Explore the vast range of titles available.

The ability to read emotions in the face of another person is an important social skill that can be impaired in subjects with traumatic brain injury (TBI). To determine the brain regions that modulate facial emotion recognition, we conducted a whole-brain analysis using a well-validated facial emotion recognition task and voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM) in a large sample of patients with focal penetrating TBIs (pTBIs). Our results revealed that individuals with pTBI performed significantly worse than normal controls in recognizing unpleasant emotions. VLSM mapping results showed that impairment in facial emotion recognition was due to damage in a bilateral fronto-temporo-limbic network, including medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), anterior cingulate cortex, left insula and temporal areas. Beside those common areas, damage to the bilateral and anterior regions of PFC led to impairment in recognizing unpleasant emotions, whereas bilateral posterior PFC and left temporal areas led to impairment in recognizing pleasant emotions. Our findings add empirical evidence that the ability to read pleasant and unpleasant emotions in other people's faces is a complex process involving not only a common network that includes bilateral fronto-temporo-limbic lobes, but also other regions depending on emotional valence.

Background Understanding the neural basis of moral judgment (MJ) and human decision‐making has been the subject of numerous studies because of their impact on daily life activities and social norms. Here, we aimed to investigate the neural process of MJ using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a noninvasive, portable, and affordable neuroimaging modality. Methods We examined prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation in 33 healthy participants engaging in MJ exercises. We hypothesized that participants presented with personal (emotionally salient) and impersonal (less emotional) dilemmas would exhibit different brain activation observable through fNIRS. We also investigated the effects of utilitarian and nonutilitarian responses to MJ scenarios on PFC activation. Utilitarian responses are those that favor the greatest good while nonutilitarian responses favor moral actions. Mixed effect models were applied to model the cerebral hemodynamic changes that occurred during MJ dilemmas. Results and conclusions Our analysis found significant differences in PFC activation during personal versus impersonal dilemmas. Specifically, the left dorsolateral PFC was highly activated during impersonal MJ when a nonutilitarian decision was made. This is consistent with the majority of relevant fMRI studies, and demonstrates the feasibility of using fNIRS, with its portable and motion tolerant capacities, to investigate the neural basis of MJ dilemmas. In this paper, we: (a) Investigate the neural basis of personal and impersonal moral judgment. (b) Investigate prefrontal activity for utilitarian versus nonutilitarian responses. (c) Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy is used as neuroimaging modality. (d) Higher activity over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during impersonal dilemmas. (e) This high activation was a result of nonutilitarian decision‐making.

Moral judgment is an evaluation of the actions and character of a person made with respect to societal norms. Although many types of vignettes have been used in previous studies on moral beliefs and judgment, what is missing is a set of standardized common vignettes based in real life. The goal of this study was to provide researchers with stimuli that have values on several dimensions pertaining to moral judgment and whose underlying components are known. These values will allow researchers to select stimuli based on standardized ratings rather than on the results of pilot studies, while avoiding the limitations of the classic, abstract moral scenarios. Our study was composed of three phases, (i) collecting and shortening the vignettes, (ii) obtaining ratings of the vignettes on several dimensions including emotional intensity, degree of social norm violation, and level of harm or benefit caused and (iii) determining the underlying components of the vignettes by performing a factor analysis. We found three components that accounted for most of the variance: norm violation, social affect and intention. The resulting vignettes can be used in future parametric studies on moral judgment in behavioral, neuropsychological and functional imaging experiments.

We investigated the effects of social content of gestures on brain activation patterns. We used a 3 × 3 × 3 factorial design in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with participants observing gestures varied by type (fascist salute, wave, or arm lift), number of images shown at a time, and face frequency. We sought to determine whether increasing the social content of the gesture spreads activation from traditional sensorimotor regions engaged in mirror neuron activity to prefrontal regions concerned with social behavior. Results indicate that viewing a highly provocative gesture (fascist salute) compared to a less provocative but still socially meaningful gesture (wave) reveals activation in prefrontal and limbic areas. In addition, as expected there was more inferior frontal gyrus activation when participants observed a greater number of gesturing actors. Additionally, the psychological characteristics of shame and defeat affected activation in the inferior parietal lobe, which is part of the mirror neuron system, for the fascist salute compared to the wave contrast. We conclude that observing social gestures activates social- and emotion-processing areas of the brain, and the activation varies depending on the observer’s psychological characteristics.

Structured event complexes (SECs) are stored representations of sequential event knowledge, and represent sequences of activities that have been described elsewhere as scripts or schemas. Previous studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex is involved in temporal sequencing. The present study investigates the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in temporal order and membership judgments of script and category items by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this experiment, stimuli were either script events or category items. In experimental trials, subjects classified stimuli according to temporal order or membership category. Results show that the script order task and the chronological order task (relative to their respective memberships tasks) were associated with different patterns of PFC activation. Both order tasks activated the middle frontal gyrus bilaterally; however, script order tasks showed additional activation in right inferior frontal gyrus, and the chronological order tasks in left inferior frontal gyrus. These results suggest that while the middle frontal gyri are activated bilaterally in both script and chronological temporal ordering tasks, there are different, though largely overlapping, neural substrates for script and chronological representations during temporal ordering.

Aggressive behavior is common during adolescence. Although aggression-related functional changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and frontopolar cortex (FPC) have been reported in adults, the neural correlates of aggressive behavior in adolescents, particularly in the context of structural neurodevelopment, are obscure. We used functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the blood oxygenation level-depended signal and cortical thickness. In a block-designed experiment, 14–17-year old adolescents imagined aggressive and non-aggressive interactions with a peer. We show reduced vmPFC activation associated with imagined aggressive behavior as well as enhanced aggression-related activation and cortical thinning in the FPC with increasing age. Changes in FPC activation were also associated with judgments of the severity of aggressive acts. Reduced vmPFC activation was associated with greater aggression indicating its normal function is to exert inhibitory control over aggressive impulses. Concurrent FPC activation likely reflects foresight of harmful consequences that result from aggressive acts. The correlation of age-dependent activation changes and cortical thinning demonstrates ongoing maturation of the FPC during adolescence towards a refinement of social and cognitive information processing that can potentially facilitate mature social behavior in aggressive contexts.

Anhedonia is a common symptom following traumatic brain injury. The neural basis of anhedonia is poorly understood, but believed to involve disturbed reward processing, rather than the loss of sense of pleasure. This analysis was undertaken to determine if injury to specific regions of prefrontal cortex (PFC) result in anhedonia. A CT-based lesion analysis was undertaken in 192 participants of the Vietnam Head Injury Study, most with penetrating head injury. Participants were divided into left and right ventrolateral prefrontal, bilateral ventromedial prefrontal, and other injury locations. Anhedonia was measured by self-report in each group using the four-item anhedonia subscale score of the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Individuals with right ventrolateral injury reported greater severity of anhedonia compared to those with injury in the left ventrolateral region. These findings support an association between injury in the right ventrolateral PFC and anhedonia.

Post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-ME/CFS) is a disabling disorder, yet the clinical phenotype is poorly defined, the pathophysiology is unknown, and no disease-modifying treatments are available. We used rigorous criteria to recruit PI-ME/CFS participants with matched controls to conduct deep phenotyping. Among the many physical and cognitive complaints, one defining feature of PI-ME/CFS was an alteration of effort preference, rather than physical or central fatigue, due to dysfunction of integrative brain regions potentially associated with central catechol pathway dysregulation, with consequences on autonomic functioning and physical conditioning. Immune profiling suggested chronic antigenic stimulation with increase in naïve and decrease in switched memory B-cells. Alterations in gene expression profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and metabolic pathways were consistent with cellular phenotypic studies and demonstrated differences according to sex. Together these clinical abnormalities and biomarker differences provide unique insight into the underlying pathophysiology of PI-ME/CFS, which may guide future intervention. Post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (PI-ME/CFS) is a disabling disorder, yet the clinical phenotype is poorly defined and the pathophysiology unknown. Here, the authors conduct deep phenotyping of a cohort of PI-ME/CFS patients.

Background Multi-site studies in stroke rehabilitation are important for determining whether a technology and/or treatment can be successfully administered by sites other than the originating site and with similar positive outcomes. This study is the first multi-site clinical trial of a novel intervention for post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation called contralaterally controlled functional electrical stimulation (CCFES). Previous pilot and single-site studies showed positive effects of CCFES on upper limb impairment and hand dexterity in stroke survivors. The main purpose of this study is to confirm and demonstrate the efficacy of CCFES in a larger group of most likely responders across multiple clinical sites. Methods Up to 129 stroke survivors with moderate to severe upper extremity hemiparesis at 4 clinical trial sites will be randomized to CCFES, cyclic neuromuscular electrical stimulation (cNMES), or task-oriented-training (TOT). Participants will receive 12 weeks of group-specific therapy. Blinded assessments of upper limb impairment and activity limitation, quality of life, and neurophysiology will be used to compare outcomes at baseline, after treatment, and up to 6 months post-treatment. The primary endpoint is change in dexterity from baseline to 6 months post-treatment. Discussion Loss of hand function following stroke is a major rehabilitation problem affecting millions of people per year globally. More effective rehabilitation therapies are needed to restore hand function in these individuals. This study will determine whether CCFES therapy produces greater improvements in upper extremity function than cNMES or TOT, and will begin to elucidate the different mechanisms underlying each of the three treatments. This multi-site study is a critical step in advancing a novel method of rehabilitation toward clinical translation and widespread dissemination. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03574623 . Registered prior to first enrollment; July 2, 2018.

Immunomodulatory strategies, such as antibody therapy and cancer vaccines, are increasingly being considered as potential adjuvant therapies in patients with advanced stage breast cancer to either treat minimal residual disease or prevent relapse. However, little is known concerning the incidence and magnitude of the pre-existent breast cancer specific immune response in this patient population. Using the HER-2/neu oncogenic protein as a model, a well-defined tumor antigen in breast cancer, we questioned whether patients with advanced stage HER-2/neu overexpressing breast and ovarian cancers (III/IV) had evidence of pre-existent immunity to HER-2/neu. Forty-five patients with stage III or IV HER-2/neu overexpressing breast or ovarian cancer were evaluated for HER-2/neu specific T cell and antibody immunity. Patients enrolled had not received immunosuppressive chemotherapy for at least 30 days (median 5 months, range 1-75 months). All patients were documented to be immune competent prior to entry by DTH testing using a skin test anergy battery. Five of 45 patients (11%) were found to have a significant HER-2/neu specific T cell response as defined by a stimulation index > or = 2.0 (range 2.0-7.9). None of eight patients who were HLA-A2 had a detectable IFNgamma secreting T-cell precursor frequency to a well-defined HER-2/neu HLA-A2 T cell epitope, p369-377. Three of 45 patients (7%) had detectable HER-2/neu specific IgG antibodies, range 1.2-8.9 microg/ml. These findings suggest that patients with advanced stage HER-2/neu overexpressing breast and ovarian cancer can mount a T cell and/or antibody immune response to their tumor. However, in the case of the HER-2/neu antigen, the pre-existent tumor specific immune response is found only in a minority of patients.