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ErratumEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Cerebral Cortex)
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

GABAergic Inhibitory Interneurons in the Posterior Piriform Cortex of the GAD67-GFP MouseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
-Aminobutyric acid (GABA)–releasing inhibitory interneurons, a critical component of cortical circuitry, are involved in myriad known functional roles. However, information regarding the cytoarchitectural, physiological, and molecular properties of interneurons in posterior piriform cortex (PPC) is sparse. Taking advantage of the glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)67–enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) mouse, we used in vitro whole-cell patch-clamp techniques to record from GABAergic interneurons across all 3 layers of PPC and, subsequently, to reconstruct their morphology. For the first time, 5 groups of i...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Young, A., Sun, Q.-Q. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

A Simple Rule for Axon Outgrowth and Synaptic Competition Generates Realistic Connection Lengths and Filling FractionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Neural connectivity at the cellular and mesoscopic level appears very specific and is presumed to arise from highly specific developmental mechanisms. However, there are general shared features of connectivity in systems as different as the networks formed by individual neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans or in rat visual cortex and the mesoscopic circuitry of cortical areas in the mouse, macaque, and human brain. In all these systems, connection length distributions have very similar shapes, with an initial large peak and a long flat tail representing the admixture of long-distance connections to mostly short-distance conne...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kaiser, M., Hilgetag, C. C., van Ooyen, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Integrating Visual and Tactile Information in the Perirhinal CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By virtue of its widespread afferent projections, perirhinal cortex is thought to bind polymodal information into abstract object-level representations. Consistent with this proposal, deficits in cross-modal integration have been reported after perirhinal lesions in nonhuman primates. It is therefore surprising that imaging studies of humans have not observed perirhinal activation during visual–tactile object matching. Critically, however, these studies did not differentiate between congruent and incongruent trials. This is important because successful integration can only occur when polymodal information indicates a...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Holdstock, J. S., Hocking, J., Notley, P., Devlin, J. T., Price, C. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Analysis of c-fos and zif268 Expression Reveals Time-Dependent Changes in Activity Inside and Outside the Lesion Projection Zone in Adult Cat Area 17 after Retinal LesionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In conclusion, alterations in activity reporter gene expression throughout area 17 contribute to the lesion-induced functional reorganization. (Source: Cerebral Cortex)
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Hu, T.-T., Laeremans, A., Eysel, U. T., Cnops, L., Arckens, L. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Additive Effects of Attention and Stimulus Contrast in Primary Visual CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Previous studies have proposed a variety of mechanisms by which attention influences neuronal activity. Here we investigated the mechanisms of attention in the striate cortex of monkeys performing a spatial or an object-based attention task at various stimulus contrasts and compared neuronal contrast response functions with and without attention. Our data are best described by an "additive" interaction: The influence of attention on the neuronal response is relatively independent of the stimulus contrast, at least when the stimulus has enough contrast to become visible. This shows that attention adds to the neuronal respon...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Thiele, A., Pooresmaeili, A., Delicato, L. S., Herrero, J. L., Roelfsema, P. R. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Double Dissociation of Spike Timing-Dependent Potentiation and Depression by Subunit-Preferring NMDA Receptor Antagonists in Mouse Barrel CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Spike timing–dependent plasticity (STDP) is a strong candidate for an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-dependent form of synaptic plasticity that could underlie the development of receptive field properties in sensory neocortices. Whilst induction of timing-dependent long-term potentiation (t-LTP) requires postsynaptic NMDA receptors, timing-dependent long-term depression (t-LTD) requires the activation of presynaptic NMDA receptors at layer 4-to-layer 2/3 synapses in barrel cortex. Here we investigated the developmental profile of t-LTD at layer 4-to-layer 2/3 synapses of mouse barrel cortex and studied their NM...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Banerjee, A., Meredith, R. M., Rodriguez-Moreno, A., Mierau, S. B., Auberson, Y. P., Paulsen, O. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

The Brain Network Underlying Serial Visual Search: Comparing Overt and Covert Spatial Orienting, for Activations and for Effective ConnectivityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the brain basis of overt and covert forms of attention during search, while employing stringent control of both eye movements and attentional shifts. A factorial design compared overt and covert forms of goal-directed serial search versus stimulus-driven tracking. To match ocular changes and the number and magnitude of attention shifts across cells in the design, stimulus-driven tracking involved trial-specific "replay" of previous goal-directed eye movements. We found that, in terms of cortical activations, engagement of the dorsal fronto-parietal network...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Fairhall, S.L., Indovina, I., Driver, J., Macaluso, E. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Functional Heterogeneity of Inferior Parietal Cortex during Mathematical Cognition Assessed with Cytoarchitectonic Probability MapsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Although the inferior parietal cortex (IPC) has been consistently implicated in mathematical cognition, the functional roles of its subdivisions are poorly understood. We address this problem using probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps of IPC subdivisions intraparietal sulcus (IPS), angular gyrus (AG), and supramarginal gyrus. We quantified IPC responses relative to task difficulty and individual differences in task proficiency during mental arithmetic (MA) tasks performed with Arabic (MA-A) and Roman (MA-R) numerals. The 2 tasks showed similar levels of activation in 3 distinct IPS areas, hIP1, hIP2, and hIP3, suggesting t...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Wu, S. S., Chang, T. T., Majid, A., Caspers, S., Eickhoff, S. B., Menon, V. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Regional Patterns of Cerebral Cortical Differentiation Determined by Diffusion Tensor MRIEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The morphology of axonal and dendritic arbors in the immature cerebral cortex influences the degree of anisotropy in water diffusion. This enables cortical maturation to be monitored by the noninvasive technique of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI). Herein, we utilized DTI of postmortem ferret brain to quantify regional and temporal patterns in cortical maturation. We found that diffusion anisotropy within the isocortex decreases over the first month of life, coinciding closely in time with expansion of axonal and dendritic cellular processes of pyramidal neurons. Regional patterns consist of differences be...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kroenke, C. D., Taber, E. N., Leigland, L. A., Knutsen, A. K., Bayly, P. V. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Axon Morphologies and Convergence Patterns of Projections from Different Sensory-Specific Cortices of the Anterior Ectosylvian Sulcus onto Multisensory Neurons in the Cat Superior ColliculusEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Corticofugal projections to the thalamus reveal 2 axonal morphologies, each associated with specific physiological attributes. These determine the functional characteristics of thalamic neurons. It is not clear, however, whether such features characterize the corticofugal projections that mediate multisensory integration in superior colliculus (SC) neurons. The cortico-collicular projections from cat anterior ectosylvian sulcus (AES) are derived from its visual, auditory, and somatosensory representations and are critical for multisensory integration. Following tracer injections into each subdivision, 2 types of cortico-co...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Fuentes-Santamaria, V., Alvarado, J. C., McHaffie, J. G., Stein, B. E. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Hypoxic Injury during Neonatal Development in Murine Brain: Correlation between In Vivo DTI Findings and Behavioral AssessmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Preterm birth results in significant neurodevelopmental disability. A neonatal rodent model of chronic sublethal hypoxia (CSH), which mimics effects of preterm birth, was used to characterize neurodevelopmental consequences of prolonged exposure to hypoxia using tissue anisotropy measurements from diffusion tensor imaging. Corpus callosum, cingulum, and fimbria of the hippocampus revealed subtle, yet significant, hypoxia-induced modifications during maturation (P15–P51). Anisotropy differences between control and CSH mice were greatest at older ages (>P40) in these regions. Neither somatosensory cortex nor caudate...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Chahboune, H., Ment, L. R., Stewart, W. B., Rothman, D. L., Vaccarino, F. M., Hyder, F., Schwartz, M. L. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Too Little, Too Late: Reduced Visual Span and Speed Characterize Pure AlexiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Whether normal word reading includes a stage of visual processing selectively dedicated to word or letter recognition is highly debated. Characterizing pure alexia, a seemingly selective disorder of reading, has been central to this debate. Two main theories claim either that 1) Pure alexia is caused by damage to a reading specific brain region in the left fusiform gyrus or 2) Pure alexia results from a general visual impairment that may particularly affect simultaneous processing of multiple items. We tested these competing theories in 4 patients with pure alexia using sensitive psychophysical measures and mathematical mo...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Starrfelt, R., Habekost, T., Leff, A. P. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Paraneoplastic Antigen-Like 5 Gene (PNMA5) Is Preferentially Expressed in the Association Areas in a Primate Specific MannerEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
To understand the relationship between the structure and function of primate neocortical areas at a molecular level, we have been screening for genes differentially expressed across macaque neocortical areas by restriction landmark cDNA scanning (RLCS). Here, we report enriched expression of the paraneoplastic antigen-like 5 gene (PNMA5) in association areas but not in primary sensory areas, with the lowest expression level in primary visual cortex. In situ hybridization in the primary sensory areas revealed PNMA5 mRNA expression restricted to layer II. Along the ventral visual pathway, the expression gradually increased i...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Takaji, M., Komatsu, Y., Watakabe, A., Hashikawa, T., Yamamori, T. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Cortical Mechanisms for Online Control of Hand Movement Trajectory: The Role of the Posterior Parietal CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The parietal mechanisms for the control of hand movement trajectory were studied by recording cell activity in area 5 of monkeys making direct reaches to visual targets and online corrections of movement trajectory, after change of target location in space. The activity of hand-related cells was fitted with a linear model including hand position, movement direction, and speed. The neural activity modulation mostly led, but also followed, hand movement. When a change of hand trajectory occurred, the pattern of activity associated with the movement to the first target evolved into that typical of the movement to the second o...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Archambault, P. S., Caminiti, R., Battaglia-Mayer, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

In Vivo MRI of Altered Brain Anatomy and Fiber Connectivity in Adult Pax6 Deficient MiceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The impact of developmental ablation of Pax6 function on morphology and functional connectivity of the adult cerebrum was studied in cortex-specific Pax6 knockout mice (Pax6cKO) using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), manganese-enhanced MRI, and diffusion tensor MRI in conjunction with fiber tractography. Mutants presented with decreased volumes of total brain and olfactory bulb, reduced cortical thickness, and altered layering of the piriform cortex. Tracking of major neuronal fiber bundles revealed a disorganization of callosal fibers with an almost complete lack of interhemispheric connectivity. In Pax6cKO mi...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Boretius, S., Michaelis, T., Tammer, R., Ashery-Padan, R., Frahm, J., Stoykova, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Locus Coeruleus Activation Facilitates Memory Encoding and Induces Hippocampal LTD that Depends on {beta}-Adrenergic Receptor ActivationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Spatial memory formation is enabled through synaptic information processing, in the form of persistent strengthening and weakening of synapses, within the hippocampus. It is, however, unclear how relevant spatial information is selected for encoding, in preference to less pertinent information. As the noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) becomes active in response to novel experiences, we hypothesized that the LC may provide the saliency signal required to promote hippocampal encoding of relevant information through changes in synaptic strength. Test pulse stimulation evoked stable basal synaptic transmission at Schaffer col...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Lemon, N., Aydin-Abidin, S., Funke, K., Manahan-Vaughan, D. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Differences in Intrinsic Properties and Local Network Connectivity of Identified Layer 5 and Layer 6 Adult Mouse Auditory Corticothalamic Neurons Support a Dual Corticothalamic Projection HypothesisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Intrinsic properties, morphology, and local network circuitry of identified layer 5 and layer 6 auditory corticothalamic neurons were compared. We injected fluorescent microspheres into the mouse auditory thalamus to prelabel corticothalamic neurons, then recorded and filled labeled layer 5 or layer 6 auditory cortical neurons in vitro. We observed low-threshold bursting in adult, but not juvenile, layer 5 corticothalamic neurons that was voltage and time dependent with nonlinear input–output properties, whereas adult layer 6 corticothalamic neurons demonstrated a regular spiking. Layer 5 corticothalamic neurons had ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Llano, D. A., Sherman, S. M. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Not What You Expect: Experience but not Expectancy Predicts Conditioned Responses in Human Visual and Supplementary CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When paired with aversive events, visual conditioned stimuli (CS) provoke increased activations in visual cortex. It is unclear however whether these changes reflect cognitive processes such as expectancy of the aversive unconditioned stimulus (US), or implicit associative learning of the contingencies outside awareness. Here, we used the "gambler's fallacy" phenomenon to parametrically and inversely manipulate the expectancy of an US and the number of conditioning trials: Increasing the number of CS–US pairings was associated with participants expecting the US to be less likely and vice versa. Magnetocortical activi...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Moratti, S., Keil, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Sex Differences in Resting-State Neural Correlates of Openness to Experience among Older AdultsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We investigated sex differences in the resting-state neural correlates of Openness to Experience, a universal personality trait defined by cognitive flexibility, attention to feelings, creativity, and preference for novelty. Using resting-state positron-emission tomography from 100 older individuals (>55 years of age), we identified associations between Openness and resting-state regional cerebral blood flow that replicated across 2 assessments of the same sample, approximately 2 years apart. Openness correlated positively with prefrontal activity in women, anterior cingulate activity in men, and orbitofrontal activity ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Sutin, A. R., Beason-Held, L. L., Resnick, S. M., Costa, P. T. Tags: Feature Article Source Type: journals

Where Is the Semantic System? A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of 120 Functional Neuroimaging StudiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Semantic memory refers to knowledge about people, objects, actions, relations, self, and culture acquired through experience. The neural systems that store and retrieve this information have been studied for many years, but a consensus regarding their identity has not been reached. Using strict inclusion criteria, we analyzed 120 functional neuroimaging studies focusing on semantic processing. Reliable areas of activation in these studies were identified using the activation likelihood estimate (ALE) technique. These activations formed a distinct, left-lateralized network comprised of 7 regions: posterior inferior parietal...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Binder, J. R., Desai, R. H., Graves, W. W., Conant, L. L. Tags: Feature Article Source Type: journals

Table of ContentsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Cerebral Cortex)
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Tags: Table of Contents Source Type: journals

SubscriptionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Cerebral Cortex)
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Tags: Subscriptions Source Type: journals

Associate EditorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Cerebral Cortex)
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Tags: Editorial Board Source Type: journals

CoverEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: Cerebral Cortex)
Source: Cerebral Cortex - November 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Tags: Cover Source Type: journals

Developmental Trajectories of Magnitude Processing and Interference Control: An fMRI StudyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Neurodevelopmental changes regarding interference and magnitude processing were assessed in 3 age groups (children, n = 10; young adults, n = 11; elderly participants, n = 9) by using an functional magnetic resonance imaging version of the numerical Stroop task. Behaviorally, comparable distance and size congruity effects were found in all 3 age groups. Distance effects were most pronounced in the more difficult numerical task, whereas size congruity effects were comparable across tasks. In response to interference, an age-linear trend in the pattern of activation in left and right prefrontal and left middle temporal regio...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Wood, G., Ischebeck, A., Koppelstaetter, F., Gotwald, T., Kaufmann, L. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Engagement of Fusiform Cortex and Disengagement of Lateral Occipital Cortex in the Acquisition of Radiological ExpertiseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The human visual pathways that are specialized for object recognition stretch from lateral occipital cortex (LO) to the ventral surface of the temporal lobe, including the fusiform gyrus. Plasticity in these pathways supports the acquisition of visual expertise, but precisely how training affects the different regions remains unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural activity in both LO and the fusiform gyrus in radiologists as they detected abnormalities in chest radiographs. Activity in the right fusiform face area (FFA) correlated with visual expertise, measured as behavioral performance d...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Harley, E. M., Pope, W. B., Villablanca, J. P., Mumford, J., Suh, R., Mazziotta, J. C., Enzmann, D., Engel, S. A. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Movement-Specific Repetition Suppression in Ventral and Dorsal Premotor Cortex during Action ObservationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There are several models of premotor cortex contributions to sensorimotor behavior. For instance, the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) appears to be involved in processing visuospatial object properties for grasping, whereas the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) is involved in using arbitrary rules to guide advance motor planning. These models have focused on individual movements. Here, we examine the premotor responses evoked during the processing of individual movements functionally embedded in an action. We tested whether processing hand–object interactions and action end states would differentially engage PMv and PMd. We...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Majdandzic, J., Bekkering, H., van Schie, H. T., Toni, I. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Distinct Genetic Influences on Cortical Surface Area and Cortical ThicknessEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Neuroimaging studies examining the effects of aging and neuropsychiatric disorders on the cerebral cortex have largely been based on measures of cortical volume. Given that cortical volume is a product of thickness and surface area, it is plausible that measures of volume capture at least 2 distinct sets of genetic influences. The present study aims to examine the genetic relationships between measures of cortical surface area and thickness. Participants were men in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (110 monozygotic pairs and 92 dizygotic pairs). Mean age was 55.8 years (range: 51–59). Bivariate twin analyses were ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Panizzon, M. S., Fennema-Notestine, C., Eyler, L. T., Jernigan, T. L., Prom-Wormley, E., Neale, M., Jacobson, K., Lyons, M. J., Grant, M. D., Franz, C. E., Xian, H., Tsuang, M., Fischl, B., Seidman, L., Dale, A., Kremen, W. S. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Gonadal Hormones Modulate the Dendritic Spine Densities of Primary Cortical Pyramidal Neurons in Adult Female RatEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Adult dendritic arbors and spines can be modulated by environment and gonadal hormones that have been reported to affect also those of hippocampal and prefrontal cortical neurons. Here we investigated whether female gonadal hormones and estrous cycle alter the dendrites of primary cortical neurons. We employed intracellular dye injection in semifixed brain slices and 3-dimensional reconstruction to study the dendritic arbors and spines of the major cortical output cells, layer III and V pyramidal neurons, during different stages of the estrous cycle. Dendritic spines of both pyramidal neurons were more numerous during proe...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Chen, J.-R., Yan, Y.-T., Wang, T.-J., Chen, L.-J., Wang, Y.-J., Tseng, G.-F. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Background Dopamine Concentration Dependently Facilitates Long-term Potentiation in Rat Prefrontal Cortex through Postsynaptic Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated KinasesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Altered levels of tonic/background dopamine in prefrontal cortex (PFC) may underlie modifications of executive cognitive function. We showed previously in rat PFC slices that exogenously supplied background dopamine facilitates induction of long-term potentiation (LTP), a possible cellular substrate for the long-term component of executive cognitive function. In the present study, we characterized cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this modulatory dopamine effect. We show first that the LTP-facilitating effect of tonic/background dopamine follows an inverted-U shape concentration curve and that the effective leve...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kolomiets, B., Marzo, A., Caboche, J., Vanhoutte, P., Otani, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Reading and Subcortical Auditory FunctionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Although it is largely agreed that phonological processing deficits are a major cause of poor reading, the neural origins of phonological processing are not well understood. We now show, for the first time, that phonological decoding, measured with a test of single-nonword reading, is significantly correlated with the timing of subcortical auditory processing and also, to a lesser extent, with the robustness of subcortical representation of the harmonic content of speech, but not with pitch encoding. The relationships we observe between reading and subcortical processing fall along a continuum, with poor readers at one end...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Banai, K., Hornickel, J., Skoe, E., Nicol, T., Zecker, S., Kraus, N. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Structural Correlates of Semantic and Phonemic Fluency Ability in First and Second LanguagesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study investigated whether differential performance on semantic (category) and phonemic (letter) fluency in neurologically normal participants was reflected in regional gray matter density. The participants were 59 highly proficient speakers of 2 languages. Our findings corroborate the importance of the left inferior temporal cortex in semantic relative to phonemic fluency and show this effect to be the same in a first language (L1) and second language (L2). Additionally, we show that the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and head of caudate bilaterally are associated with phonemic more than semantic fluency, and...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Grogan, A., Green, D. W., Ali, N., Crinion, J. T., Price, C. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Distracters Impair and Create Working Memory-Related Neuronal Activity in the Prefrontal CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has a central role in working memory (WM). Resistance to distraction is considered a fundamental feature of WM and PFC neuronal activity. However, although unexpected stimuli often disrupt our work, little is known about the underlying neuronal mechanisms involved. In the present study, we investigated whether irregularly presented distracters disrupt WM task performance and underlying neuronal activity. We recorded single neuron activity in the PFC of 2 monkeys performing WM tasks and investigated effects of auditory and visual distracters on WM performance and neuronal activity. Distracters im...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Artchakov, D., Tikhonravov, D., Ma, Y., Neuvonen, T., Linnankoski, I., Carlson, S. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Aging Influences the Neural Correlates of Lexical Decision but Not Automatic Semantic PrimingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Human behavioral data indicate that older adults are slower to perform lexical decisions (LDs) than young adults but show similar reaction time gains when these decisions are primed semantically. The present study explored the functional neuroanatomic bases of these frequently observed behavioral findings. Young and older groups completed unprimed and primed LD tasks while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was recorded, using a fully randomized trial design paralleling those used in behavioral research. Results from the unprimed task found that age-related slowing of LD was associated with decreased activation i...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Gold, B. T., Andersen, A. H., Jicha, G. A., Smith, C. D. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Consonants and Vowels Contribute Differently to Visual Word Recognition: ERPs of Relative Position PrimingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This paper shows that the nature of letters—consonant versus vowel—modulates the process of letter position assignment during visual word recognition. We recorded Event Related Potentials while participants read words in a masked priming semantic categorization task. Half of the words included a vowel as initial, third, and fifth letters (e.g., acero [steel]). The other half included a consonant as initial, third, and fifth (e.g., farol [lantern]). Targets could be preceded 1) by the initial, third, and fifth letters (relative position; e.g., aeo—acero and frl—farol), 2) by 3 consonants or vowels th...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Carreiras, M., Dunabeitia, J. A., Molinaro, N. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Dopaminergic Neuromodulation of Semantic Processing: A 4-T fMRI Study with LevodopaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There is emerging evidence that alterations in dopaminergic transmission can influence semantic processing, yet the neural mechanisms involved are unknown. The influence of levodopa (L-DOPA) on semantic priming was investigated in healthy individuals (n = 20) using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging with a randomized, double-blind crossover design. Critical prime–target pairs consisted of a lexical ambiguity prime and 1) a target related to the dominant meaning of the prime (e.g., bank–money), 2) a target related to the subordinate meaning (e.g., fence–sword), or 3) an unrelated target (e...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Copland, D. A., McMahon, K. L., Silburn, P. A., de Zubicaray, G. I. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Cortical and Subcortical Mechanisms for Precisely Controlled Force Generation and Force RelaxationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Gripping objects during everyday manual tasks requires the coordination of muscle contractions and muscle relaxations. The vast majority of studies have focused on muscle contractions. Although previous work has examined the motor cortex during muscle relaxation, the role of brain areas beyond motor cortex remains to be elucidated. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly compare slow and precisely controlled force generation and force relaxation in humans. Contralateral primary motor cortex and bilateral caudate nucleus had greater activity during force generation compared with force relaxa...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Spraker, M. B., Corcos, D. M., Vaillancourt, D. E. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Detecting Wrong Notes in Advance: Neuronal Correlates of Error Monitoring in PianistsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Music performance is an extremely rapid process with low incidence of errors even at the fast rates of production required. This is possible only due to the fast functioning of the self-monitoring system. Surprisingly, no specific data about error monitoring have been published in the music domain. Consequently, the present study investigated the electrophysiological correlates of executive control mechanisms, in particular error detection, during piano performance. Our target was to extend the previous research efforts on understanding of the human action-monitoring system by selecting a highly skilled multimodal task. Pi...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Ruiz, M. H., Jabusch, H.-C., Altenmuller, E. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

No Neglect-Specific Deficits in Reaching TasksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It is well established that patients with hemispatial neglect present with severe visuospatial impairments, but studies that have directly investigated visuomotor control have revealed diverging results, with some studies showing that neglect patients perform relatively better on such tasks. The present study compared the visuomotor performance of patients with and without neglect after right-hemisphere stroke with those of age-matched controls. Participants were asked to point either directly towards targets or halfway between two stimuli, both with and without visual feedback during movement. Although we did not find any...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Rossit, S., Malhotra, P., Muir, K., Reeves, I., Duncan, G., Livingstone, K., Jackson, H., Hogg, C., Castle, P., Learmonth, G., Harvey, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Stimulus-Response Profile during Single-Pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to the Primary Motor CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined the stimulus–response profile during single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) by measuring motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) with electromyographic monitoring and hemodynamic responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3 Tesla. In 16 healthy subjects, single TMS pulses were irregularly delivered to the left primary motor cortex at a mean frequency of 0.15 Hz with a wide range of stimulus intensities. The measurement of MEP proved a typical relationship between stimulus intensity and MEP amplitude in the concurrent TMS-fMRI environment. In the population-level analysis of the su...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Hanakawa, T., Mima, T., Matsumoto, R., Abe, M., Inouchi, M., Urayama, S.-i., Anami, K., Honda, M., Fukuyama, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Relationships between Brain Activation and Brain Structure in Normally Developing ChildrenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dynamic changes in brain structure, activation, and cognitive abilities co-occur during development, but little is known about how changes in brain structure relate to changes in cognitive function or brain activity. By using cortical pattern matching techniques to correlate cortical gray matter thickness and functional brain activity over the entire brain surface in 24 typically developing children, we integrated structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data with cognitive test scores to identify correlates of mature performance during orthographic processing. Fast-naming individuals activated the right fronto...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Lu, L. H., Dapretto, M., O'Hare, E. D., Kan, E., McCourt, S. T., Thompson, P. M., Toga, A. W., Bookheimer, S. Y., Sowell, E. R. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

The Neural Architecture of Music-Evoked Autobiographical MemoriesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is regarded as a region of the brain that supports self-referential processes, including the integration of sensory information with self-knowledge and the retrieval of autobiographical information. I used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a novel procedure for eliciting autobiographical memories with excerpts of popular music dating to one's extended childhood to test the hypothesis that music and autobiographical memories are integrated in the MPFC. Dorsal regions of the MPFC (Brodmann area 8/9) were shown to respond parametrically to the degree of autobiographical salience exp...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Janata, P. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Experience-Dependent, Rapid Structural Changes in Hippocampal Pyramidal Cell SpinesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Morphological changes in dendritic spines may contribute to the fine tuning of neural network connectivity. The relationship between spine morphology and experience-dependent neuronal activity, however, is largely unknown. In the present study, we combined 2 histological analyses to examine this relationship: 1) Measurement of spines of neurons whose morphology was visualized in brain sections of mice expressing membrane-targeted green florescent protein (Thy1-mGFP mice) and 2) Categorization of CA1 neurons by immunohistochemical monitoring of Arc expression as a putative marker of recent neuronal activity. After mice were...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kitanishi, T., Ikegaya, Y., Matsuki, N., Yamada, M. K. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Greater Working Memory Load Results in Greater Medial Temporal Activity at RetrievalEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Most functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies examining working memory (WM) load have focused on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and have demonstrated increased prefrontal activity with increased load. Here we examined WM load effects in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) using an fMRI Sternberg task with novel complex visual scenes. Trials consisted of 3 sequential events: 1) sample presentation (encoding), 2) delay period (maintenance), and 3) probe period (retrieval). During sample encoding, subjects saw either 2 or 4 pictures consecutively. During retrieval, subjects indicated whether the probe picture matched one ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Schon, K., Quiroz, Y. T., Hasselmo, M. E., Stern, C. E. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

The Influence of Multiple Primes on Bottom-Up and Top-Down Regulation during Meaning Retrieval: Evidence for 2 Distinct Neural NetworksEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Meaning retrieval of a word can proceed fast and effortlessly or can be characterized by a controlled search for candidate lexical items and a subsequent selection process. In the current study, we facilitated meaning retrieval by increasing the number of words that were related to the final target word in a triplet (e.g., lion–stripes–tiger). To induce higher search and selection demands, we presented ambiguous words as targets (i.e., homonyms like ball) in half of the trials. Hereby, the dominant (game), low-frequent (dance), or both meanings of the homonym were primed. Participants performed a relatedness ju...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Whitney, C., Grossman, M., Kircher, T. T. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Inhibition of cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein Reduces Neuronal Excitability and Plasticity, and Triggers NeurodegenerationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB) pathway has been involved in 2 major cascades of gene expression regulating neuronal function. The first one presents CREB as a critical component of the molecular switch that controls long-lasting forms of neuronal plasticity and learning. The second one relates CREB to neuronal survival and protection. To investigate the role of CREB-dependent gene expression in neuronal plasticity and survival in vivo, we generated bitransgenic mice expressing A-CREB, an artificial peptide with strong and broad inhibitory effect on the CREB family, in forebrain neurons in a regulatable ...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Jancic, D., Lopez de Armentia, M., Valor, L. M., Olivares, R., Barco, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Detection of Fixed and Variable Targets in the Monkey Prefrontal CortexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Behavioral significance is commonly coded by prefrontal neurons. The significance of a stimulus can be fixed through experience; in complex behavior, however, significance commonly changes with short-term context. To compare these cases, we trained monkeys in 2 versions of visual target detection. In both tasks, animals monitored a series of pictures, making a go response (saccade) at the offset of a specified target picture. In one version, based on "consistent mapping" in human visual search, target and nontarget pictures were fixed throughout training. In the other, based on "varied mapping," a cue at trial onset define...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Kusunoki, M., Sigala, N., Gaffan, D., Duncan, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: journals

Priming and Backward Influences in the Human Brain: Processing Interactions during the Stroop Interference EffectEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study investigated neural processing interactions during Stroop interference by varying the temporal separation of relevant and irrelevant features of congruent, neutral, and incongruent colored-bar/color-word stimulus components. High-density event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral performance were measured as participants reported the bar color as quickly as possible, while ignoring the color words. The task-irrelevant color words could appear at 1 of 5 stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) relative to the task-relevant bar-color occurrence: –200 or –100 ms before, +100 or +200 ms after, or simultane...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Appelbaum, L. G., Meyerhoff, K. L., Woldorff, M. G. Tags: Feature Article Source Type: journals

Medial Prefrontal Cortex 5-HT2A Density Is Correlated with Amygdala Reactivity, Response Habituation, and Functional CouplingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Feedback inhibition of the amygdala via medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is an important component in the regulation of complex emotional behaviors. The functional dynamics of this corticolimbic circuitry are, in part, modulated by serotonin (5-HT). Serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptors within the mPFC represent a potential molecular mechanism through which 5-HT can modulate this corticolimbic circuitry. We employed a multimodal neuroimaging strategy to explore the relationship between threat-related amygdala reactivity, assessed using blood oxygen level–dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging, and mPFC 5-HT2A densi...
Source: Cerebral Cortex - October 7, 2009 Category: Neurology Authors: Fisher, P. M., Meltzer, C. C., Price, J. C., Coleman, R. L., Ziolko, S. K., Becker, C., Moses-Kolko, E. L., Berga, S. L., Hariri, A. R. Tags: Feature Article Source Type: journals