Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf195
Andrew C Halley, Iwona Stepniewska, Qimeng Wang, Jamie L Reed, Hui-Xin Qi, Jon H Kaas, Leah A Krubitzer
{"title":"Movement representations in motor, somatosensory, and posterior parietal cortex of the greater galago.","authors":"Andrew C Halley, Iwona Stepniewska, Qimeng Wang, Jamie L Reed, Hui-Xin Qi, Jon H Kaas, Leah A Krubitzer","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf195","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous studies suggest that anterior parietal cortical areas including S1 (3b) play a central role in motor control that is distinct from traditionally defined motor areas of the neocortex (eg M1). The role of anterior parietal areas in generating movement has never been described in any prosimian primate, a lineage thought to reflect the last common ancestor of all living primates. This study describes movements elicited from long-train intracortical microstimulation in the greater galago (Otolemur garnettii) in area 3b and adjacent frontal and parietal cortical fields. We found that the representation of forelimb digits was exceptionally small relative to other primate species, while tongue representations were enlarged-possibly an adaptation for frugivory. We discuss these findings in relation to primate behavioral variation, and highlight features of movement representations in 3b and M1 that are common to all mammals studied using similar methods.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12368956/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144944549","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}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf249
Pedro Antonio Valdes-Sosa, Alan C Evans, Maria L Bringas-Vega, Ronaldo Garcia-Reyes, Mitchell J Valdes-Sosa
{"title":"Statistical parametric mapping and neurometrics-a 30-year dialogue.","authors":"Pedro Antonio Valdes-Sosa, Alan C Evans, Maria L Bringas-Vega, Ronaldo Garcia-Reyes, Mitchell J Valdes-Sosa","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf249","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This commentary reflects three decades of interaction between the Cuban neuroinformatics tradition and the statistical parametric mapping (SPM) framework. From the early development of neurometrics in Cuba to global initiatives like the Global Brain Consortium, our trajectory has paralleled and intersected with that of SPM. We highlight shared commitments to generative modeling, Bayesian inference, and population-level brain mapping, as shaped through collaborations, workshops, and joint theoretical work with Karl Friston and his group. This convergence continues to guide our efforts toward global, open, and explicable neuroscience.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145029013","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}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf237
Marco Ninghetto, Georgios A Keliris, Kamil Szulborski, Tomasz Gałecki, Bartosz Kossowski, Daan Panneman, Frans P M Cremers, Monika Ołdak, Jacek P Szaflik, Kalina Burnat
{"title":"Cortical response to transient and long-term visual field loss.","authors":"Marco Ninghetto, Georgios A Keliris, Kamil Szulborski, Tomasz Gałecki, Bartosz Kossowski, Daan Panneman, Frans P M Cremers, Monika Ołdak, Jacek P Szaflik, Kalina Burnat","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf237","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf237","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the visual cortices, receptive fields (RFs) are arranged in a gradient from small sizes in the center of the visual field to the largest sizes at the periphery. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) mapping of population RFs, we investigated RF adaptation in V1, V2, and V3 in patients after long-term photoreceptor degeneration affecting the central (Stargardt disease [STGD]) and peripheral (Retinitis Pigmentosa [RP]) regions of the retina. In controls, we temporarily limited the visual field to the central 10° to model peripheral loss. The central loss experienced by STGD patients led to an increase in RF size in the dorsal subdivisions of V1, V2, and V3. In contrast, peripheral loss in RP patients led to a bilateral increase in population RF sizes in V1 but a decrease in V2. Transient peripheral loss in controls led to an increase in RF size in V1 and a decrease in V2 and V3, regardless of the dorsal-ventral division of the cortical representation. Our findings suggest a dorsal-ventral difference in RF size in response to central visual field loss, likely reflecting the functional relevance of these divisions within the cortical representations of the visual field.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12418949/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145022838","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":"Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation modulates fear memory extinction and neural responses in humans.","authors":"Xuejiao Zhang, Yujing Sun, Chenhao Zhao, Feng Yu, Jiaying Li, Zongya Zhao, Sizhi Ai","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf224","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf224","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research has shown that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) promotes declarative fear extinction, but its neural mechanisms in this process are still unclear. This study aimed to explore tVNS's impacts on physiological (skin conductance response [SCR]) and neural (event-related potentials, ERP) fear-related responses. Forty healthy participants were randomly assigned to the tVNS or Sham group. During a fear-conditioned memory paradigm, electroencephalograph (EEG) and SCR were measured. We analyzed SCR amplitude, ERP components, EEG signal spectral analysis, and the correlation between SCR and EEG metrics. Results showed that compared with the Sham group, the tVNS group had a remarkable decrease in SCR amplitudes for conditioned stimuli (CS+) during retrieval and recall, suggesting reduced sympathetic arousal. ERP analysis revealed a notable decline in late positive potential (LPP) (400-800 ms) amplitudes for CS+ in the tVNS group during these phases, indicating weakened neural reactivity. A significant group-by-phase interaction showed that tVNS effectively suppressed immediate and sustained fear responses, maintaining lower fear-related physiological and neural activity levels. These findings suggest that tVNS modulates neural circuits involved in fear processing, clarifies the mechanisms underlying fear extinction, and highlights its therapeutic potential for fear-related disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144858981","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":"Voxel-based meta-analysis of gray matter abnormalities in idiopathic generalized epilepsy.","authors":"Xiang Huang, Limei Mao, Qiuxing Lin, Kailing Huang, Yuming Li, Peiwen Liu, Danyang Cao, Wenhao Li, Wei Li, Lili Zhao, Dong Zhou, Yingying Zhang, Dongmei An","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf201","DOIUrl":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf201","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This meta-analysis aims to investigate the convergent gray matter alterations observed in idiopathic generalized epilepsy through voxel-based morphometry studies. Voxel-based morphometry studies investigating the whole-brain gray matter alterations between patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy and healthy controls were systematically searched. A coordinate-based meta-analysis of gray matter alterations was performed utilizing the anisotropic effect size-based signed differential mapping. Subgroup analyses were also conducted to further validate these findings and identify specificities. Twenty-two studies including 913 idiopathic generalized epilepsy patients and 887 healthy controls were enrolled. Patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy exhibited increased gray matter in the right cuneus cortex, precuneus, superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus, while exhibiting decreased gray matter in the bilateral thalami, left caudate nucleus, and right insula. Subgroup analyses revealed overlapping gray matter alterations in the bilateral thalami, with specific involvement of frontal lobe and insula in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, right superior temporal gyrus in generalized tonic-clonic seizures alone, and bilateral paracentral lobules in absence epilepsy. This meta-analysis identified that both cortical and subcortical structural abnormalities especially thalamo-cortical circuit was involved in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy, while overlapped and disassociated gray matter alterations were identified across different idiopathic generalized epilepsy subsyndromes.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144774743","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":"Amygdala and cortical substrates of subjective well-being: pathways to reduced aggression in emotional processing contexts.","authors":"Yanxia Ge, Jinlian Wang, Chang Liu, Xiang Li, Hohjin Im, Pinchun Wang, Weipeng Jin, Wenwei Zhu, Qianyi Shangguan, Guang Zhao, Xin Niu, Zong Zhang, Zixi Li, Qiang Wang","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf204","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Subjective well-being has been implicated in the regulation of aggressive behavior, potentially through its influence on mood and neural processing. However, the underlying neuropsychological mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. This study aimed to elucidate the neural correlates of subjective well-being and examine its potential association with aggression using a two-part investigation. The first involved a functional MRI study (n = 111), focusing on amygdala responses to emotional face processing and broader cortical activation related to subjective well-being. The second involved a larger behavioral sample (n = 627) to assess the relationship between subjective well-being and aggression, as well as the mediating role of emotional variables. Behaviorally, subjective well-being was inversely associated with anger, hostility, and overall aggression, and with negative affect, anxiety, and depression. Mediation analyses demonstrated significant effects of mood (negative affect, depression, and anxiety) in linking subjective well-being to aggression. Neuroimaging results revealed that individuals with higher subjective well-being displayed attenuated amygdala reactivity to fearful faces. Additionally, intersubject representational similarity analyses demonstrated that individuals with similar subjective well-being levels shared more convergent neural activation patterns in visual (e.g., occipital pole, lateral occipital cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and fusiform) and the emotional network (e.g., insula), but not within the amygdala. These findings provide novel insights into the neuropsychological mechanisms linking well-being to emotional regulation and aggression.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144774741","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}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf226
Eva Calvo Merino, Qiang Sun, Marc M Van Hulle
{"title":"The phase of slow wave oscillations couples with high gamma power in human electrocorticography during performed and imagined repetitive movements.","authors":"Eva Calvo Merino, Qiang Sun, Marc M Van Hulle","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf226","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>High Gamma Band (HGB) and Slow Wave Oscillations (SWOs) have been identified as significant features in movement neurophysiology. HGB reflects local neuronal activity, while SWOs inform on the temporal characteristics of movement, especially during repetitive tasks. However, to date, they have mostly been studied separately, leaving details on their interaction largely unknown. Here, we looked at Phase Amplitude Coupling (PAC) to assess interactions between SWO phase and HGB power. We use a publicly-available electrocorticography (ECoG) dataset recorded during repetitive motor execution (ME) and motor imagery (MI) of hand and tongue movements. We found channels with significant SWO-HGB PAC for all subjects and tasks, distributed across multiple brain regions. In the sensorimotor cortex PAC occurred at specific coupling phases and was primarily observed during ME, while frontal and temporal regions exhibited similar PAC levels across ME and MI but lacked distinct preferred coupling phases. When training decoders for movement detection, PAC underperformed compared to SWOs or HGB; however, it showed a strong correlation with accuracy when single-channel SWOs were used as decoding feature, highlighting its potential for channel selection. Weaker correlations were found when PAC was compared to task-related HGB power increases, suggesting that these represent distinct neural features.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144944191","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}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf198
Xue Du, Chenxi Li, Jian Liang, Jianjun Mou, Qinqin Zheng
{"title":"Empathy responses to others' physical pain in the deaf college students: evidence from an event-related potential study.","authors":"Xue Du, Chenxi Li, Jian Liang, Jianjun Mou, Qinqin Zheng","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf198","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Facing others in pain can elicit compassion, and inclinations to comfort or help, which contributing to the construction of our harmonious society. Due to hearing impairments, deaf college students not only experienced a lot of physical pain personally but also had difficulties in social interactions. However, the empathy responses to others' physical pain in the deaf college students is not well established. We assessed the brain activity of 27 deaf and 28 hearing college students when observing images depicting painful and nonpainful information by using event-related potentials. Results showed that compared to the hearing college students, the deaf college students exhibited greater N1, N2, and P3 amplitudes evoked by painful picture. This study indicated that deaf college students experienced heighten emotional arousal and more psychological resources costed when facing others in pain.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144768451","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}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf250
Henry Hebron, Radost Dimitrova, Valeria Jaramillo, Derk-Jan Dijk, Ines R Violante
{"title":"Lateralised modulation of posterior alpha oscillations by closed loop auditory stimulation during memory retention.","authors":"Henry Hebron, Radost Dimitrova, Valeria Jaramillo, Derk-Jan Dijk, Ines R Violante","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf250","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Alpha oscillations have been implicated in the maintenance of working memory representations. Notably, when memorised content is spatially lateralised, the power of posterior alpha activity exhibits corresponding lateralisation during the retention interval, consistent with the retinotopic organisation of the visual cortex. Beyond power, alpha frequency has also been linked to memory performan ce, with faster alpha rhythms associated with enhanced retention. These findings position alpha oscillations as a promising target for neuromodulation. In this study, we demonstrate that although alpha frequency is not typically lateralised in a retinotopic manner during working memory retention, such lateralisation can be externally induced. Using alpha closed-loop auditory stimulation targeted to opposite alpha phases on opposite cortices and leveraging the previously demonstrated phase-dependent modulation of alpha oscillations' frequency by sound, we successfully modulated alpha frequency asymmetrically between the visual cortices. The extent of induced frequency lateralisation was associated with the behavioural asymmetry in task performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145029001","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}
Cerebral cortexPub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaf227
Peng Zhang, Lin Ding, Mingliang Wang, Shuyi Qiu
{"title":"Neural mechanisms of physical and social pain empathy: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of fMRI studies.","authors":"Peng Zhang, Lin Ding, Mingliang Wang, Shuyi Qiu","doi":"10.1093/cercor/bhaf227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf227","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study employed a systematic meta-analysis to elucidate neural representation differences between empathy for physical and social pain. Addressing the critical unresolved question of neurofunctional similarities and distinctions between these two empathy types, we performed an activation likelihood estimation coordinate-based meta-analysis, quantitatively synthesizing 35 functional MRI studies. Key findings revealed the following: (i) Physical pain empathy demonstrated significant left-lateralized activation patterns involving core regions of the mirror neuron system-including emotional resonance (anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex), affective-cognitive integration (anterior insula), and action comprehension (inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule); (ii) social pain empathy selectively activated the mentalizing network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex/medial prefrontal cortex); (iii) differential analyses identified the inferior parietal lobule, anterior cingulate cortex, and superior frontal gyrus as core discriminative regions, with no shared activated brain areas detected. These findings provide large-scale evidence supporting functional segregation in neural substrates between empathy subtypes, offering critical neuroimaging evidence for multidimensional models of empathy.</p>","PeriodicalId":9715,"journal":{"name":"Cerebral cortex","volume":"35 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144944578","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}