or via the Zoom platform in separate rooms: singing a song alone, singing a song with the other pair, and listening to the other pair sing a song. Activities of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) were measured during the condition by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and subjective friendliness was assessed before and after each condition using the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition (POMS-F). After each condition, the change in POMS-F score (∆POMS-F) was compared between groups, and correlations were calculated with regional brain activity measures. Face group showed an increase in all conditions in ∆POMS-F, and Video group showed in average a decrease, which results in significant group difference in ∆POMS-F. The Face group showed a significant positive correlation between right DLPFC activity and increase in ∆POMS-F, whereas the Video group showed marginal significant negative correlation. Additionally, left DLPFC activity was significantly higher and MPFC activity was significantly lower in the Video group than in the Face group during all conditions. These findings suggest that subjective feelings of friendliness may be limited during video communication due to a requirement for greater cognitive effort.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":"309 ","pages":"Article 121086"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143429914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroImagePub Date : 2025-02-15DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121090
David Haydock, Shabnam Kadir, Robert Leech, Chrystopher L Nehaniv, Elena Antonova
{"title":"EEG Microstate Syntax Analysis: A Review of Methodological Challenges and Advances.","authors":"David Haydock, Shabnam Kadir, Robert Leech, Chrystopher L Nehaniv, Elena Antonova","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121090","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Electroencephalography (EEG) microstates are \"quasi-stable\" periods of electrical potential distribution in multichannel EEG derived from peaks in Global Field Power. Transitions between microstates form a temporal sequence that may reflect underlying neural dynamics. Mounting evidence indicates that EEG microstate sequences have long-range, non-Markovian dependencies, suggesting a complex underlying process that drives EEG microstate syntax (i.e., the transitional dynamics between microstates). Despite growing interest in EEG microstate syntax, the field remains fragmented, with inconsistent terminologies used between studies and a lack of defined methodological categories. To advance the understanding of functional significance of microstates and to facilitate methodological comparability and finding replicability across studies, we: i) derive categories of syntax analysis methods, reviewing how each may be utilised most readily; ii) define three \"time-modes\" for EEG microstate sequence construction; and iii) outline general issues concerning current microstate syntax analysis methods, suggesting that the microstate models derived using these methods are cross-referenced against models of continuous EEG. We advocate for these continuous approaches as they do not assume a winner-takes-all model inherent in the microstate derivation methods and contextualise the relationship between microstate models and EEG data. They may also allow for the development of more robust associative models between microstates and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging data.</p>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":" ","pages":"121090"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143441466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spontaneous mesoscale calcium dynamics reflect the development of the modular functional architecture of the mouse cerebral cortex.","authors":"Davide Warm, Davide Bassetti, Levente Gellèrt, Jenq-Wei Yang, Heiko J Luhmann, Anne Sinning","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121088","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The mature cerebral cortex operates through the segregation and integration of specialized functions to generate complex cognitive states. In the mouse, the anatomical and functional correlates of this organization arise during the perinatal period and are critically shaped by neural activity. Understanding how early activity patterns distribute, interact, and generate large-scale cortical dynamics is essential to elucidate the proper development of the cortex. Here, we investigate spontaneous mesoscale cortical dynamics during the first two postnatal weeks by performing wide-field calcium imaging in GCaMP6s transgenic mice. Our results demonstrate a marked change in the spatiotemporal features of spontaneous cortical activity across fine stages of postnatal development. Already after birth, the cortical hemisphere presents a primordial macroscopic organization, which undergoes a steady refinement based on the parcellation of the cortex. As calcium activity transitions from large, widespread events to swift waves between the first and second postnatal week, significant topographic differences emerge across different cortical regions. Functional connectivity profiles of the cortex gradually segregate into main subnetworks and give rise to a highly modular network topology at the end of the second postnatal week. Overall, spontaneous mesoscale activity reflects the maturation of cortical networks, and reveals critical breakpoints in the development of the functional architecture of the cortex.</p>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":" ","pages":"121088"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143425848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroImagePub Date : 2025-02-13DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121077
Kwanseok Oh, Da-Woon Heo, Ahmad Wisnu Mulyadi, Wonsik Jung, Eunsong Kang, Kun Ho Lee, Heung-Il Suk
{"title":"A quantitatively interpretable model for Alzheimer's disease prediction using deep counterfactuals.","authors":"Kwanseok Oh, Da-Woon Heo, Ahmad Wisnu Mulyadi, Wonsik Jung, Eunsong Kang, Kun Ho Lee, Heung-Il Suk","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121077","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Deep learning (DL) for predicting Alzheimer's disease (AD) has provided timely intervention in disease progression yet still demands attentive interpretability to explain how their DL models make definitive decisions. Counterfactual reasoning has recently gained increasing attention in medical research because of its ability to provide a refined visual explanatory map. However, such visual explanatory maps based on visual inspection alone are insufficient unless we intuitively demonstrate their medical or neuroscientific validity via quantitative features. In this study, we synthesize the counterfactual-labeled structural MRIs using our proposed framework and transform it into a gray matter density map to measure its volumetric changes over the parcellated region of interest (ROI). We also devised a lightweight linear classifier to boost the effectiveness of constructed ROIs, promoted quantitative interpretation, and achieved comparable predictive performance to DL methods. Throughout this, our framework produces an \"AD-relatedness index\" for each ROI. It offers an intuitive understanding of brain status for an individual patient and across patient groups concerning AD progression.</p>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":" ","pages":"121077"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143425812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroImagePub Date : 2025-02-13DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121089
Theo Vanneau, Michael Quiquempoix, John J Foxe, Sophie Molholm
{"title":"Neural Mechanisms of Intersensory Switching: Evidence for Delayed Sensory Processing and Increased Cognitive Demands.","authors":"Theo Vanneau, Michael Quiquempoix, John J Foxe, Sophie Molholm","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121089","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Intersensory switching (IS), the ability to shift attention between different sensory systems, is essential for cognitive flexibility, yet leads to slower responses compared to repeating the same sensory modality. The underlying neural mechanisms of IS remain largely unknown. In this study, high-density EEG was used to investigate these mechanisms in healthy adults (n=53; mean age 26±7.39; 30 female) performing a speeded reaction time (RT) task involving visual and auditory stimuli. Trials were categorized as Repeat (same preceding modality) or Switch (different preceding modality). Switch trials showed slower RTs and delayed sensory responses (N1 and P2 components). Furthermore, across both Repeat and Switch trials, RT correlated with the latency of these neural responses. Additionally, lower alpha-band inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) in primary sensory regions was noted for Switch compared to Repeat trials, suggesting reduced efficiency of sensory processing. Greater induced theta activity over fronto-central scalp regions in Switch trials suggested increased cognitive control demands. These findings support a model where the prior stimulus primes the sensory cortex for faster processing of Repeat trials, while Switch trials lead to heightened cognitive resources for adjustment, likely reflecting attentional reallocation mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The consistent effects across auditory and visual modalities indicate that IS relies on a core, modality-independent mechanism grounded in fundamental principles of sensory and attentional reorganization.</p>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":" ","pages":"121089"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143425819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroImagePub Date : 2025-02-12DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121085
Shaoyuan Yan, Nan Huang, Yusheng Tong, Yousheng Shu, Qiumin Le, Dean Ta, Kailiang Xu
{"title":"Functional Ultrasound Imaging of Cocaine Induced Brain-Wide Neurovascular Response.","authors":"Shaoyuan Yan, Nan Huang, Yusheng Tong, Yousheng Shu, Qiumin Le, Dean Ta, Kailiang Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121085","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extensive studies have reported that cocaine can lead to potent reduction in cerebral blood flow. However, the mechanisms of the cocaine's impact on the neural and vascular system of brain in temporal and spatial aspects remain elusive. Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a novel neurovascular imaging modality acclaimed for its deep penetration, superior spatiotemporal resolution, and high sensitivity to small blood flow dynamics. This study aims to use fUS technique to characterize the regional differences in hemodynamic responses to acute cocaine administration. The CBV responses revealed that the cortex and ventral tegmental area (VTA) were the regions most significantly affected by cocaine. In addition, electroencephalography (EEG) was also utilized to assess the neural activities in the cortex and VTA. In the cortex, the observed CBV changes responded more rapidly to cocaine than local field potential (LFP) activities, indicating that prior to acting on the central nervous system, cocaine may first affect the peripheral nervous system, accelerating heart rate and increasing cardiac output. Both hemodynamic and neural responses showed opposing patterns between cortical and VTA brain regions. Based on these observations, we proposed a two-stage hypothesis to explain acute cocaine's multifaceted impact on the brain. This study underscores the efficacy of fUS as a powerful and sensitive tool for tracking cocaine-induced hemodynamic changes and enhances our understanding of cocaine's effects on the neurovascular system.</p>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":" ","pages":"121085"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143425815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroImagePub Date : 2025-02-12DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121084
Xuan Li , Dezhao Liu , Zheng Li , Rui Wang , Xiaoli Li , Tianyi Zhou
{"title":"Spatiospectral dynamics of electroencephalography patterns during propofol-induced alterations of consciousness states","authors":"Xuan Li , Dezhao Liu , Zheng Li , Rui Wang , Xiaoli Li , Tianyi Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121084","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121084","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Altered consciousness induced by anesthetics is characterized by distinct spatial and spectral neural dynamics that are readily apparent in the human electroencephalogram. Despite considerable study, we remain uncertain which brain regions and neural oscillations are involved, as well as how they are impacted when consciousness is disrupted. The experimental data was obtained from the open-access dataset, which contains pre-processed EEG data recorded from 20 healthy participants during propofol sedation. Using unsupervised machine learning methods (i.e., non-negative matrix factorization, NMF), we investigated the spatiospectral dynamic evolution of brain activity from awake to sedation and back induced by propofol in healthy research volunteers. Our methods yielded six dynamical patterns that continuously reflect the neural activity changes in specific brain regions and frequency bands under propofol sedation. Temporal dynamic analyses showed that differences in alpha oscillation patterns were less pronounced in response group than drowsy group, with hemispheric asymmetry in posterior occipital lobe over the course of the sedation procedure. We designed an index ‘hemispheric lateralization modulation of alpha [HLM(α)]’ to measure asymmetry during awake state and predicting individual variability in propofol-induced alterations of consciousness states, obtaining prediction AUC of 0.8462. We present an alpha modulation index which characterizes how these patterns track the transition from awake to sedation as a function of increasing dosage. Our study reveals dynamics indices that track the evolution of neurophysiological of propofol on brain circuits. Analyzing the spatiospectral dynamics influenced by propofol provides valuable understanding of the mechanisms of these agents and strategies for monitoring and precisely controlling the level of consciousness in patients under sedation and general anesthesia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":"309 ","pages":"Article 121084"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143422446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"M1 large-scale network dynamics support human motor resonance and its plastic reshaping","authors":"Giacomo Guidali , Eleonora Arrigoni , Nadia Bolognini , Alberto Pisoni","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121082","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Motor resonance – the facilitation of corticospinal excitability during action observation – is considered a proxy of <em>Action Observation Network</em> (AON) recruitment in humans, with profound implications for social cognition and action understanding. Despite extensive research, the neural underpinnings supporting motor resonance emergence and rewriting remain unexplored.</div><div>In this study, we investigated the role of sensorimotor associative learning in neural mechanisms underlying the motor resonance phenomenon. To this aim, we applied cross-systems paired associative stimulation (PAS) to induce novel visuomotor associations in the human brain. This protocol, which repeatedly pairs transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses over the primary motor cortex (M1) with visual stimuli of actions, drives the emergence of an atypical, PAS-conditioned motor resonance response. Using TMS and electroencephalography (EEG) co-registration during action observation, we tracked the M1 functional connectivity profile during this process to map the inter-areal connectivity profiles associated with typical and PAS-induced motor resonance phenomena.</div><div>Besides confirming, at the corticospinal level, the emergence of newly acquired motor resonance responses at the cost of typical ones after PAS administration, our results reveal dissociable aspects of motor resonance in M1 interregional communication. On the one side, typical motor resonance effects acquired through the lifespan are associated with prominent M1 alpha-band and reduced beta-band connectivity, which might facilitate the corticospinal output while integrating visuomotor information. Conversely, the atypical PAS-induced motor resonance is linked to M1 beta-band cortical connectivity modulations, only partially overlapping with interregional communication patterns related to the typical mirroring responses. This evidence suggests that beta-phase synchronization may be the critical mechanism supporting the formation of motor resonance by coordinating the activity of motor regions during action observation, which also involves alpha-band top-down control of frontal areas.</div><div>These findings provide new insights into the neural dynamics underlying (typical and newly acquired) motor resonance, highlighting the role of large-scale interregional communication in sensorimotor associative learning within the AON.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":"308 ","pages":"Article 121082"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143394344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NeuroImagePub Date : 2025-02-08DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121080
Hui Xu , Li Zheng , Pan Liao , Bingjiang Lyu , Jia-Hong Gao
{"title":"DeepReducer: A linear transformer-based model for MEG denoising","authors":"Hui Xu , Li Zheng , Pan Liao , Bingjiang Lyu , Jia-Hong Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Measuring event-related magnetic fields (ERFs) in magnetoencephalography (MEG) is crucial for investigating perceptual and cognitive information processing in both neuroscience research and clinical practice. However, the magnitude of the ERF in cortical sources is comparable to the noise in a single trial. Consequently, numerous repetitive recordings are needed to distinguish these sources from background noise, requiring lengthy time for data acquisition. Herein, we introduce DeepReducer, a linear transformer-based deep learning model designed to reliably and efficiently denoise ERFs, thereby reducing the number of required trials. DeepReducer was trained on a mix of limited-trial and multi-trial averaged ERFs, employing mean squared error as the loss function to effectively capture and model the complex signal fluctuations inherent in MEG recordings. Validation on both semi-synthetic and experimental task-related MEG data showed that DeepReducer outperforms conventional trial-averaging techniques, significantly improving the signal-to-noise ratio of ERFs and reducing source localization errors. The practical significance of DeepReducer encompasses optimizing MEG data acquisition by reducing participant stress (particularly for patients) and minimizing associated artifacts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19299,"journal":{"name":"NeuroImage","volume":"308 ","pages":"Article 121080"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143379366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}