Cerebral cortex最新文献

The Four-dimensional (spatiotemporal) Consistency of local Neural Activities (FOCA) metric was utilized to assess spontaneous whole-brain activity. Despite its application, the genetic underpinnings of FOCA alterations in Alzheimer's Disease (AD)-related Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) remain largely unexplored. To elucidate these changes, we analyzed group FOCA differences in 41 MCI patients and 46 controls from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database. Integrating the Allen Human Brain Atlas, we performed transcriptome-neuroimaging spatial association analyses to pinpoint genes correlating with MCI-related FOCA changes. We observed heightened FOCA in the frontal-parietal system and diminished FOCA in the temporal lobe and medium cingulate gyrus among MCI patients. These FOCA alterations were spatially linked to the expression of 384 genes, which were enriched in crucial molecular functions, biological processes, and cellular components of the cerebral cortex, as well as related pathways. These genes were specifically expressed in brain tissue and corticothalamic neurons, particularly during late cortical development. They also connected to various behavioral domains. Furthermore, these genes could form a protein-protein interaction network, supported by 34 hub genes. Our results suggest that local spatiotemporal consistency of spontaneous brain activity in MCI may stem from the complex interplay of a broad spectrum of genes with diverse functional features.

Neuroscience research with public health relevance to emotional disorders examines brain-behavior relations. Joe LeDoux's legacy advances these efforts in ways that remain truly unique. While recognized for his basic science research, he also inspires applied researchers, guiding an agenda for clinical scientists: understanding the pathophysiology of altered subjective experiences in emotional disorders. For brain imaging, movie-watching approaches help clinicians realize this agenda due to movies' relative strength in evoking rich, meaningful subjective experiences. Here, we describe methodological advances in movie-watching paradigms that might sustain LeDoux's impact by facilitating the discovery of neural mechanisms generating complex emotional responses. Of note, while linking subjective emotion to pathophysiology is a first step, innovations in movie-watching designs, especially involving therapeutic techniques for emotional disorders, can boost clinical application. Leveraging research on pathophysiology to generate novel therapy reflects the clinical legacy sustained through Joe LeDoux's rousing career.

In honor of Joseph LeDoux's retirement from an illustrious career in science, I offer a personal reflection on how my graduate training experiences in his lab shaped my subsequent career trajectory and the development of my views on human amygdala function and the scientific enterprise. I discuss the values of openness to scientific exploration and of multi-methodological integration, both of which distinguished his laboratory over the years. I highlight the unique historical context in which the lab's foundational discoveries on the emotional brain occurred and the importance of embracing new technologies to advance an understanding of brain-behavior relationships in affective neuroscience.

Initiated by a long stay of Valérie Doyère in the laboratory of Joseph LeDoux, a Franco-American collaborative group was formed around the topic of emotion and time perception in a comparative perspective between humans and non-human animals. Here, we discuss results from our studies on the mechanisms underlying time distortion under 2 conditions, timing of a threatening stimulus and timing of a neutral stimulus in the context of fear, with insights from neurodevelopment. Although the type of temporal distortion depends on the experimental situations, in both humans and rodents a high-arousal emotion automatically triggers acceleration of an "internal clock" system, an effect that may rely on the early maturing amygdala. Our studies, particularly in humans, also point to the role of attention and self-awareness in regulating the effect of fear on timing, relying on the prefrontal cortex, a late maturing structure. Thus, in line with LeDoux, while the amygdala may process all characteristics of events (including time) necessary to quickly trigger appropriate survival behaviors, some type of time distortions may rely on higher-order processing, some specific to humans. The extent of the network underlying threat-related time distortions remains to be explored, with species comparisons being a promising means of investigation.

Joseph LeDoux is a pioneering neuroscientist who has made profound discoveries that continue to impact our understanding of the neural basis of emotion and memory, particularly the role of the amygdala in threat conditioning. LeDoux's trailblazing and elegant studies were some of the first to examine the circuit basis of behavior. His work combined techniques to trace pathways into and out of the amygdala important for threat conditioning and related behaviors. Since that time, these types of circuit tracing studies have exploded in popularity across neuroscience, and I would argue, we all owe a debt to LeDoux for this. LeDoux has made numerous additional contributions to neuroscience and, by bringing emotion back to neuroscience, has helped unite neuroscience with psychology. A gifted writer with a knack for communicating complicated scientific ideas in an accessible manner, LeDoux has become an ambassador of science who uses his love of music to help educate and inspire. Perhaps more important than these laudable scientific achievements, LeDoux is also a true "gentleman" of science, showing that science need not be a contact sport. Here, I give a personal account on why Joseph LeDoux is one of my scientific role models.

LeDoux's work on the emotional brain has had broad impact in neuroscience and psychology. Here, we discuss an aspect of the emotional brain that we have examined in our laboratory during the past two decades: emotional future simulations or constructed mental representations of positive and negative future experiences. Specifically, we consider research concerning (i) neural correlates of emotional future simulations, (ii) how emotional future simulations impact subsequent cognition and memory, (iii) the role of emotional future simulations in worry and anxiety, and (iv) individual differences in emotional future simulation related to narcissistic grandiosity. The intersection of emotion and future simulation is closely linked to some of LeDoux's primary scientific concerns.

Blindsight refers to the ability to make accurate visual discriminations without conscious awareness of the stimuli. In this study, we present new evidence from naturalistic observations of a patient with bilateral damage to the striate cortex, who surprisingly demonstrated the ability to detect colored objects, particularly red ones. Despite the slow and effortful process, the patient reported full awareness of the color aspect of the stimuli. These observations cannot be explained by traditional concepts of type 1 or type 2 blindsight, raising intriguing questions about the boundaries between objective and subjective blindness, as well as the nature of visual experience and epistemic agency. Moreover, these findings underscore the significant role that blindsight could play in future research, especially in understanding how higher cortical functions are involved in emotions and feelings. This highlights the necessity for further exploration to better understand the visual features that contribute to the phenomenon of affective blindsight.