Humans ; Empathy ; Brain Mapping ; Pain

The population receptive field (pRF) of a voxel is the joint receptive field of the population of neurons within the voxel. Using a non-invasive pRF technique, researcher can estimate the pRF position and size parameters of each voxel in human brain. These pRF parameters provide an excellent research basis to study neural mechanisms of sensory perception. Although the pRF technique has developed very rapidly in recent years and been widely used in the field of neural mechanisms of sensory perception, related review article is still absent. Here, we provide an overview of the pRF technique. First, we briefly introduce research methods of this technique. Next, we focus on applications of this technique in the field of neural mechanisms of sensory perception. Then, we discuss advantages and limitations of the pRF technique in practical application. In the end, we give some suggestions on the future application direction of the pRF technique. The pRF technique has played an important role in the research of neural mechanism of sensory perception, and it would play a more important role in the future.
Brain ; physiology ; Brain Mapping ; Humans ; Neurons ; Perception

Cognitive control refers to the brain functions that regulate variously specific mental activities in terms of task goal, forming the basis of goal-guided behaviors. In the last decade, our team devoted to investigating the neural mechanisms of basic functions of cognitive control, i.e., monitoring, controlling, and switching. We published a series of papers on the temporal course of monitoring initiating cognitive control and its mechanisms, the influential scope of controlling and new controlling mechanisms, brain networks related to controlling efficiency, brain hubs and neural dynamic encoding of switching. This paper reviews the related studies and further extracts their theoretical significance. In the future, more attention should be paid on causal studies, studies on functional implementation of cognitive control, and transfer-application studies, by which we expect to deeply elucidate neural mechanisms of cognitive control.
Brain ; physiology ; Brain Mapping ; Cognition ; Humans

No abstract available.
Brain Mapping* ; Evoked Potentials, Visual* ; Schizophrenia*

Acoustic Stimulation ; Brain Mapping ; Hallucinations ; Humans

PURPOSE: To investigate the feasibility of functional MR imaging of motor language function and its usefulnessin the determination of hemispheric language dominance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to activate the motorcenter of language, six subjects(5 right-handed, 1 left-handed; 3 males, 3 females) generated words. They wererequested to do this silently, without physical articulation, in response to English letters presented visually.Gradient-echo images (TR/TE/flip angle, 80/60/40o; 64x128 matrix; 10mm thickness) were obtained in three axialplanes including the inferior frontal gyrus. Functional maps were created by the postprocessing of gradient-echoimages, including subtraction and statistics. Areas of activation were topographically analyzed and numbers ofactivated pixels in each region were compared between right and left sides. The reproducibility of functional mapswas tested by repetition of functional imaging in the same subjects. RESULTS: Statistically significant activationsignals were demonstrated in five of six subjects, in whom the distribution of those signals was predominantly inboth frontal lobes. Hemispheric lateralization of activation, when activated pixels were compared between bothinferior frontal gyri, was in all cases on the left. In four subjects, functional maps were reproduced in asimilar fashion. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that functional MR imaging can depict the activation of motorlanguage function in the brain and can be used as a useful non-invasive method for determining the hemisphericdominance of language.
Brain Mapping* ; Brain* ; Frontal Lobe ; Humans* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male

For surgical operation in the functional area in the brain, it's commonly demanded to resect the lesion to the maximal extent on the basis of preserve the normal neural function, thus the precise localization of functional area is extremely important. As for the advantages of being widely available, easy to grasp and non-invasive, the functional MRI (fMRI) has come into wide use, while the application of language fMRI is still in the initial stage. It's important to choose appropriate fMRI task according to the individual condition of the subject, the commonly-adopted tasks include verb generation, picture naming, word recognition, word generation, etc. However, the effectiveness of using fMRI to localize language area is not totally satisfactory, adopting multiple task is an effective approach to improve the sensitivity of this technique. The application of resting state fMRI in the localization of language area and the further research of the role of fMRI in localizing the Chinese language area are the important future directions.
Brain ; physiology ; Brain Mapping ; Humans ; Language ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

OBJECTIVETo observe amplitude changes of low frequency fluctuation in brain spontaneous nervous activities induced by needling at Hand Taiyin Lung Channel, and to preliminarily explore the possible brain function network of Hand Taiyin Lung Channel.

METHODSBy using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 16 healthy volunteers underwent resting-state scanning (R1) and scanning with retained acupuncture at Hand Taiyin Lung Channel (acupuncture, AP). Data of fMRI collected were statistically calculated using amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF).

RESULTSUnder R1 significantly enhanced ALFF occurred in right precuneus, left inferior parietal lobule, bilateral superior temporal gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus. Under AP significantly enhanced ALFF occurred in right precuneus, bilateral superior frontal gyrus, cerebellum, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, right medial frontal gyrus, and so on. Compared with R1, needing at Hand Taiyin Lung Channel could significantly enhance ALFF in right gyrus subcallosum and right inferior frontal gyrus. Significant decreased ALFF appeared in right postcentral gyrus, left precuneus, left superior temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and so on.

CONCLUSIONNeeding at Hand Taiyin Lung Channel could significantly change fixed activities of cerebral cortex, especially in right subcallosal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and so on.

The study of non-linear EEG is of great significance in clinical practice and research work. This paper has gone into the feasibility of calculating the correlation dimension and has developed some subjects with the characters of correlation dimension and the difference under four conditions: (1) passive eyes closed(PEC); (2) mental arithmetic with eyes closed(MAEC); (3) passive eyes open(PEO); (4) mental reasoning with eyes open (MRED). The results show it is feasible and meaningful to calculate correlation dimension and the correlation dimension can reflect the regular patterns of mental activity.
Algorithms ; Brain ; physiopathology ; Brain Mapping ; Electroencephalography ; Electrophysiology ; Humans ; Nonlinear Dynamics

As a high-level cognitive function of actively regulating human behaviors, cognitive control plays essential roles in conflict processing, working memory, decision making and so on. However, it is still under debate whether a universal cognitive control mechanism underlies the processing of various conflicts. Many existing theories tend to hold that cognitive control is domain-general; however, this view has been challenged by recent empirical studies. The logics of studying generality/specificity mainly include transferability, parallel comparison, correlation and resources competition, etc. Current empirical findings support that cognitive control is domain-general, domain-specific or both, respectively. To tackle this controversy, future studies about cognitive control can be performed from the perspectives of life-span development, the dynamic brain network, combination of multiple logics, causal relationship from brain injury, computational modeling, cognitive flexibility and functional connectivity.
Brain ; physiology ; Brain Mapping ; Cognition ; Computer Simulation ; Humans ; Logic