Exploration of the mechanisms underlying the ISPC effect: Evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging data

in Neuropsychologia (2013), 51

The item-specific proportion congruent (ISPC) effect in a Stroop task – the observation of reduced interference for color words mostly presented in an incongruent color – has attracted growing interest ... [more ▼]

The item-specific proportion congruent (ISPC) effect in a Stroop task – the observation of reduced interference for color words mostly presented in an incongruent color – has attracted growing interest since the original study by Jacoby (2003). Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain the effect: associative learning of contingencies and item-specific control through word reading modulation. Both interpretations have received empirical support from behavioral data. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the responsible mechanisms of the ISPC effect with the classic two-item sets design using fMRI. Results showed that the ISPC effect is associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC), and inferior and superior parietal cortex. Importantly, behavioral and fMRI analyses specifically addressing the respective contribution of associative learning and item-specific control mechanisms brought support for the contingency learning account of the ISPC effect. Results are discussed in reference to task and procedure characteristics that may influence the extent to which item-specific control and/or contingency learning contribute to the ISPC effect. [less ▲]

Small animal imaging with human PET

Poster (2012, September)

PET studies provide valuable information in the assessment of animal models for human diseases. MicroPET systems provide the high resolution needed to explore small organs but suffer from a reduced axial ... [more ▼]

PET studies provide valuable information in the assessment of animal models for human diseases. MicroPET systems provide the high resolution needed to explore small organs but suffer from a reduced axial FOV. Multiple bed positions are then used to obtain whole body scans resulting in increased scan time and incomplete dynamic data. In contrast, human PET systems have larger axial FOV but a lower resolution. In this study, an image-based model of the scanner spatial response function combined with a 3D-OSEM reconstruction algorithm were used to improve spatial resolution of the Siemens ECAT EXACT HR+ PET scanner. A stationary double Gaussian model [1] of the ECAT EXACT HR+ point spread function was derived from 18F point source measurements performed at different radial and axial locations in the scanner FOV. This model was used in a 3D-OSEM reconstruction (3D-OSEM-RM). Sinograms were normalized and attenuation and scatter corrected using the Siemens ECAT tools before reconstruction. Both NEMA NU 2-1994 performance phantoms and NEMA NU4-2008 image quality phantom mimicking small animals were used to evaluate the accuracy of corrections for physical effects and the overall image quality. A 50 min dynamic FDG rat study was conducted on the ECAT HR+ and reconstructed with 3D-OSEM-RM. The images were used to compute the metabolic rate of glucose (MRglu) in multiple brain structures. These images were also visually compared to the static image obtained with a FOCUS 120 microPET immediately after the HR+ dynamic scan. The standard deviations of the two Gaussians used to model the transaxial (axial) resolution in a central FOV of 5 cm radius were σ1 = 1.6 (2.75) mm and σ2 = 3.66 (4.16) mm, and the ratio of the weights between the first and second Gaussians was ρ = 0.2 (0.7). Image uniformity and accuracy of scatter and attenuation corrections, evaluated following NEMA NU 2-1994, were found to be very similar between 3D-OSEM, 3D-OSEM-RM, 2D- and 3D-FBP reconstructed images. When using the NEMA NU4-2008 image quality phantom a significant increase of the hot rod recovery coefficient was observed. This effect was rod size dependent and amounted to 17-35% for the 3D-OSEM-RM compared to the 3D-OSEM and to 35-62% compared to the FBP reconstructions. Nevertheless the values obtained with 3D-OSEM-RM were around 20-35% lower than those obtained with the FOCUS 120 microPET scanner. Most of the small brain structures observed on microPET images were also visible on the images obtained with the HR+ scanner and 3D-OSEM-RM. Rat cerebral MRglu values calculated on 3D-OSEM-RM images were in the range of published values [2] (e.g. whole brain = 25.34 μmol/min/100g). Using an approximate model of the ECAT EXACT HR+ spatial response in 3D-OSEM resulted in sufficient image quality for dynamic whole body scans of small rodents, despite the large FOV, and resulted in improved contrast compared to images generated using the built-in software. This methodology will be applied for future small animal dosimetry and modeling studies in our laboratory. [1] Comtat et al. IEEE Nucl Sci Symp Conf Record. pp. 4120-4123 (2008) [2] Schiffer et al. J Nucl Med 48:277-287 (2007) [less ▲]

Sleep stabilizes visuomotor adaptation memory : an fMRI study

in Journal of Sleep Research (2012), Epub ahead of print

Circadian preference modulates the neural substrate of conflict processing across the day

in PLoS ONE (2012), 7(1), 29658

Human morning and evening chronotypes differ in their preferred timing for sleep and wakefulness, as well as in optimal daytime periods to cope with cognitive challenges. Recent evidence suggests that ... [more ▼]

Human morning and evening chronotypes differ in their preferred timing for sleep and wakefulness, as well as in optimal daytime periods to cope with cognitive challenges. Recent evidence suggests that these preferences are not a simple by-product of socio-professional timing constraints, but can be driven by inter-individual differences in the expression of circadian and homeostatic sleep-wake promoting signals. Chronotypes thus constitute a unique tool to access the interplay between those processes under normally entrained day-night conditions, and to investigate how they impinge onto higher cognitive control processes. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we assessed the influence of chronotype and time-of-day on conflict processing-related cerebral activity throughout a normal waking day. Sixteen morning and 15 evening types were recorded at two individually adapted time points (1.5 versus 10.5 hours spent awake) while performing the Stroop paradigm. Results show that interference-related hemodynamic responses are maintained or even increased in evening types from the subjective morning to the subjective evening in a set of brain areas playing a pivotal role in successful inhibitory functioning, whereas they decreased in morning types under the same conditions. Furthermore, during the evening hours, activity in a posterior hypothalamic region putatively involved in sleep-wake regulation correlated in a chronotype-specific manner with slow wave activity at the beginning of the night, an index of accumulated homeostatic sleep pressure. These results shed light into the cerebral mechanisms underlying inter-individual differences of higher-order cognitive state maintenance under normally entrained day-night conditions. [less ▲]

The Neural Substrates of Memory Suppression: A fMRI Exploration of Directed Forgetting

in PLoS ONE (2012), 7(1), 29905

The directed forgetting paradigm is frequently used to determine the ability to voluntarily suppress information. However, little is known about brain areas associated with information to forget. The ... [more ▼]

The directed forgetting paradigm is frequently used to determine the ability to voluntarily suppress information. However, little is known about brain areas associated with information to forget. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine brain activity during the encoding and retrieval phases of an item-method directed forgetting recognition task with neutral verbal material in order to apprehend all processing stages that information to forget and to remember undergoes. We hypothesized that regions supporting few selective processes, namely recollection and familiarity memory processes, working memory, inhibitory and selection processes should be differentially activated during the processing of to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten items. Successful encoding and retrieval of items to remember engaged the entorhinal cortex, the hippocampus, the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, the left inferior parietal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex and the precuneus; this set of regions is well known to support deep and associative encoding and retrieval processes in episodic memory. For items to forget, encoding was associated with higher activation in the right middle frontal and posterior parietal cortex, regions known to intervene in attentional control. Items to forget but nevertheless correctly recognized at retrieval yielded activation in the dorsomedial thalamus, associated with familiarity-based memory processes and in the posterior intraparietal sulcus and the anterior cingulate cortex, involved in attentional processes. [less ▲]

Modulation of brain activity during a Stroop inhibitory task by the kind of cognitive control required

in PLoS ONE (2012), 7(7), 41513

This study used a proportion congruency manipulation in the Stroop task in order to investigate, at the behavioral and brain substrate levels, the predictions derived from the Dual Mechanisms of Control ... [more ▼]

This study used a proportion congruency manipulation in the Stroop task in order to investigate, at the behavioral and brain substrate levels, the predictions derived from the Dual Mechanisms of Control (DMC) account of two distinct modes of cognitive control depending on the task context. Three experimental conditions were created that varied the proportion congruency: mostly incongruent (MI), mostly congruent (MC), and mostly neutral (MN) contexts. A reactive control strategy, which corresponds to transient interference resolution processes after conflict detection, was expected for the rare conflicting stimuli in the MC context, and a proactive strategy, characterized by a sustained task-relevant focus prior to the occurrence of conflict, was expected in the MI context. Results at the behavioral level supported the proactive/reactive distinction, with the replication of the classic proportion congruent effect (i.e., less interference and facilitation effects in the MI context). fMRI data only partially supported our predictions. Whereas reactive control for incongruent trials in the MC context engaged the expected fronto-parietal network including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex, proactive control in the MI context was not associated with any sustained lateral prefrontal cortex activations, contrary to our hypothesis. Surprisingly, incongruent trials in the MI context elicited transient activation in common with incongruent trials in the MC context, especially in DLPFC, superior parietal lobe, and insula. This lack of sustained activity in MI is discussed in reference to the possible involvement of item-specific rather than list-wide mechanisms of control in the implementation of a high task-relevant focus. [less ▲]

Frontal and posterior cingulate metabolic impairment in the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia with impaired autonoetic consciousness

in Human Brain Mapping (2012), 33

Although memory dysfunction is not a prominent feature of the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD), there is evidence of specific deficits of episodic memory in these patients. They ... [more ▼]

Although memory dysfunction is not a prominent feature of the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD), there is evidence of specific deficits of episodic memory in these patients. They also have problems monitoring their memory performance. The objective of the present study was to explore the ability to consciously retrieve own encoding of the context of events (autonoetic consciousness) and the ability to monitor memory performance using feeling-of-knowing (FOK) in bv-FTD. Analyses of the patients’ cerebral metabolism (FDG-PET) allowed an examination of whether impaired episodic memory in bv-FTD is associated with the frontal dysfunction characteristic of the pathology or a dysfunction of memory-specific regions pertaining to Papez’s circuit. Data were obtained from 8 bv-FTD patients and 26 healthy controls. Autonoetic consciousness was evaluated by Remember responses during the recognition memory phase of the FOK experiment. As a group, bv-FTD patients demonstrated a decline in autonoetic consciousness and FOK accuracy at the chance level. While memory monitoring was impaired in most (7) patients, 4 bv-FTD participants had individual impairment of autonoetic consciousness. They specifically showed reduced metabolism in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (near the superior frontal sulcus), parietal regions and the posterior cingulate cortex. These findings were tentatively interpreted by considering the role of the metabolically impaired brain regions in self-referential processes, suggesting that the bv-FTD patients’ problem consciously retrieving episodic memories may stem at least partly from deficient access to and maintenance/use of information about the self. [less ▲]

The cerebral metabolic correlates of episodic autobiographical memory amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Conference (2011)

Episodic autobiographical memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: a FDG-PET study

Conference (2011)

Neural precursors of delayed insight

in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2011), 23(8), 1900-1910

The solution of a problem left unresolved in the evening can sometimes pop into mind as a sudden insight after a night of sleep in the following morning. Although favorable effects of sleep on insightful ... [more ▼]

The solution of a problem left unresolved in the evening can sometimes pop into mind as a sudden insight after a night of sleep in the following morning. Although favorable effects of sleep on insightful behavior have been experimentally confirmed, the neural mechanisms determining this delayed insight remain unknown. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we characterize the neural precursors of delayed insight in the number reduction task (NRT), in which a hidden task structure can be learned implicitly, but can also be recognized explicitly in an insightful process, allowing immediate qualitative improvement in task performance. Normal volunteers practiced the NRT during two fMRI sessions (training and retest), taking place 12 hours apart after a night of sleep. After this delay, half of the subjects gained insight into the hidden task structure ("solvers," S), whereas the other half did not ("nonsolvers," NS). Already at training, solvers and nonsolvers differed in their cerebral responses associated with implicit learning. In future solvers, responses were observed in the superior frontal sulcus, posterior parietal cortex, and the insula, three areas mediating controlled processes and supporting early learning and novice performance. In contrast, implicit learning was related to significant responses in the hippocampus in nonsolvers. Moreover, the hippocampus was functionally coupled with the basal ganglia in nonsolvers and with the superior frontal sulcus in solvers, thus potentially biasing participants' strategy towards implicit or controlled processes of memory encoding, respectively. Furthermore, in solvers but not in nonsolvers, response patterns were further transformed overnight, with enhanced responses in ventral medial prefrontal cortex, an area previously implicated in the consolidation of declarative memory. During retest in solvers, before they gain insight into the hidden rule, significant responses were observed in the same medial prefrontal area. After insight, a distributed set of parietal and frontal areas is recruited among which information concerning the hidden rule can be shared in a so-called global workspace. [less ▲]