@article{DolcosKatsumiBogdanetal.2020, author = {Dolcos, Florin and Katsumi, Yuta and Bogdan, Paul C. and Shen, Chen and Jun, Suhnyoung and Buetti, Simona and Lleras, Alejandro and Bost, Kelly Freeman and Weymar, Mathias and Dolcos, Sanda}, title = {The impact of focused attention on subsequent emotional recollection}, series = {Neuropsychologia : an international journal in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience}, volume = {138}, journal = {Neuropsychologia : an international journal in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0028-3932}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107338}, pages = {12}, year = {2020}, abstract = {In his seminal works, Endel Tulving argued that functionally distinct memory systems give rise to subjective experiences of remembering and knowing (i.e., recollection- vs. familiarity-based memory, respectively). Evidence shows that emotion specifically enhances recollection, and this effect is subserved by a synergistic mechanism involving the amygdala (AMY) and hippocampus (HC). In extreme circumstances, however, uncontrolled recollection of highly distressing memories may lead to symptoms of affective disorders. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that can diminish such detrimental effects. Here, we investigated the effects of Focused Attention (FA) on emotional recollection. FA is an emotion regulation strategy that has been proven quite effective in reducing the impact of emotional responses associated with the recollection of distressing autobiographical memories, but its impact during emotional memory encoding is not known. Functional MRI and eye-tracking data were recorded while participants viewed a series of composite negative and neutral images with distinguishable foreground (FG) and background (BG) areas. Participants were instructed to focus either on the FG or BG content of the images and to rate their emotional responses. About 4 days later, participants' memory was assessed using the R/K procedure, to indicate whether they Recollected specific contextual details about the encoded images or the images were just familiar to them - i.e., participants only Knew that they saw the pictures without being able to remember specific contextual details. First, results revealed that FA was successful in decreasing memory for emotional pictures viewed in BG Focus condition, and this effect was driven by recollection-based retrieval. Second, the BG Focus condition was associated with decreased activity in the AMY, HC, and anterior parahippocampal gyrus for subsequently recollected emotional items. Moreover, correlation analyses also showed that reduced activity in these regions predicted greater reduction in emotional recollection following FA. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of FA in mitigating emotional experiences and emotional recollection associated with unpleasant emotional events.}, language = {en} } @article{BoeckerSchlierHolzHohmetal.2017, author = {Boecker-Schlier, Regina and Holz, Nathalie E. and Hohm, Erika and Zohsel, Katrin and Blomeyer, Dorothea and Buchmann, Arlette F. and Baumeister, Sarah and Wolf, Isabella and Esser, G{\"u}nter and Schmidt, Martin H. and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas and Banaschewski, Tobias and Brandeis, Daniel and Laucht, Manfred}, title = {Association between pubertal stage at first drink and neural reward processing in early adulthood}, series = {Addiction biology}, volume = {22}, journal = {Addiction biology}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1355-6215}, doi = {10.1111/adb.12413}, pages = {1402 -- 1415}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Puberty is a critical time period during human development. It is characterized by high levels of risk-taking behavior, such as increased alcohol consumption, and is accompanied by various neurobiological changes. Recent studies in animals and humans have revealed that the pubertal stage at first drink (PSFD) significantly impacts drinking behavior in adulthood. Moreover, neuronal alterations of the dopaminergic reward system have been associated with alcohol abuse or addiction. This study aimed to clarify the impact of PSFD on neuronal characteristics of reward processing linked to alcohol-related problems. One hundred sixty-eight healthy young adults from a prospective study covering 25 years participated in a monetary incentive delay task measured with simultaneous EEG-fMRI. PSFD was determined according to the age at menarche or Tanner stage of pubertal development, respectively. Alcohol-related problems in early adulthood were assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). During reward anticipation, decreased fMRI activation of the frontal cortex and increased preparatory EEG activity (contingent negative variation) occurred with pubertal compared to postpubertal first alcohol intake. Moreover, alcohol-related problems during early adulthood were increased in pubertal compared to postpubertal beginners, which was mediated by neuronal activation of the right medial frontal gyrus. At reward delivery, increased fMRI activation of the left caudate and higher feedback-related EEG negativity were detected in pubertal compared to postpubertal beginners. Together with animal findings, these results implicate PSFD as a potential modulator of psychopathology, involving altered reward anticipation. Both PSFD timing and reward processing might thus be potential targets for early prevention and intervention.}, language = {en} } @article{HeinzelRappFydrichetal.2017, author = {Heinzel, Stephan and Rapp, Michael Armin and Fydrich, Thomas and Str{\"o}hle, Andreas and Teran, Christina and Kallies, Gunnar and Schwefel, Melanie and Heissel, Andreas}, title = {Neurobiological mechanisms of exercise and psychotherapy in depression}, series = {Clinical Trials}, volume = {15}, journal = {Clinical Trials}, number = {1}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {1740-7745}, doi = {10.1177/1740774517729161}, pages = {53 -- 64}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Background/Aims: Even though cognitive behavioral therapy has become a relatively effective treatment for major depressive disorder and cognitive behavioral therapy-related changes of dysfunctional neural activations were shown in recent studies, remission rates still remain at an insufficient level. Therefore, the implementation of effective augmentation strategies is needed. In recent meta-analyses, exercise therapy (especially endurance exercise) was reported to be an effective intervention in major depressive disorder. Despite these findings, underlying mechanisms of the antidepressant effect of exercise especially in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy have rarely been studied to date and an investigation of its neural underpinnings is lacking. A better understanding of the psychological and neural mechanisms of exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy would be important for developing optimal treatment strategies in depression. The SPeED study (Sport/Exercise Therapy and Psychotherapyevaluating treatment Effects in Depressive patients) is a randomized controlled trial to investigate underlying physiological, neurobiological, and psychological mechanisms of the augmentation of cognitive behavioral therapy with endurance exercise. It is investigated if a preceding endurance exercise program will enhance the effect of a subsequent cognitive behavioral therapy. Methods: This study will include 105 patients diagnosed with a mild or moderate depressive episode according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). The participants are randomized into one of three groups: a high-intensive or a low-intensive endurance exercise group or a waiting list control group. After the exercise program/waiting period, all patients receive an outpatient cognitive behavioral therapy treatment according to a standardized therapy manual. At four measurement points, major depressive disorder symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression), (neuro)biological measures (neural activations during working memory, monetary incentive delay task, and emotion regulation, as well as cortisol levels and brain-derived neurotrophic factor), neuropsychological test performance, and questionnaires (psychological needs, self-efficacy, and quality of life) are assessed. Results: In this article, we report the design of the SPeED study and refer to important methodological issues such as including both high- and low-intensity endurance exercise groups to allow the investigation of dose-response effects and physiological components of the therapy effects. Conclusion: The main aims of this research project are to study effects of endurance exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy on depressive symptoms and to investigate underlying physiological and neurobiological mechanisms of these effects. Results may provide important implications for the development of effective treatment strategies in major depressive disorder, specifically concerning the augmentation of cognitive behavioral therapy by endurance exercise.}, language = {en} } @article{HuangIvYueetal.2015, author = {Huang, Zirui and Iv, Henry (Hap) Davis and Yue, Qiang and Wiebking, Christine and Duncan, Niall W. and Zhang, Jianfeng and Wagner, Nils-Frederic and Wolff, Annemarie and Northoff, Georg}, title = {Increase in glutamate/glutamine concentration in the medial prefrontal cortex during mental imagery: A combined functional mrs and fMRI study}, series = {Human brain mapping : a journal devoted to functional neuroanatomy and neuroimaging}, volume = {36}, journal = {Human brain mapping : a journal devoted to functional neuroanatomy and neuroimaging}, number = {8}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1065-9471}, doi = {10.1002/hbm.22841}, pages = {3204 -- 3212}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Recent functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) studies have shown changes in glutamate/glutamine (Glx) concentrations between resting-state and active-task conditions. However, the types of task used have been limited to sensory paradigms, and the regions from which Glx concentrations have been measured limited to sensory ones. This leaves open the question as to whether the same effect can be seen in higher-order brain regions during cognitive tasks. Cortical midline structures, especially the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), have been suggested to be involved in various such cognitive tasks. We, therefore set out to use fMRS to investigate the dynamics of Glx concentrations in the MPFC between resting-state and mental imagery task conditions. The auditory cortex was used as a control region. In addition, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to explore task-related neural activity changes. The mental imagery task consisted of imagining swimming and was applied to a large sample of healthy participants (n=46). The participants were all competitive swimmers, ensuring proficiency in mental-swimming. Glx concentrations in the MPFC increased during the imagery task, as compared to resting-state periods preceding and following the task. These increases mirror BOLD activity changes in the same region during the task. No changes in either Glx concentrations or BOLD activity were seen in the auditory cortex. These findings contribute to our understanding of the biochemical basis of generating or manipulating mental representations and the MPFC's role in this. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3204-3212, 2015. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.}, language = {en} } @article{WattendorfFestmanWestermannetal.2014, author = {Wattendorf, Elise and Festman, Julia and Westermann, Birgit and Keil, Ursula and Zappatore, Daniela and Franceschini, Rita and Luedi, Georges and Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm and Muente, Thomas F. and Rager, Guenter and Nitsch, Cordula}, title = {Early bilingualism influences early and subsequently later acquired languages in cortical regions representing control functions}, series = {International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior}, volume = {18}, journal = {International journal of bilingualism : cross-disciplinary, cross-linguistic studies of language behavior}, number = {1}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {1367-0069}, doi = {10.1177/1367006912456590}, pages = {48 -- 66}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals.}, language = {en} } @article{PreussevanderMeerDeshpandeetal.2011, author = {Preusse, Franziska and van der Meer, Elke and Deshpande, Gopikrishna and Kr{\"u}ger, Frank and Wartenburger, Isabell}, title = {Fluid intelligence allows flexible recruitment of the parieto-frontal network in analogical reasoning}, series = {Frontiers in human neuroscienc}, volume = {5}, journal = {Frontiers in human neuroscienc}, number = {3}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2011.00022}, pages = {14}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Fluid intelligence is the ability to think flexibly and to understand abstract relations. People with high fluid intelligence (hi-fluIQ) perform better in analogical reasoning tasks than people with average fluid intelligence (ave-fluIQ). Although previous neuroimaging studies reported involvement of parietal and frontal brain regions in geometric analogical reasoning (which is a prototypical task for fluid intelligence), however, neuroimaging findings on geometric analogical reasoning in hi-fluIQ are sparse. Furthermore, evidence on the relation between brain activation and intelligence while solving cognitive tasks is contradictory. The present study was designed to elucidate the cerebral correlates of geometric analogical reasoning in a sample of hi-fluIQ and ave-fluIQ high school students. We employed a geometric analogical reasoning task with graded levels of task difficulty and confirmed the involvement of the parieto-frontal network in solving this task. In addition to characterizing the brain regions involved in geometric analogical reasoning in hi-fluIQ and ave-fluIQ, we found that blood oxygenation level dependency (BOLD) signal changes were greater for hi-fluIQ than for ave-fluIQ in parietal brain regions. However, ave-fluIQ showed greater BOLD signal changes in the anterior cingulate cortex and medial frontal gyrus than hi-fluIQ. Thus, we showed that a similar network of brain regions is involved in geometric analogical reasoning in both groups. Interestingly, the relation between brain activation and intelligence is not mono-directional, but rather, it is specific for each brain region. The negative brain activation-intelligence relationship in frontal brain regions in hi-fluIQ goes along with a better behavioral performance and reflects a lower demand for executive monitoring compared to ave-fluIQ individuals. In conclusion, our data indicate that flexibly modulating the extent of regional cerebral activity is characteristic for fluid intelligence.}, language = {en} }