In this study, we investigated how empathic neural responses unfold over time in different empathy networks when viewing same-race and other-race individuals in dynamic painful conditions. We recorded magnetoencephalography signals from Chinese adults when viewing video clips showing a dynamic painful (or non-painful) stimulation to Asian and White models' faces to trigger painful (or neutral) expressions. We found that perceived dynamic pain in Asian models modulated neural activities in the visual cortex at 100 ms-200 ms, in the orbitofrontal and subgenual anterior cingulate cortices at 150 ms-200 ms, in the anterior cingulate cortex around 250 ms-350 ms, and in the temporoparietal junction and middle temporal gyrus around 600 ms after video onset. Perceived dynamic pain in White models modulated activities in the visual, anterior cingulate, and primary sensory cortices after 500 ms. Our findings unraveled earlier dynamic activities in multiple neural circuits in response to same-race (vs other-race) individuals in dynamic painful situations.
Adult ; Humans ; Brain Mapping ; Pain ; Empathy ; Racism ; Gyrus Cinguli/physiology* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Brain/physiology*

The organization of the brain follows a topological hierarchy that changes dynamically during development. However, it remains unknown whether and how cognitive training administered over multiple years during development can modify this hierarchical topology. By measuring the brain and behavior of school children who had carried out abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) training for five years (starting from 7 years to 12 years old) in pre-training and post-training, we revealed the reshaping effect of long-term AMC intervention during development on the brain hierarchical topology. We observed the development-induced emergence of the default network, AMC training-promoted shifting, and regional changes in cortical gradients. Moreover, the training-induced gradient changes were located in visual and somatomotor areas in association with the visuospatial/motor-imagery strategy. We found that gradient-based features can predict the math ability within groups. Our findings provide novel insights into the dynamic nature of network recruitment impacted by long-term cognitive training during development.
Child ; Humans ; Cognitive Training ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Brain ; Brain Mapping ; Motor Cortex

Sensory conflict impacts postural control, yet its effect on cortico-muscular interaction remains underexplored. We aimed to investigate sensory conflict's influence on the cortico-muscular network and postural stability. We used a rotating platform and virtual reality to present subjects with congruent and incongruent sensory input, recorded EEG (electroencephalogram) and EMG (electromyogram) data, and constructed a directed connectivity network. The results suggest that, compared to sensory congruence, during sensory conflict: (1) connectivity among the sensorimotor, visual, and posterior parietal cortex generally decreases, (2) cortical control over the muscles is weakened, (3) feedback from muscles to the cortex is strengthened, and (4) the range of body sway increases and its complexity decreases. These results underline the intricate effects of sensory conflict on cortico-muscular networks. During the sensory conflict, the brain adaptively decreases the integration of conflicting information. Without this integrated information, cortical control over muscles may be lessened, whereas the muscle feedback may be enhanced in compensation.
Humans ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Electromyography/methods* ; Electroencephalography/methods* ; Brain ; Brain Mapping

Accurate source localization of the epileptogenic zone (EZ) is the primary condition of surgical removal of EZ. The traditional localization results based on three-dimensional ball model or standard head model may cause errors. This study intended to localize the EZ by using the patient-specific head model and multi-dipole algorithms using spikes during sleep. Then the current density distribution on the cortex was computed and used to construct the phase transfer entropy functional connectivity network between different brain areas to obtain the localization of EZ. The experiment result showed that our improved methods could reach the accuracy of 89.27% and the number of implanted electrodes could be reduced by (19.34 ± 7.15)%. This work can not only improve the accuracy of EZ localization, but also reduce the additional injury and potential risk caused by preoperative examination and surgical operation, and provide a more intuitive and effective reference for neurosurgeons to make surgical plans.
Humans ; Scalp ; Brain Mapping/methods* ; Epilepsy/diagnosis* ; Electroencephalography/methods* ; Brain

Humans ; Huntington Disease/diagnostic imaging* ; Brain/diagnostic imaging* ; Brain Mapping ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From birth to adulthood, we often align our behaviors, attitudes, and opinions with a majority, a phenomenon known as social conformity. A seminal framework has proposed that conformity behaviors are mainly driven by three fundamental motives: a desire to gain more information to be accurate, to obtain social approval from others, and to maintain a favorable self-concept. Despite extensive interest in neuroimaging investigation of social conformity, the relationship between brain systems and these fundamental motivations has yet to be established. Here, we reviewed brain imaging findings of social conformity with a componential framework, aiming to reveal the neuropsychological substrates underlying different conformity motivations. First, information-seeking engages the evaluation of social information, information integration, and modification of task-related activity, corresponding to brain networks implicated in reward, cognitive control, and tasks at hand. Second, social acceptance involves the anticipation of social acceptance or rejection and mental state attribution, mediated by networks of reward, punishment, and mentalizing. Third, self-enhancement entails the excessive representation of positive self-related information and suppression of negative self-related information, ingroup favoritism and/or outgroup derogation, and elaborated mentalizing processes to the ingroup, supported by brain systems of reward, punishment, and mentalizing. Therefore, recent brain imaging studies have provided important insights into the fundamental motivations of social conformity in terms of component processes and brain mechanisms.
Humans ; Social Conformity ; Motivation ; Brain ; Social Behavior ; Brain Mapping

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), cyclic menstrual pain in the absence of pelvic anomalies, is characterized by acute and chronic gynecological pain disorders in childbearing age women. PDM strongly affects the quality of life of patients and leads to economic losses. PDM generally do not receive radical treatment and often develop into other chronic pain disorders later in life. The clinical treatment status of PDM, the epidemiology of PDM and chronic pain comorbidities, and the abnormal physiological and psychological characteristics of patients with PDM suggest that PDM not only is related to the inflammation around the uterus, but also may be related to the abnormal pain processing and regulation function of patients' central system. Therefore, exploring the brain neural mechanism of PDM is indispensable and important to understand the pathological mechanism of PDM, and is also a hotspot of brain science research in recent years, which will bring new inspiration to explore the target of PDM intervention. Based on the progress of the neural mechanism of PDM, this paper systematically summarizes the evidence from neuroimaging and animal model studies.
Animals ; Humans ; Female ; Dysmenorrhea ; Brain Mapping ; Chronic Pain ; Quality of Life ; Neuroimaging ; Models, Animal

The difference between sleep and wakefulness is critical for human health. Sleep takes up one third of our lives and remains one of the most mysterious conditions; it plays an important role in memory consolidation and health restoration. Distinct neural behaviors take place under awake and asleep conditions, according to neuroimaging studies. While disordered transitions between wakefulness and sleep accompany brain disease, further investigation of their specific characteristics is required. In this study, the difference is objectively quantified by means of network controllability. We propose a new pipeline using a public intracranial stereo-electroencephalography (stereo-EEG) dataset to unravel differences in the two conditions in terms of system neuroscience. Because intracranial stereo-EEG records neural oscillations covering large-scale cerebral areas, it offers the highest temporal resolution for recording neural behaviors. After EEG preprocessing, the EEG signals are band-passed into sub-slow (0.1‍-‍1 Hz), delta (1‍-‍4 Hz), theta (4‍-‍8 Hz), alpha (8‍-‍13 Hz), beta (13‍-‍30 Hz), and gamma (30‍-‍45 Hz) band oscillations. Then, dynamic functional connectivity is extracted from time-windowed EEG neural oscillations through phase-locking value (PLV) and non-overlapping sliding time windows. Next, average and modal network controllability are implemented on these time-varying brain networks. Based on this preliminary study, it appears that significant differences exist in the dorsolateral frontal-parietal network (FPN), salience network (SN), and default-mode network (DMN). The combination of network controllability and dynamic functional networks offers new insight for characterizing distinctions between awake and asleep stages in the brain. In other words, network controllability captures the underlying brain dynamics under both awake and asleep conditions.
Humans ; Wakefulness ; Electroencephalography/methods* ; Brain Mapping/methods* ; Brain

Connectome/methods* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods* ; Brain/diagnostic imaging* ; Head ; Brain Mapping/methods* ; Nerve Net

The aim of the present study was to explore the specific pattern of brain deactivation elicited by painful stimuli, in contrast with that elicited by tactile stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected from 62 healthy subjects under painful and tactile stimuli with varying intensities. The brain deactivations under different conditions were identified using the general linear model. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to test whether there was a significant interaction between perceived stimulus intensity (factor 1: high intensity, low intensity) and stimulus modality (factor 2: pain, touch) on the brain deactivations. The results showed that there were significant interactions between stimulus intensity and stimulus modality on the deactivations of left medial superior frontal gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus and right middle occipital gyrus (P < 0.05, Cluster-level FWE). The deactivations induced by painful stimuli with low perceived intensity (β = -3.38 ± 0.52) were significantly stronger than those induced by painful stimuli with high perceived intensity (β = -1.22 ± 0.54) (P < 0.001), whereas the differences between the deactivations induced by tactile stimuli with different perceived intensities were not statistically significant. In addition, there were no significant differences between the deactivations elicited by painful and tactile stimuli with the same stimulus intensities. These results suggest that there is a specific relationship between the deactivations induced by painful stimuli in multiple brain regions (such as the left medial superior frontal gyrus) and the stimulus intensity, providing evidence for a deeper understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying pain perception.
Humans ; Touch/physiology* ; Physical Stimulation/methods* ; Pain ; Brain/physiology* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods* ; Brain Mapping