Brain communications最新文献

{"title":"Theta and alpha connectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder.","authors":"Samuel J K Barnes, Megan Thomas, Peter V E McClintock, Aneta Stefanovska","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf084","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf084","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) measurements have demonstrated putative variations in the neural connectivity of subjects with autism spectrum disorder, as compared to neurotypical individuals. However, the exact nature of these connectivity differences has remained unknown, a question that we now address. Resting-state, eyes-open EEG data were recorded over 20 min from a cohort of 13 males aged 3-5 years with autism spectrum disorder, and nine neurotypical individuals as a control group. We use time-localized, phase-based methods of data analysis, including wavelet phase coherence and dynamical Bayesian inference. Several 3 min signal segments were analysed to evaluate the reproducibility of the proposed measures. In the autism spectrum disorder cohort, we demonstrate a significant (<i>P <</i> 0.05) reduction in functional connectivity strength across all frontal probe pairs. In addition, the percentage of time during which frontal regions were coupled was significantly reduced in the autism spectrum disorder group compared to the control group. These changes remained consistent across repeated measurements. To further validate the findings, an additional resting-state EEG dataset (eyes open and closed) from 67 individuals with autism spectrum disorder and 66 control group individuals (male, 5-15 years) was assessed. The functional connectivity results demonstrated a reduction in theta and alpha connectivity on a local, but not global, level. No association was found with age. The connectivity differences observed suggest the potential of theta and alpha connectivity as biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder. Additionally, the robustness to amplitude perturbations of the methods proposed here makes them particularly suitable for the clinical assessment of autism spectrum disorder and of the efficacy of therapeutic interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 2","pages":"fcaf084"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11894932/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143607586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Epileptogenic zone characteristics determine effectiveness of electrical transcranial stimulation in epilepsy treatment.","authors":"Maëva Daoud, Samuel Medina-Villalon, Elodie Garnier, Ionuț-Flavius Bratu, Giada Damiani, Ricardo Salvador, Fabrice Wendling, Giulio Ruffini, Christian Bénar, Francesca Pizzo, Fabrice Bartolomei","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf012","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transcranial direct current stimulation shows promise as a non-invasive therapeutic method for patients with focal drug-resistant epilepsy. However, there is considerable variability in individual responses to transcranial direct current stimulation, and the factors influencing treatment effectiveness in targeted regions are not well understood. We aimed to assess how the extent and depth of the epileptogenic zone and associated networks impact patient responses to transcranial direct current stimulation therapy. We conducted a retrospective analysis of stereoelectroencephalography data from 23 patients participating in a personalized multichannel transcranial direct current stimulation protocol. We evaluated the extent and depth of the epileptogenic zone network, propagation zone network, and the combined network of the entire epileptogenic and propagation zones, correlating these factors with clinical response measured by the reduction in seizure frequency following repeated transcranial direct current stimulation sessions. Among the patients, 10 (43.5%) were classified as responders (R), experiencing a significant (>50%) decrease in seizure frequency, while 13 were non-responders, showing minimal improvement or increased seizure frequency. Importantly, we found a significant positive correlation between the extent of the epileptogenic zone network and changes in seizure frequency. A smaller epileptogenic zone network extent was associated with better transcranial direct current stimulation efficacy, with responders demonstrating a significantly smaller epileptogenic and propagation zones compared with non-responders. Additionally, non-responders tended to have a significantly deeper epileptogenic zone network compared with responders. Our results highlight the significant impact of the extent and depth of the epileptogenic zone network on transcranial direct current stimulation efficacy in patients with refractory focal epilepsy. Responders typically exhibited a smaller and shallower epileptogenic zone network compared with non-responders. These findings suggest that utilizing individualized epileptogenic zone network characteristics could help refine patient selection for personalized transcranial direct current stimulation protocols, potentially improving therapeutic outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcaf012"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11837341/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143461107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Retinal microstructure and microvasculature in association with brain amyloid burden.","authors":"Marco Egle, Ali G Hamedani, Jennifer A Deal, Pradeep Y Ramulu, Keenan A Walker, Dean F Wong, A Richey Sharett, Alison G Abraham, Rebecca F Gottesman","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf013","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cortical amyloid burden is associated with neuronal and vascular abnormalities. The retina shares significant structural and physiological similarities with the brain. This study assessed the association of retinal microstructural and microvascular signs with cortical amyloid burden in the prospective Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities-Positron Emission Tomography study. One hundred and twenty-four participants without a diagnosis of dementia underwent florbetapir PET (2011-13) and optical coherence tomography and optical coherence tomography angiography imaging (2017-19). Retinal nerve fibre thickness, total macular thickness and the ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness were derived from the optical coherence tomography scan. Vessel density and the foveal avascular zone were measured on the 3 × 3 mm² optical coherence tomography angiography scan. Amyloid burden, defined by global cortical standardized uptake value ratio, was treated as a dichotomous (standardized uptake value ratio > 1.2) and continuous outcome measure in logistic and robust linear regression models, respectively. Only lower intermediate capillary plexus vessel density [<i>β</i> (95% confidence interval) = -0.05 (-0.12, -0.01)] was significantly associated with increased continuous amyloid standardized uptake value ratio but not elevated dichotomous amyloid burden independently of demographic, genetic and vascular risk factors. No other retinal measure showed a significant association. Microvascular signs may accompany greater amyloid burden in late life in individuals without dementia.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcaf013"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11837324/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143461111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characterization of a novel zebrafish model of <i>MTMR5</i>-associated Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4B3.","authors":"Jordan Lindzon, Maia List, Salma Geissah, Atai Ariaz, Mo Zhao, James J Dowling","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf077","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf077","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biallelic loss of expression/function variants in <i>MTMR5/SBF1</i> cause the inherited peripheral neuropathy Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4B3. There is an incomplete understanding of the disease pathomechanism(s) underlying Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4B3, and despite its severe clinical presentation, currently no disease-modifying therapies. A key barrier to the study of Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4B3 is the lack of pre-clinical models that recapitulate the clinical and pathologic features of the disease. To address this barrier, we generated a zebrafish Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 mutant line with a full gene deletion of <i>mtmr5.</i> Resulting homozygous deletion zebrafish are born at normal Mendelian ratios and have preserved motor function. However, starting by 10 days post-fertilization, mutant zebrafish develop obvious morphometric changes in head size and brain volume. These changes are accompanied at the pathological level by abnormal axon outgrowths and by the presence of dysmyelination changes reminiscent of the nerve pathology in human Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4B3. Importantly, RNA sequencing from brain-enriched samples identifies novel disease pathways including transcriptional changes in genes responsible for neurogenesis, chromatin remodelling/organization, and synaptic membrane homeostasis. Overall, our <i>mtmr5</i> knockout zebrafish mirror genetic, clinical and pathologic features of human Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4B3. As such, it represents a first pre-clinical model to phenocopy the disease, and an ideal tool for future studies on disease pathomechanism(s) and therapy development.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 2","pages":"fcaf077"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11891516/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143598521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Automated pupillometry is a predictor of outcome of stroke patients: an observational, prospective, cohort study.","authors":"Irene Scala, Massimo Miccoli, Jacopo Di Giovanni, Fabiana Cerulli, Pier A Rizzo, Simone Bellavia, Francesca Vitali, Francesca Colò, Serena Abruzzese, Giacomo Della Marca, Valeria Guglielmi, Valerio Brunetti, Riccardo Di Iorio, Aldobrando Broccolini, Paolo Profice, Paolo Calabresi, Mauro Monforte, Giovanni Frisullo","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf079","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf079","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Automated pupillometry (AP) is a rapid, non-invasive tool to assess the pupillary light reflex, extensively used for monitoring patients with traumatic brain injury. In acute ischaemic stroke, quantitative tools to monitor neurological status and predict outcome are lacking. This study aims to evaluate the ability of AP to predict stroke outcome, defined through the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores. In this observational, cohort study, we enrolled adult patients with anterior circulation stroke admitted to the stroke unit of a comprehensive stroke centre between 2021 and 2024 who underwent AP evaluation within 72 h of stroke onset. Exclusion criteria were: intracranial hypertension, severe eye diseases, pathologies involving the autonomic nervous system and lack of 3-month follow-up data. The AP evaluation was repeated three consecutive times in each patient using the NPi-200® and mean parameters of the two eyes and those of the eye homolateral and contralateral to the ischaemic lesion were considered. Mann-Whitney <i>U</i>-test, <i>t</i>-test and <i>χ</i> ²-test were used for univariate comparisons. Binary and ordinal multivariable logistic regression models were used for the adjusted analysis. The primary outcome measure was the dichotomization of the 3-month mRS of 0-2 versus 3-6. Secondary outcomes were the score on the 3-month mRS, 3-month dichotomization of mRS 0-3 versus 4-6, and 3-month and in-hospital death. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were computed to evaluate the prognostic ability of AP. Two-hundred and nine patients (123 men, median age 75 years) were included in the study. Among included patients, 11 (5.3%) died during the hospital stay and 124 (59.33%) had a 3-month mRS < 3. In multivariable logistic regression models corrected for all possible confounders, a low dilatation velocity (DV) in the eye homolateral to the stroke lesion was an independent predictor of poor prognosis, defined as both mRS > 2 and mRS > 3 at 3 months (<i>P</i> = 0.028 and <i>P</i> = 0.024, respectively). Furthermore, homolateral DV resulted to be a significant predictor of a shift towards a better outcome on the 3-month mRS in the ordinal logistic regression (<i>P</i> = 0.036). A DV ≥ 0.865 mm/s was able to predict a good stroke outcome at 90 days with 60% sensitivity and specificity (area under the curve 0.651; <i>P</i> < 0.001). No other AP parameters were independent predictors of stroke outcome. A reduction in the DV in the eye ipsilateral to the ischaemic lesion is associated with poor in-hospital and 3-month stroke outcome, and it could be useful for identifying patients who need a tailored monitoring and treatment path to improve their prognosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcaf079"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11878543/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143560382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metabolic connectivity has greater predictive utility for age and cognition than functional connectivity.","authors":"Hamish A Deery, Emma X Liang, Chris Moran, Gary F Egan, Sharna D Jamadar","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf075","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf075","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recently developed high temporal resolution functional (18F)-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (fPET) offers promise as a method for indexing the dynamic metabolic state of the brain <i>in vivo</i> by directly measuring a time series of metabolism at the post-synaptic neuron. This is distinct from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that reflects a combination of metabolic, haemodynamic and vascular components of neuronal activity. The value of using fPET to understand healthy brain ageing and cognition over fMRI is currently unclear. Here, we use simultaneous fPET/fMRI to compare metabolic and functional connectivity and test their predictive ability for ageing and cognition. Whole-brain fPET connectomes showed moderate topological similarities to fMRI connectomes in a cross-sectional comparison of 40 younger (mean age 27.9 years; range 20-42) and 46 older (mean 75.8; 60-89) adults. There were more age-related within- and between-network connectivity and graph metric differences in fPET than fMRI. fPET was also associated with performance in more cognitive domains than fMRI. These results suggest that ageing is associated with a reconfiguration of metabolic connectivity that differs from haemodynamic alterations. We conclude that metabolic connectivity has greater predictive utility for age and cognition than functional connectivity and that measuring glucodynamic changes has promise as a biomarker for age-related cognitive decline.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcaf075"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11851278/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143505999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Association of plasma soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor concentrations and migraine with aura: a REFORM study.","authors":"Betel Tesfay, Håkan Ashina, Rune Häckert Christensen, Haidar M Al-Khazali, William Kristian Karlsson, Faisal Mohammad Amin, Baker Nawfal Jawad, Ove Andersen, Messoud Ashina","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcae475","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcae475","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) has garnered attention as a potential blood-based biomarker for low-grade chronic inflammation. However, its specific association with migraine, including its subtypes, remains to be elucidated. We sought to examine the association of plasma suPAR levels with migraine and its subtypes. In this single-centre, cross-sectional study, plasma was collected at a single time point in adults with migraine and sex-matched healthy controls from October 2020 to June 2022. The quantification of plasma suPAR levels was performed in a blinded fashion using a validated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Plasma suPAR levels were compared between participants with migraine (including subgroups) and healthy controls. Plasma samples were analysed from 634 eligible participants with migraine [mean (SD) age, 44.0 (12.2) years; 568 (89.6%) females] and 154 healthy controls [mean (SD), 41.3 (11.8%) years; 132 (86%) females]. Plasma suPAR levels were 6.7% higher (95% CI: 0.1-13.6%; <i>P</i> = 0.045, adjusted for age, sex, body mass index and smoking) in participants with migraine <i>with</i> aura, when compared with healthy controls. Further analysis revealed no difference in plasma suPAR levels between the overall migraine group and healthy controls (3.7%; 95% CI: -0.7-8.2%; <i>P</i> = 0.097), as well as between participants with migraine without aura and healthy controls (2.5%; 95% CI: -2.9-8.3%; <i>P</i> = 0.81). Similarly, plasma suPAR levels did not differ across participants with episodic migraine, chronic migraine and healthy controls. Finally, we found no difference when comparing participants with migraine at time of blood sampling with participants with non-migraine headache (1.0%; 95% CI: -5.7-8.2; <i>P</i> > 0.99), participants without headache (1.2%; 95% CI: -4.2-7.0%; <i>P</i> > 0.99) or healthy controls (4.5%; 95% CI: -1.9-11.3%; <i>P</i> = 0.39). Elevated plasma suPAR levels in migraine with aura indicate the presence of low-grade chronic inflammation. Future research should explore the role of suPAR in the neurobiologic underpinnings of migraine with aura.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcae475"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11831075/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143442847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Connectome-based prediction of future episodic memory performance for individual amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients.","authors":"Zhengsheng Zhang, Mengxue Wang, Tong Lu, Yachen Shi, Chunming Xie, Qingguo Ren, Zan Wang","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The amnestic mild cognitive impairment progression to probable Alzheimer's disease is a continuous phenomenon. Here we conduct a cohort study and apply machine learning to generate a model of predicting episodic memory development for individual amnestic mild cognitive impairment patient that incorporates whole-brain functional connectivity. Fifty amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients completed baseline and 3-year follow-up visits including episodic memory assessments (e.g. Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test Delayed Recall) and resting-state functional MRI scanning. Using a multivariate analytical method known as relevance vector regression, we found that the baseline whole-brain functional connectivity features failed to predict the baseline Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test Delayed Recall scores (<i>r</i> = 0.17, <i>P</i> = 0.082). Nonetheless, the baseline whole-brain functional connectivity pattern could predict the longitudinal Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test Delayed Recall score with statistically significant accuracy (<i>r</i> = 0.50, <i>P</i> < 0.001). The connectivity that contributed most to the prediction (i.e. the top 1% connectivity) included within-default mode connections, within-limbic connections and the connections between default mode and limbic systems. More importantly, these connections with the highest absolute contribution weight mainly displayed long anatomical distances (i.e. Euclidean distance >75 mm). These 'neural fingerprints' may be appropriate biomarkers for amnestic mild cognitive impairment patients to optimize individual patient management and longitudinal evaluation in a timely fashion.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcaf033"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11831076/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143442801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring functional connectivity in clinical and data-driven groups of preterm and term adults.","authors":"Laila Hadaya, František Váša, Konstantina Dimitrakopoulou, Mansoor Saqi, Sukhwinder S Shergill, A David Edwards, Dafnis Batalle, Robert Leech, Chiara Nosarti","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf074","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adults born very preterm (i.e. at <33 weeks' gestation) are more susceptible to long-lasting structural and functional brain alterations and cognitive and socio-emotional difficulties, compared with full-term controls. However, behavioural heterogeneity within very preterm and full-term individuals makes it challenging to find biomarkers of specific outcomes. To address these questions, we parsed brain-behaviour heterogeneity in participants subdivided according to their clinical birth status (very preterm versus full term) and/or data-driven behavioural phenotype (regardless of birth status). Participants were followed-up in adulthood (median age 30 years) as part of a wider longitudinal case-control cohort study. The Network Based Statistic approach was used to identify topological components of resting state functional connectivity differentiating between (i) 116 very preterm and 83 full-term adults (43% and 57% female, respectively) and (ii) data-driven behavioural subgroups identified using consensus clustering (<i>n</i> = 156, 46% female). Age, sex, socio-economic status and in-scanner head motion were used as confounders in all analyses. <i>Post hoc</i> two-way group interactions between clinical birth status and behavioural data-driven subgrouping classification labels explored whether functional connectivity differences between very preterm and full-term adults varied according to distinct behavioural outcomes. Very preterm compared with full-term adults had poorer scores in selective measures of cognitive and socio-emotional processing and displayed complex patterns of hyper- and hypo-connectivity in sub-sections of the default mode, visual and ventral attention networks. Stratifying the study participants in terms of their behavioural profiles (irrespective of birth status) identified two data-driven subgroups: an 'At-Risk' subgroup, characterized by increased cognitive, mental health and socio-emotional difficulties, displaying hypo-connectivity anchored in frontal opercular and insular regions, relative to a 'Resilient' subgroup with more favourable outcomes. No significant interaction was noted between clinical birth status and behavioural data-driven subgrouping classification labels in terms of functional connectivity. Functional connectivity differentiating between very preterm and full-term adults was dissimilar to functional connectivity differentiating between the data-driven behavioural subgroups. We speculate that functional connectivity alterations observed in very preterm relative to full-term adults may confer both risk and resilience to developing behavioural sequelae associated with very preterm birth, while the localized functional connectivity alterations seen in the 'At-Risk' subgroup relative to the 'Resilient' subgroup may underlie less favourable behavioural outcomes in adulthood, irrespective of birth status.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 2","pages":"fcaf074"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11891483/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143598526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neural correlates of uncertainty processing in psychosis spectrum disorder.","authors":"Sophie Pauline Fromm, Lara Wieland, Alix Deneault, Andreas Heinz, Teresa Katthagen, Florian Schlagenhauf","doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf073","DOIUrl":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf073","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychotic beliefs are typically held with high certainty. Altered computation of uncertainty about a belief and about environmental dynamics may be an underlying mechanism of psychotic symptoms. We set out to shed light on behavioural and neural correlates of uncertainty processing and how it drives belief updating in psychosis. This cross-sectional study included 19 participants with psychosis spectrum disorder (5 female and 14 male) and 40 healthy control participants (21 female and 19 male) between 18 and 65 years of age. Participants performed a predictive inference task that required belief updating of a noisy outcome in a suddenly changing environment during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Behavioural and imaging data were analysed with a computational model that approximates an ideal Bayesian observer. The model expects beliefs to be updated based on the relative belief uncertainty and environmental change point probability. Task performance, model parameters and associated neural activation were compared between groups and associated with self-reported delusional ideation and cognitive functioning. While the belief updating speed overall did not differ between groups, the psychosis group showed lower task performance. Lower performance was associated with higher self-reported delusional ideation, even when controlling for cognitive functioning. Persons with psychosis spectrum disorder tended to persevere on beliefs after large prediction errors that signal environmental changes. They informed belief updates less by the probability of environmental change points, although this capacity seemed to depend on general cognitive functioning. The psychosis group also encoded the change point probability less in the superior occipital and fusiform gyrus, as well as a cluster comprising pre-central to middle frontal gyrus. Activity in these clusters was associated with lower self-reported delusional ideation across the whole sample and lower general and negative symptoms in the clinical sample. Persons with psychosis spectrum disorder did not seem to overestimate environmental volatility in general. Instead, they showed altered processing of information that occurred after environmental change points, whose probability was less well represented in brain regions encoding visual surprise and motor responses. Possibly, persons with psychosis spectrum disorder inadequately integrated visual surprise signals, leading to ineffective transmission to motor regions that eventually guide behaviour. Summarizing, our study suggests that delusions could result from a tendency to stick to old beliefs even in the light of contrary evidence, due to a failure to integrate uncertainty information based on inferred environmental dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":93915,"journal":{"name":"Brain communications","volume":"7 1","pages":"fcaf073"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11879018/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143560397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}