Location-probability profiles for the mouth region of human primary motor-sensory cortex: model and validation

Control of a Production Manipulator with the Use of BCI in Conjunction with an Industrial PLC

Research in the field of gathering and analyzing biological signals is growing. The sensors are becoming more available and more non-invasive for examining such signals, which in the past required the inconvenient acquisition of data. This was achieved mainly by the fact that biological sensors were able to be built into wearable and portable devices. The representation and analysis of EEGs (electroencephalograms) is nowadays commonly used in various application areas. The application of the use of the EEG signals to the field of automation is still an unexplored area and therefore provides opportunities for interesting research. In our research, we focused on the area of processing automation; especially the use of the EEG signals to bridge the communication between control of individual processes and a human. In this study, the real-time communication between a PLC (programmable logic controller) and BCI (brain computer interface) was investigated and described. In the future, this approach can help people with physical disabilities to control certain machines or devices and therefore it could find applicability in overcoming physical disabilities. The main contribution of the article is, that we have demonstrated the possibility of interaction between a person and a manipulator controlled by a PLC with the help of a BCI. Potentially, with the expansion of functionality, such solutions will allow a person with physical disabilities to participate in the production process.

Lipreading a naturalistic narrative in a female population: Neural characteristics shared with listening and reading

INTRODUCTION

Few of us are skilled lipreaders while most struggle with the task. Neural substrates that enable comprehension of connected natural speech via lipreading are not yet well understood.

METHODS

We used a data-driven approach to identify brain areas underlying the lipreading of an 8-min narrative with participants whose lipreading skills varied extensively (range 6-100%, mean = 50.7%). The participants also listened to and read the same narrative. The similarity between individual participants' brain activity during the whole narrative, within and between conditions, was estimated by a voxel-wise comparison of the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal time courses.

RESULTS

Inter-subject correlation (ISC) of the time courses revealed that lipreading, listening to, and reading the narrative were largely supported by the same brain areas in the temporal, parietal and frontal cortices, precuneus, and cerebellum. Additionally, listening to and reading connected naturalistic speech particularly activated higher-level linguistic processing in the parietal and frontal cortices more consistently than lipreading, probably paralleling the limited understanding obtained via lip-reading. Importantly, higher lipreading test score and subjective estimate of comprehension of the lipread narrative was associated with activity in the superior and middle temporal cortex.

CONCLUSIONS

Our new data illustrates that findings from prior studies using well-controlled repetitive speech stimuli and stimulus-driven data analyses are also valid for naturalistic connected speech. Our results might suggest an efficient use of brain areas dealing with phonological processing in skilled lipreaders.

Functional quantification of oral motor cortex at rest and during tasks using activity phase ratio: A zero-setting vector functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Oral frailty associated with oral hypokinesia may cause dementia. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be used while the participants are in seating position with few restrictions. Thus, it is useful for assessing brain function, particularly oral motor activity. However, methods for identifying oral motor cortex (OMC) activation via the scalp have not been established. The current study aimed to detect OMC activation, an indicator of activity phase ratio (APR), which reflects increased oxygen consumption (0 < [deoxyhemoglobin (ΔDeoxyHb) or 0 < {[ΔDeoxyHb- oxyhemoglobin (ΔOxyHb)/√2]}, via fNIRS to accurately identify local brain activity. The APR, calculated via zero-set vector analysis, is a novel index for quantifying brain function both temporally and spatially at rest and during tasks. In total, 14 healthy participants performed bite tasks for 3 s per side for 10 times while in the sitting position. Then, time-series data on concentration changes in ΔOxyHb and ΔDeoxyHb were obtained via fNIRS. The anatomical location of the OMC was determined using a pooled data set of three-dimensional magnetic resonance images collected in advance from 40 healthy adults. In the zero-set vector analysis, the average change in ΔOxyHb and ΔDeoxyHb concentrations was utilized to calculate the APR percentage in 140 trials. The significant regions (z-score of ≥2.0) of the APR and ΔOxyHb in the task were compared. During the bite task, the APR significantly increased within the estimated OMC region (56–84 mm lateral to Cz and 4–20 mm anterior to Cz) in both the right and left hemispheres. By contrast, the ΔOxyHb concentrations increased on the bite side alone beyond the OMC region. The mean APR at rest for 2 s before the task showed 59.5%–62.2% in the left and right OMCs. The average APR for 3 s during the task showed 75.3% for the left OMC and 75.7% for the right OMC during the left bite task, and 65.9% for the left OMC and 80.9% for the right OMC during the right bite task. Interestingly, the average increase in APR for the left and right OMCs for the left bite task and the right bite task was 13.9% and 13.7%, respectively, showing almost a close match. The time course of the APR was more limited to the bite task segment than that of ΔOxyHb or ΔDexyHb concentration, and it increased in the OMC. Hence, the APR can quantitatively monitor both the resting and active states of the OMC in the left and right hemispheres. Using the zero-set vector-based fNIRS, the APR can be a valid indicator of oral motor function and bite force.

Network Physiology of Cortico-Muscular Interactions

Skeletal muscle activity is continuously modulated across physiologic states to provide coordination, flexibility and responsiveness to body tasks and external inputs. Despite the central role the muscular system plays in facilitating vital body functions, the network of brain-muscle interactions required to control hundreds of muscles and synchronize their activation in relation to distinct physiologic states has not been investigated. Recent approaches have focused on general associations between individual brain rhythms and muscle activation during movement tasks. However, the specific forms of coupling, the functional network of cortico-muscular coordination, and how network structure and dynamics are modulated by autonomic regulation across physiologic states remains unknown. To identify and quantify the cortico-muscular interaction network and uncover basic features of neuro-autonomic control of muscle function, we investigate the coupling between synchronous bursts in cortical rhythms and peripheral muscle activation during sleep and wake. Utilizing the concept of time delay stability and a novel network physiology approach, we find that the brain-muscle network exhibits complex dynamic patterns of communication involving multiple brain rhythms across cortical locations and different electromyographic frequency bands. Moreover, our results show that during each physiologic state the cortico-muscular network is characterized by a specific profile of network links strength, where particular brain rhythms play role of main mediators of interaction and control. Further, we discover a hierarchical reorganization in network structure across physiologic states, with high connectivity and network link strength during wake, intermediate during REM and light sleep, and low during deep sleep, a sleep-stage stratification that demonstrates a unique association between physiologic states and cortico-muscular network structure. The reported empirical observations are consistent across individual subjects, indicating universal behavior in network structure and dynamics, and high sensitivity of cortico-muscular control to changes in autonomic regulation, even at low levels of physical activity and muscle tone during sleep. Our findings demonstrate previously unrecognized basic principles of brain-muscle network communication and control, and provide new perspectives on the regulatory mechanisms of brain dynamics and locomotor activation, with potential clinical implications for neurodegenerative, movement and sleep disorders, and for developing efficient treatment strategies.

Safety Study of Combination Treatment: Deep Brain Stimulation and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) often receive deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment, in which conductive leads are surgically implanted in the brain. While DBS treats tremor and rigidity, patients often continue to suffer from speech and swallowing impairments. There is preliminary evidence that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the cortex may be beneficial for these symptoms. However, the potential electromagnetic interactions of the strong magnetic fields from TMS on the conductive leads is unknown, and the combination therapy has not been approved for use. In this article, we report an experimental study of the safety of combining DBS and TMS. We fabricated an anatomically accurate head and brain phantom with electrical conductivities matching cerebrospinal fluid and averaged conductivity of gray and white matter. Induced current on an implanted DBS probe in the brain phantom was measured. Our results show that TMS will induce current values in the range or higher than typical DBS stimulation current. Thus, the combination of TMS/DBS treatment might cause over-stimulation in the brain when stimulated directly over the DBS lead with 100% TMS current intensity.

Tight Coupling between Morphological Features of the Central Sulcus and Somatomotor Body Representations: A Combined Anatomical and Functional MRI Study

Pioneering research established the concept of somatotopic organization of the primary motor and somatosensory cortex along the central sulcus as depicted in the widely known schematic illustration (the "homunculus") by Penfield and colleagues. With the exception of the hand, however, a precise relationship between morphological features of the central sulcus and the representation of various parts of the body has not been addressed. To investigate whether such relations between anatomical features and functional body representations exist, we first examined central sulcus morphology in detail and then conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment to establish somatomotor representations. This study established that the central sulcus is composed of five distinct sulcal segments and demonstrated that each segment relates systematically to the sensorimotor representation of distinct parts of the body. Thus, local morphology predicts the localization of body representations with precision, raising fundamental questions regarding functional and morphological differentiation.

The association of grey matter volume and cortical complexity with individual differences in children's arithmetic fluency

Only a small amount of studies have looked at the structural neural correlates of children's arithmetic. Furthermore, these studies mainly implemented voxel-based morphometry, which only takes the volume of regions into account, without looking at other structural properties. The current study aimed to contribute knowledge on which brain regions are important for children's arithmetic on a structural level, by not only implementing voxel-based morphometry, but also cortical complexity analyses, based on the fractal dimension index. This complexity measure describes a characteristic of surface shape. Data of 43 typically developing 9-10 year-olds were analyzed. All children were asked to take part in two test sessions: behavioral data collection and MRI data acquisition. For data analysis, mean values for volume and cortical complexity were estimated within regions of interest (ROIs) and extracted for further analysis. The selected ROIs were based on regions found to be related to children's mathematical abilities in previous research. Results point towards associations between arithmetic fluency and the volume of the right fusiform gyrus, as well as the cortical complexity of the left postcentral gyrus, right insular sulcus, and left lateral orbital sulcus. Remarkably, no significant associations were observed between the children's arithmetic fluency and the volume or cortical complexity of typically arithmetic-associated parietal regions, such as the superior parietal lobe, intraparietal sulcus, or angular gyrus. Accordingly, the current study highlights the importance of structural characteristics of brain regions other than these typically arithmetic-associated parietal regions for children's arithmetic fluency.

Large-scale plurimodal networks common to listening to, producing and reading word lists: an fMRI study combining task-induced activation and intrinsic connectivity in 144 right-handers

We aimed at identifying plurimodal large-scale networks for producing, listening to and reading word lists based on the combined analyses of task-induced activation and resting-state intrinsic connectivity in 144 healthy right-handers. In the first step, we identified the regions in each hemisphere showing joint activation and joint asymmetry during the three tasks. In the left hemisphere, 14 homotopic regions of interest (hROIs) located in the left Rolandic sulcus, precentral gyrus, cingulate gyrus, cuneus and inferior supramarginal gyrus (SMG) met this criterion, and 7 hROIs located in the right hemisphere were located in the preSMA, medial superior frontal gyrus, precuneus and superior temporal sulcus (STS). In a second step, we calculated the BOLD temporal correlations across these 21 hROIs at rest and conducted a hierarchical clustering analysis to unravel their network organization. Two networks were identified, including the WORD-LIST_CORE network that aggregated 14 motor, premotor and phonemic areas in the left hemisphere plus the right STS that corresponded to the posterior human voice area (pHVA). The present results revealed that word-list processing is based on left articulatory and storage areas supporting the action-perception cycle common not only to production and listening but also to reading. The inclusion of the right pHVA acting as a prosodic integrative area highlights the importance of prosody in the three modalities and reveals an intertwining across hemispheres between prosodic (pHVA) and phonemic (left SMG) processing. These results are consistent with the motor theory of speech postulating that articulatory gestures are the central motor units on which word perception, production, and reading develop and act together.

Brain regions involved in ingestive behavior and related psychological constructs in people undergoing calorie restriction

Human food intake is regulated by physiological energy homeostatic mechanisms and hedonic mechanisms. These are affected by both very short-term and longer-term calorie restriction (CR). To date, there are parallel discussions in the literature that fail to integrate across these disciplines and topics. First, much of the available neuroimaging research focusses on specific functional paradigms (e.g. reward, energy homeostasis). These paradigms often fail to consider more complex and inclusive models that examine how potential brain regions of interest interact to influence ingestion. Second, the paradigms used focus primarily on short-term CR (fasting) which has limited generalizability to clinical application. Finally, the behavioral literature, while frequently examining longer-term CR and related psychological constructs in the context of weight management (e.g. hedonic restraint, 'liking', 'wanting' and food craving), fails to adequately tie these phenomena to underlying neural mechanisms. The result is a less than complete picture of the brain's role in the complexity of the human experience of ingestion. This disconnect highlights a major limitation in the CR literature, where attempts are persistently made to exert behavioral control over ingestion, without fully understanding the complex bio behavioral systems involved. In this review we attempt to summarize all potential brain regions important for human ingestion, present a broad conceptual overview of the brain's multifaceted role in ingestive behavior, the human (psychological) experiences related to ingestion and to examine how these factors differ according to three forms of CR. These include short-term fasting, extended CR, and restrained eating. We aim to bring together the neuroimaging literature with the behavioral literature within a conceptual framework that may inform future translational research.

Dyslexic brain activation abnormalities in deep and shallow orthographies: A meta-analysis of 28 functional neuroimaging studies

We used coordinate‐based meta‐analysis to objectively quantify commonalities and differences of dyslexic functional brain abnormalities between alphabetic languages differing in orthographic depth. Specifically, we compared foci of under‐ and overactivation in dyslexic readers relative to nonimpaired readers reported in 14 studies in deep orthographies (DO: English) and in 14 studies in shallow orthographies (SO: Dutch, German, Italian, Swedish). The separate meta‐analyses of the two sets of studies showed universal reading‐related dyslexic underactivation in the left occipitotemporal cortex (including the visual word form area (VWFA)). The direct statistical comparison revealed higher convergence of underactivation for DO compared with SO in bilateral inferior parietal regions, but this abnormality disappeared when foci resulting from stronger dyslexic task‐negative activation (i.e., deactivation relative to baseline) were excluded. Higher convergence of underactivation for DO compared with SO was further identified in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) pars triangularis, left precuneus, and right superior temporal gyrus, together with higher convergence of overactivation in the left anterior insula. Higher convergence of underactivation for SO compared with DO was found in the left fusiform gyrus, left temporoparietal cortex, left IFG pars orbitalis, and left frontal operculum, together with higher convergence of overactivation in the left precentral gyrus. Taken together, the findings support the notion of a biological unity of dyslexia, with additional orthography‐specific abnormalities and presumably different compensatory mechanisms. The results are discussed in relation to current functional neuroanatomical models of developmental dyslexia. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2676–2699, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mental imagery of speech implicates two mechanisms of perceptual reactivation

Sensory cortices can be activated without any external stimuli. Yet, it is still unclear how this perceptual reactivation occurs and which neural structures mediate this reconstruction process. In this study, we employed fMRI with mental imagery paradigms to investigate the neural networks involved in perceptual reactivation. Subjects performed two speech imagery tasks: articulation imagery (AI) and hearing imagery (HI). We found that AI induced greater activity in frontal-parietal sensorimotor systems, including sensorimotor cortex, subcentral (BA 43), middle frontal cortex (BA 46) and parietal operculum (PO), whereas HI showed stronger activation in regions that have been implicated in memory retrieval: middle frontal (BA 8), inferior parietal cortex and intraparietal sulcus. Moreover, posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) was activated more in AI compared with HI, suggesting that covert motor processes induced stronger perceptual reactivation in the auditory cortices. These results suggest that motor-to-perceptual transformation and memory retrieval act as two complementary mechanisms to internally reconstruct corresponding perceptual outcomes. These two mechanisms can serve as a neurocomputational foundation for predicting perceptual changes, either via a previously learned relationship between actions and their perceptual consequences or via stored perceptual experiences of stimulus and episodic or contextual regularity.

Identification of the regions involved in phonological assembly using a novel paradigm

Here we adopt a novel strategy to investigate phonological assembly. Participants performed a visual lexical decision task in English in which the letters in words and letterstrings were delivered either sequentially (promoting phonological assembly) or simultaneously (not promoting phonological assembly). A region of interest analysis confirmed that regions previously associated with phonological assembly, in studies contrasting different word types (e.g. words versus pseudowords), were also identified using our novel task that controls for a number of confounding variables. Specifically, the left pars opercularis, the superior part of the ventral precentral gyrus and the supramarginal gyrus were all recruited more during sequential delivery than simultaneous delivery, even when various psycholinguistic characteristics of the stimuli were controlled. This suggests that sequential delivery of orthographic stimuli is a useful tool to explore how readers, with various levels of proficiency, use sublexical phonological processing during visual word recognition.

Anatomy and lateralization of the human corticobulbar tracts: an fMRI-guided tractography study

The left hemisphere lateralization bias for language functions, such as syntactic processing and semantic retrieval, is well known. Although several theories and clinical data indicate a link between speech motor execution and language, the functional and structural brain lateralization for these functions has never been examined concomitantly in the same individuals. Here, we used functional MRI during rapid silent syllable repetition (/lalala/, /papapa/ and /pataka/, known as oral diadochokinesis or DDK) to map the cortical representation of the articulators in 17 healthy adults. In these same participants, functional lateralization for language production was assessed using the well-established verb generation task. We then used DDK-related fMRI activation clusters to guide tractography of the corticobulbar tract from diffusion-weighted MRI. Functional MRI revealed a wide inter-individual variability of hemispheric asymmetry patterns (left and right dominant, as well as bilateral) for DDK in the motor cortex, despite predominantly left hemisphere dominance for language-related activity in Broca's area. Tractography revealed no evidence for structural asymmetry (based on fractional anisotropy) within the corticobulbar tract. To our knowledge, this study is the first to reveal that motor brain activation for syllable repetition is unrelated to functional asymmetry for language production in adult humans. In addition, we found no evidence that the human corticobulbar tract is an asymmetric white matter pathway. We suggest that the predominance of dysarthria following left hemisphere infarct is probably a consequence of disrupted feedback or input from left hemisphere language and speech planning regions, rather than structural asymmetry of the corticobulbar tract itself.

Meta-analytic connectivity and behavioral parcellation of the human cerebellum

The cerebellum historically has been thought to mediate motor and sensory signals between the body and cerebral cortex, yet cerebellar lesions are also associated with altered cognitive behavioral performance. Neuroimaging evidence indicates that the cerebellum contributes to a wide range of cognitive, perceptual, and motor functions. Here, we used the BrainMap database to investigate whole-brainco-activation patterns between cerebellar structures and regions of the cerebral cortex, as well as associations with behavioral tasks. Hierarchical clustering was performed to meta-analytically identify cerebellar structures with similar cortical co-activation, and independently, with similar correlations to specific behavioral tasks. Strong correspondences were observed in these separate but parallel analyses of meta-analytic connectivity and behavioral metadata. We recovered differential zones of cerebellar co-activation that are reflected across the literature. Furthermore, the behaviors and tasks associated with the different cerebellar zones provide insight into the specialized function of the cerebellum, relating to high-order cognition, emotion, perception, interoception, and action. Taken together, these task-basedmeta-analytic results implicate distinct zones of the cerebellum as critically involved in the monitoring and mediation of psychological responses to internal and external stimuli.

Top-down attention regulates the neural expression of audiovisual integration

The interplay between attention and multisensory integration has proven to be a difficult question to tackle. There are almost as many studies showing that multisensory integration occurs independently from the focus of attention as studies implying that attention has a profound effect on integration. Addressing the neural expression of multisensory integration for attended vs. unattended stimuli can help disentangle this apparent contradiction. In the present study, we examine if selective attention to sound pitch influences the expression of audiovisual integration in both behavior and neural activity. Participants were asked to attend to one of two auditory speech streams while watching a pair of talking lips that could be congruent or incongruent with the attended speech stream. We measured behavioral and neural responses (fMRI) to multisensory stimuli under attended and unattended conditions while physical stimulation was kept constant. Our results indicate that participants recognized words more accurately from an auditory stream that was both attended and audiovisually (AV) congruent, thus reflecting a benefit due to AV integration. On the other hand, no enhancement was found for AV congruency when it was unattended. Furthermore, the fMRI results indicated that activity in the superior temporal sulcus (an area known to be related to multisensory integration) was contingent on attention as well as on audiovisual congruency. This attentional modulation extended beyond heteromodal areas to affect processing in areas classically recognized as unisensory, such as the superior temporal gyrus or the extrastriate cortex, and to non-sensory areas such as the motor cortex. Interestingly, attention to audiovisual incongruence triggered responses in brain areas related to conflict processing (i.e., the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula). Based on these results, we hypothesize that AV speech integration can take place automatically only when both modalities are sufficiently processed, and that if a mismatch is detected between the AV modalities, feedback from conflict areas minimizes the influence of this mismatch by reducing the processing of the least informative modality.

Meta-analysis in human neuroimaging: computational modeling of large-scale databases

Spatial normalization--applying standardized coordinates as anatomical addresses within a reference space--was introduced to human neuroimaging research nearly 30 years ago. Over these three decades, an impressive series of methodological advances have adopted, extended, and popularized this standard. Collectively, this work has generated a methodologically coherent literature of unprecedented rigor, size, and scope. Large-scale online databases have compiled these observations and their associated meta-data, stimulating the development of meta-analytic methods to exploit this expanding corpus. Coordinate-based meta-analytic methods have emerged and evolved in rigor and utility. Early methods computed cross-study consensus, in a manner roughly comparable to traditional (nonimaging) meta-analysis. Recent advances now compute coactivation-based connectivity, connectivity-based functional parcellation, and complex network models powered from data sets representing tens of thousands of subjects. Meta-analyses of human neuroimaging data in large-scale databases now stand at the forefront of computational neurobiology.

The neurological underpinnings of cluttering: Some initial findings

BACKGROUND

Cluttering is a fluency disorder characterised by overly rapid or jerky speech patterns that compromise intelligibility. The neural correlates of cluttering are unknown but theoretical accounts implicate the basal ganglia and medial prefrontal cortex. Dysfunction in these brain areas would be consistent with difficulties in selection and control of speech motor programs that are characteristic of speech disfluencies in cluttering. There is a surprising lack of investigation into this disorder using modern imaging techniques. Here, we used functional MRI to investigate the neural correlates of cluttering.

METHOD

We scanned 17 adults who clutter and 17 normally fluent control speakers matched for age and sex. Brain activity was recorded using sparse-sampling functional MRI while participants viewed scenes and either (i) produced overt speech describing the scene or (ii) read out loud a sentence provided that described the scene. Speech was recorded and analysed off line. Differences in brain activity for each condition compared to a silent resting baseline and between conditions were analysed for each group separately (cluster-forming threshold Z>3.1, extent p<0.05, corrected) and then these differences were further compared between the two groups (voxel threshold p<0.01, extent>30 voxels, uncorrected).

RESULTS

In both conditions, the patterns of activation in adults who clutter and control speakers were strikingly similar, particularly at the cortical level. Direct group comparisons revealed greater activity in adults who clutter compared to control speakers in the lateral premotor cortex bilaterally and, as predicted, on the medial surface (pre-supplementary motor area). Subcortically, adults who clutter showed greater activity than control speakers in the basal ganglia. Specifically, the caudate nucleus and putamen were overactive in adults who clutter for the comparison of picture description with sentence reading. In addition, adults who clutter had reduced activity relative to control speakers in the lateral anterior cerebellum bilaterally. Eleven of the 17 adults who clutter also stuttered. This comorbid diagnosis of stuttering was found to contribute to the abnormal overactivity seen in the group of adults who clutter in the right ventral premotor cortex and right anterior cingulate cortex. In the remaining areas of abnormal activity seen in adults who clutter compared to controls, the subgroup who clutter and stutter did not differ from the subgroup who clutter but do not stutter.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings were in good agreement with theoretical predictions regarding the neural correlates of cluttering. We found evidence for abnormal function in the basal ganglia and their cortical output target, the medial prefrontal cortex. The findings are discussed in relation to models of cluttering that point to problems with motor control of speech.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

This paper reports findings on the neural correlates seen in adults who clutter, and offers hypotheses as to how these might map onto the behaviours seen amongst those who clutter. Readers will be able to (a) identify the structures that are implicated in the disorder of cluttering, (b) understand arguments relating these structures to the behavioural expression of the disorder, (c) understand some of the complexities in interpreting data pertaining to recovery from cluttering, (d) understand where future efforts in research into the neurological correlates of cluttering should be focussed.

Stuttering, induced fluency, and natural fluency: a hierarchical series of activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses

Developmental stuttering is a speech disorder most likely due to a heritable form of developmental dysmyelination impairing the function of the speech-motor system. Speech-induced brain-activation patterns in persons who stutter (PWS) are anomalous in various ways; the consistency of these aberrant patterns is a matter of ongoing debate. Here, we present a hierarchical series of coordinate-based meta-analyses addressing this issue. Two tiers of meta-analyses were performed on a 17-paper dataset (202 PWS; 167 fluent controls). Four large-scale (top-tier) meta-analyses were performed, two for each subject group (PWS and controls). These analyses robustly confirmed the regional effects previously postulated as "neural signatures of stuttering" (Brown, Ingham, Ingham, Laird, & Fox, 2005) and extended this designation to additional regions. Two smaller-scale (lower-tier) meta-analyses refined the interpretation of the large-scale analyses: (1) a between-group contrast targeting differences between PWS and controls (stuttering trait); and (2) a within-group contrast (PWS only) of stuttering with induced fluency (stuttering state).

Relation between brain architecture and mathematical ability in children: a DBM study

Population-based studies indicate that between 5 and 9 percent of US children exhibit significant deficits in mathematical reasoning, yet little is understood about the brain morphological features related to mathematical performances. In this work, deformation-based morphometry (DBM) analyses have been performed on magnetic resonance images of the brains of 79 third graders to investigate whether there is a correlation between brain morphological features and mathematical proficiency. Group comparison was also performed between Math Difficulties (MD-worst math performers) and Normal Controls (NC), where each subgroup consists of 20 age and gender matched subjects. DBM analysis is based on the analysis of the deformation fields generated by non-rigid registration algorithms, which warp the individual volumes to a common space. To evaluate the effect of registration algorithms on DBM results, five nonrigid registration algorithms have been used: (1) the Adaptive Bases Algorithm (ABA); (2) the Image Registration Toolkit (IRTK); (3) the FSL Nonlinear Image Registration Tool; (4) the Automatic Registration Tool (ART); and (5) the normalization algorithm available in SPM8. The deformation field magnitude (DFM) was used to measure the displacement at each voxel, and the Jacobian determinant (JAC) was used to quantify local volumetric changes. Results show there are no statistically significant volumetric differences between the NC and the MD groups using JAC. However, DBM analysis using DFM found statistically significant anatomical variations between the two groups around the left occipital-temporal cortex, left orbital-frontal cortex, and right insular cortex. Regions of agreement between at least two algorithms based on voxel-wise analysis were used to define Regions of Interest (ROIs) to perform an ROI-based correlation analysis on all 79 volumes. Correlations between average DFM values and standard mathematical scores over these regions were found to be significant. We also found that the choice of registration algorithm has an impact on DBM-based results, so we recommend using more than one algorithm when conducting DBM studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that uses DBM to investigate brain anatomical features related to mathematical performance in a relatively large population of children.

Nonfluent/agrammatic PPA with in-vivo cortical amyloidosis and Pick's disease pathology

The role of biomarkers in predicting pathological findings in the frontotemporal dementia (FTD) clinical spectrum disorders is still being explored. We present comprehensive, prospective longitudinal data for a 66 year old, right-handed female who met current criteria for the nonfluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA). She first presented with a 3-year history of progressive speech and language impairment mainly characterized by severe apraxia of speech. Neuropsychological and general motor functions remained relatively spared throughout the clinical course. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) showed selective cortical atrophy of the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and underlying insula that worsened over time, extending along the left premotor strip. Five years after her first evaluation, she developed mild memory impairment and underwent PET-FDG and PiB scans that showed left frontal hypometabolism and cortical amyloidosis. Three years later (11 years from first symptom), post-mortem histopathological evaluation revealed Pick's disease, with severe degeneration of left IFG, mid-insula, and precentral gyrus. Alzheimer's disease (AD) (CERAD frequent/Braak Stage V) was also detected. This patient demonstrates that biomarkers indicating brain amyloidosis should not be considered conclusive evidence that AD pathology accounts for a typical FTD clinical/anatomical syndrome.

Altered brain structure in Chinese dyslexic children

Due to the logographic nature of the writing system, learning to read Chinese places heavy demands on encoding of orthographic forms through rote memorization. Moreover, phonology has to often be retrieved from memory during reading because of the inconsistent mapping between characters and their pronunciations. Using optimized voxel-based morphometry, we examined differences in volumetrics between children with reading disability (RD, 10-12 years old) and age-matched typically developing (TD) children. Our study shows reduced gray matter volume (GMV) for RD in right inferior occipital gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus, consistent with previous studies suggesting that Chinese dyslexics have deficits in orthographic and phonological processing. The deficit in phonological processing was further supported by reductions in white matter volumes (WMV) in left precentral gyrus. Greater deficits in ortho-phonological processing may be associated with semantic compensation, as lower skill RD children showed greater GMV in anterior temporal cortex, even though as a group they showed less GMV in this region compared to TD. Perhaps most interestingly, we showed reduced GMV in bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortices (vmPFC) and this was correlated with reductions in WMV within vmPFC, suggesting that RD have deficits in memory retrieval. Moreover, these GMV alterations in vmPFC for the RD were correlated with alterations in right parahippocampal gyrus, which also showed a reduced GMV, suggesting that RD have a correlated deficit in memory encoding. Our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that Chinese dyslexics have deficits in visuo-orthographic and phonological processing, but our study importantly suggests deficits in memory encoding and retrieval, perhaps due to the unique demands of the Chinese writing system.

Neural network development in late adolescents during observation of risk-taking action

Emotional maturity and social awareness are important for adolescents, particularly college students beginning to face the challenges and risks of the adult world. However, there has been relatively little research into personality maturation and psychological development during late adolescence and the neural changes underlying this development. We investigated the correlation between psychological properties (neuroticism, extraversion, anxiety, and depression) and age among late adolescents (n = 25, from 18 years and 1 month to 22 years and 8 months). The results revealed that late adolescents became less neurotic, less anxious, less depressive and more extraverted as they aged. Participants then observed video clips depicting hand movements with and without a risk of harm (risk-taking or safe actions) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results revealed that risk-taking actions elicited significantly stronger activation in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule, temporal visual regions (superior/middle temporal areas), and parieto-occipital visual areas (cuneus, middle occipital gyri, precuneus). We found positive correlations of age and extraversion with neural activation in the insula, middle temporal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and precuneus. We also found a negative correlation of age and anxiety with activation in the angular gyrus, precentral gyrus, and red nucleus/substantia nigra. Moreover, we found that insula activation mediated the relationship between age and extraversion. Overall, our results indicate that late adolescents become less anxious and more extraverted with age, a process involving functional neural changes in brain networks related to social cognition and emotional processing. The possible neural mechanisms of psychological and social maturation during late adolescence are discussed.

Multichannel fNIRS assessment of overt and covert confrontation naming

Confrontation naming tasks assess cognitive processes involved in the main stage of word production. However, in fMRI, the occurrence of movement artifacts necessitates the use of covert paradigms, which has limited clinical applications. Thus, we explored the feasibility of adopting multichannel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess language function during covert and overt naming tasks. Thirty right-handed, healthy adult volunteers underwent both naming tasks and cortical hemodynamics measurement using fNIRS. The overt naming task recruited the classical left-hemisphere language areas (left inferior frontal, superior and middle temporal, precentral, and postcentral gyri) exemplified by an increase in the oxy-Hb signal. Activations were bilateral in the middle and superior temporal gyri. However, the covert naming task recruited activation only in the left-middle temporal gyrus. The activation patterns reflected a major part of the functional network for overt word production, suggesting the clinical importance of fNIRS in the diagnosis of aphasic patients.

Distributed processing; distributed functions?

After more than twenty years busily mapping the human brain, what have we learned from neuroimaging? This review (coda) considers this question from the point of view of structure-function relationships and the two cornerstones of functional neuroimaging; functional segregation and integration. Despite remarkable advances and insights into the brain's functional architecture, the earliest and simplest challenge in human brain mapping remains unresolved: We do not have a principled way to map brain function onto its structure in a way that speaks directly to cognitive neuroscience. Having said this, there are distinct clues about how this might be done: First, there is a growing appreciation of the role of functional integration in the distributed nature of neuronal processing. Second, there is an emerging interest in data-driven cognitive ontologies, i.e., that are internally consistent with functional anatomy. We will focus this review on the growing momentum in the fields of functional connectivity and distributed brain responses and consider this in the light of meta-analyses that use very large data sets to disclose large-scale structure-function mappings in the human brain.

Flexible, foldable, actively multiplexed, high-density electrode array for mapping brain activity in vivo

Arrays of electrodes for recording and stimulating the brain are used throughout clinical medicine and basic neuroscience research, yet are unable to sample large areas of the brain while maintaining high spatial resolution because of the need to individually wire each passive sensor at the electrode-tissue interface. To overcome this constraint, we developed new devices that integrate ultrathin and flexible silicon nanomembrane transistors into the electrode array, enabling new dense arrays of thousands of amplified and multiplexed sensors that are connected using fewer wires. We used this system to record spatial properties of cat brain activity in vivo, including sleep spindles, single-trial visual evoked responses and electrographic seizures. We found that seizures may manifest as recurrent spiral waves that propagate in the neocortex. The developments reported here herald a new generation of diagnostic and therapeutic brain-machine interface devices.

Individual differences in audio-vocal speech imitation aptitude in late bilinguals: functional neuro-imaging and brain morphology

An unanswered question in adult language learning or late bi and multilingualism is why individuals show marked differences in their ability to imitate foreign accents. While recent research acknowledges that more adults than previously assumed can still acquire a "native" foreign accent, very little is known about the neuro-cognitive correlates of this special ability. We investigated 140 German-speaking individuals displaying varying degrees of "mimicking" capacity, based on natural language text, sentence, and word imitations either in their second language English or in Hindi and Tamil, languages they had never been exposed to. The large subject pool was strictly controlled for previous language experience prior to magnetic resonance imaging. The late-onset (around 10 years) bilinguals showed significant individual differences as to how they employed their left-hemisphere speech areas: higher hemodynamic activation in a distinct fronto-parietal network accompanied low ability, while high ability paralleled enhanced gray matter volume in these areas concomitant with decreased hemodynamic responses. Finally and unexpectedly, males were found to be more talented foreign speech mimics.

Neural correlates of blink suppression and the buildup of a natural bodily urge

Neuroimaging studies have elucidated some of the underlying physiology of spontaneous and voluntary eye blinking; however, the neural networks involved in eye blink suppression remain poorly understood. Here we investigated blink suppression by analyzing fMRI data in a block design and event-related manner, and employed a novel hypothetical time-varying neural response model to detect brain activations associated with the buildup of urge. Blinks were found to activate visual cortices while our block design analysis revealed activations limited to the middle occipital gyri and deactivations in medial occipital, posterior cingulate and precuneus areas. Our model for urge, however, revealed a widespread network of activations including right greater than left insular cortex, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, middle cingulate cortex, and bilateral temporo-parietal cortices, primary and secondary face motor regions, and visual cortices. Subsequent inspection of BOLD time-series in an extensive ROI analysis showed that activity in the bilateral insular cortex, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral STG and MTG showed strong correlations with our hypothetical model for urge suggesting these areas play a prominent role in the buildup of urge. The involvement of the insular cortex in particular, along with its function in interoceptive processing, helps support a key role for this structure in the buildup of urge during blink suppression. The right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex findings in conjunction with its known involvement in inhibitory control suggest a role for this structure in maintaining volitional suppression of an increasing sense of urge. The consistency of our urge model findings with prior studies investigating the suppression of blinking and other bodily urges, thoughts, and behaviors suggests that a similar investigative approach may have utility in fMRI studies of disorders associated with abnormal urge suppression such as Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Incongruence effects in crossmodal emotional integration

Emotions are often encountered in a multimodal fashion. Consequently, contextual framing by other modalities can alter the way that an emotional facial expression is perceived and lead to emotional conflict. Whole brain fMRI data was collected when 35 healthy subjects judged emotional expressions in faces while concurrently being exposed to emotional (scream, laughter) or neutral (yawning) sounds. The behavioral results showed that subjects rated fearful and neutral faces as being more fearful when accompanied by screams than compared to yawns (and laughs for fearful faces). Moreover, the imaging data revealed that incongruence of emotional valence between faces and sounds led to increased activation in the middle cingulate cortex, right superior frontal cortex, right supplementary motor area as well as the right temporoparietal junction. Against expectations no incongruence effects could be found in the amygdala. Further analyses revealed that, independent of emotional valence congruency, the left amygdala was consistently activated when the information from both modalities was emotional. If a neutral stimulus was present in one modality and emotional in the other, activation in the left amygdala was significantly attenuated. These results indicate that incongruence of emotional valence in audiovisual integration activates a cingulate-fronto-parietal network involved in conflict monitoring and resolution. Furthermore in audiovisual pairing amygdala responses seem to signal also the absence of any neutral feature rather than only the presence of an emotionally charged one.

Processing of infant-directed speech by adults

Adults typically address infants in a special speech mode called infant-directed speech (IDS). IDS is characterized by a special prosody (i.e., higher pitched, slower and hyperarticulated) and a special lexicon ("baby talk"). Here we investigated which areas of the adult brain are involved in processing IDS, which aspects of IDS (prosodic or lexical) are processed, to what extent the experience of being a parent affects the way adults process IDS, and the effects of gender and personality on IDS processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that mothers with preverbal infants showed enhanced activation in the auditory dorsal pathway of the language areas, regardless of whether they listened to the prosodic or lexical component of IDS. We also found that extroverted mothers showed higher cortical activation in speech-related motor areas than did mothers with lower extroverted personality scores. Increased cortical activation levels were not found for fathers, non-parents, or mothers with older children.

Vocal accuracy and neural plasticity following micromelody-discrimination training

Background

Recent behavioral studies report correlational evidence to suggest that non-musicians with good pitch discrimination sing more accurately than those with poorer auditory skills. However, other studies have reported a dissociation between perceptual and vocal production skills. In order to elucidate the relationship between auditory discrimination skills and vocal accuracy, we administered an auditory-discrimination training paradigm to a group of non-musicians to determine whether training-enhanced auditory discrimination would specifically result in improved vocal accuracy.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We utilized micromelodies (i.e., melodies with seven different interval scales, each smaller than a semitone) as the main stimuli for auditory discrimination training and testing, and we used single-note and melodic singing tasks to assess vocal accuracy in two groups of non-musicians (experimental and control). To determine if any training-induced improvements in vocal accuracy would be accompanied by related modulations in cortical activity during singing, the experimental group of non-musicians also performed the singing tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Following training, the experimental group exhibited significant enhancements in micromelody discrimination compared to controls. However, we did not observe a correlated improvement in vocal accuracy during single-note or melodic singing, nor did we detect any training-induced changes in activity within brain regions associated with singing.

Conclusions/Significance

Given the observations from our auditory training regimen, we therefore conclude that perceptual discrimination training alone is not sufficient to improve vocal accuracy in non-musicians, supporting the suggested dissociation between auditory perception and vocal production.

The contribution(s) of the insula to speech production: a review of the clinical and functional imaging literature

Skilled spoken language production requires fast and accurate coordination of up to 100 muscles. A long-standing concept--tracing ultimately back to Paul Broca--assumes posterior parts of the inferior frontal gyrus to support the orchestration of the respective movement sequences prior to innervation of the vocal tract. At variance with this tradition, the insula has more recently been declared the relevant "region for coordinating speech articulation", based upon clinico-neuroradiological correlation studies. However, these findings have been criticized on methodological grounds. A survey of the clinical literature (cerebrovascular disorders, brain tumours, stimulation mapping) yields a still inconclusive picture. By contrast, functional imaging studies report more consistently hemodynamic insular responses in association with motor aspects of spoken language. Most noteworthy, a relatively small area at the junction of insular and opercular cortex was found sensitive to the phonetic-linguistic structure of verbal utterances, a strong argument for its engagement in articulatory control processes. Nevertheless, intrasylvian hemodynamic activation does not appear restricted to articulatory processes and might also be engaged in the adjustment of the autonomic system to ventilatory needs during speech production: Whereas the posterior insula could be involved in the cortical representation of respiration-related metabolic (interoceptive) states, the more rostral components, acting upon autonomic functions, might serve as a corollary pathway to "voluntary control of breathing" bound to corticospinal and -bulbar fiber tracts. For example, the insula could participate in the implementation of task-specific autonomic settings such as the maintenance of a state of relative hyperventilation during speech production.

The contribution of mesiofrontal cortex to the preparation and execution of repetitive syllable productions: an fMRI study

Clinical data indicate that the brain network of speech motor control can be subdivided into at least three functional-neuroanatomical subsystems: (i) planning of movement sequences (premotor ventrolateral-frontal cortex and/or anterior insula), (ii) preparedness for/initiation of upcoming verbal utterances (supplementary motor area, SMA), and (iii) on-line innervation of vocal tract muscles, i.e., motor execution (corticobulbar system, basal ganglia, cerebellum). Using an event-related design, this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study sought to further delineate the contribution of SMA to pre-articulatory processes of speech production (preceding the innervation of vocal tract muscles) during an acoustically paced syllable repetition task forewarned by a tone signal. Hemodynamic activation across the whole brain and the time courses of the responses in five regions of interest (ROIs) were computed. First, motor preparation was associated with a widespread bilateral activation pattern, encompassing brainstem structures, SMA, insula, premotor ventrolateral-frontal areas, primary sensorimotor cortex (SMC), basal ganglia, and the superior cerebellum. Second, calculation of the time courses of BOLD ("blood oxygenation level-dependent") signal changes revealed the warning stimulus to elicit synchronous onset of hemodynamic activation in these areas. However, during 4-s intervals of syllable repetitions SMA and cerebellum showed opposite temporal activation patterns in terms of a shorter (SMA) and longer (cerebellum) latency of the entire BOLD response-as compared to SMC, indicating different pacing mechanisms during the initial and the ongoing phase of the task. Nevertheless, the contribution of SMA was not exclusively restricted to the preparation/initiation of verbal responses since the extension of mesiofrontal activation varied with task duration.

Morphometry of human insular cortex and insular volume reduction in Williams syndrome

Functional imaging in humans and anatomical data in monkeys have implicated the insula as a multimodal sensory integrative brain region. The topography of insular connections is organized by its cytoarchitectonic regions. Previous attempts to measure the insula have utilized either indirect or automated methods. This study was designed to develop a reliable method for obtaining volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of the human insular cortex, and to validate that method by examining the anatomy of insular cortex in adults with Williams syndrome (WS) and healthy age-matched controls. Statistical reliability was obtained among three raters for this method, supporting its reproducibility not only across raters, but within different software packages. The procedure described here utilizes native-space morphometry as well as a method for dividing the insula into connectivity-based sub-regions estimated from cytoarchitectonics. Reliability was calculated in both ANALYZE (N=3) and BrainImageJava (N=10) where brain scans were measured once in each hemisphere by each rater. This highly reliable method revealed total, anterior, and posterior insular volume reduction bilaterally (all p's<.002) in WS, after accounting for reduced total brain volumes in these participants. Although speculative, the reduced insular volumes in WS may represent a neural risk for the development of hyperaffiliative social behavior with increased specific phobias, and implicate the insula as a critical limbic integrative region. Native-space quantification of the insula may be valuable in the study of neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric disorders related to anxiety and social behavior.

Anatomical and functional parcellation of the human lateral premotor cortex

The lateral premotor cortex (PM) of the macaque monkey is an anatomically multifaceted area, which serves multiple sensorimotor and cognitive functions. While evidence for the functional organization of human premotor cortex accumulates, much less is known about the underlying anatomical properties of this brain region. We used diffusion tractography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether the precentral gyrus in humans can be segregated on the basis of anatomical connectivity and of functional activation in a set of cognitive and motor tasks. Tractographic data suggested a distinction between ventral and dorsal premotor cortex, and furthermore inferior and superior subparcellation of both. Functional MRI data corroborated these four areas, showing that anatomical parcellation predicts the distribution of functional activation and vice versa (preliminary evidence). These results may encourage the application of combining diffusion tractography and fMRI in vivo in order to shed light on the correspondence of brain function and anatomy.

Functional abnormalities in the dyslexic brain: a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

This study used foci from 17 original studies on functional abnormalities in the dyslexic brain to identify brain regions with consistent under- or overactivation. Studies were included when reading or reading-related tasks were performed on visually presented stimuli and when results reported coordinates for group differences. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) was used for quantification. Maxima of underactivation were found in inferior parietal, superior temporal, middle and inferior temporal, and fusiform regions of the left hemisphere. With respect to left frontal abnormalities, we found underactivation in the inferior frontal gyrus to be accompanied by overactivation in the primary motor cortex and the anterior insula. Tentative functional interpretations of the activation abnormalities are provided.

Coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of neuroimaging data: a random-effects approach based on empirical estimates of spatial uncertainty

A widely used technique for coordinate-based meta-analyses of neuroimaging data is activation likelihood estimation (ALE). ALE assesses the overlap between foci based on modeling them as probability distributions centered at the respective coordinates. In this Human Brain Project/Neuroinformatics research, the authors present a revised ALE algorithm addressing drawbacks associated with former implementations. The first change pertains to the size of the probability distributions, which had to be specified by the used. To provide a more principled solution, the authors analyzed fMRI data of 21 subjects, each normalized into MNI space using nine different approaches. This analysis provided quantitative estimates of between-subject and between-template variability for 16 functionally defined regions, which were then used to explicitly model the spatial uncertainty associated with each reported coordinate. Secondly, instead of testing for an above-chance clustering between foci, the revised algorithm assesses above-chance clustering between experiments. The spatial relationship between foci in a given experiment is now assumed to be fixed and ALE results are assessed against a null-distribution of random spatial association between experiments. Critically, this modification entails a change from fixed- to random-effects inference in ALE analysis allowing generalization of the results to the entire population of studies analyzed. By comparative analysis of real and simulated data, the authors showed that the revised ALE-algorithm overcomes conceptual problems of former meta-analyses and increases the specificity of the ensuing results without loosing the sensitivity of the original approach. It may thus provide a methodologically improved tool for coordinate-based meta-analyses on functional imaging data.

The effects of background noise on dichotic listening to consonant-vowel syllables: An fMRI study

The present fMRI study attempts to identify brain areas that may underlie the effect of different background noises on functional brain asymmetry in a dichotic listening task. Previous studies have shown that the prominent right ear advantage in dichotic listening to consonant-vowel syllables is affected by background noise. To explore the underlying neuronal processes, haemodynamic brain responses using fMRI were recorded while participants performed the dichotic listening task in two different noisy backgrounds (conversational "babble" and traffic noise). The behavioural results showed a reduction of the right ear advantage in the background noise conditions, especially in the traffic noise condition. The behavioural results are discussed in terms of alertness-attentional mechanisms. The effects of background noise on brain activation involved significant activations in a speech-processing network. Specifically the changes in activations in the peri-Sylvian region of the superior temporal gyrus and in the temporo-parietal junction part in the left hemisphere, as well as in the superior temporal gyrus/sulcus area in the right hemisphere may mirror the effects of noise on behavioural performance. The effects of noise on brain activation are discussed with regard to pre-activation mechanisms.

The somatotopy of speech: phonation and articulation in the human motor cortex

A sizable literature on the neuroimaging of speech production has reliably shown activations in the orofacial region of the primary motor cortex. These activations have invariably been interpreted as reflecting "mouth" functioning and thus articulation. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare an overt speech task with tongue movement, lip movement, and vowel phonation. The results showed that the strongest motor activation for speech was the somatotopic larynx area of the motor cortex, thus reflecting the significant contribution of phonation to speech production. In order to analyze further the phonatory component of speech, we performed a voxel-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of syllable-singing (11 studies) and compared the results with a previously-published meta-analysis of oral reading (11 studies), showing again a strong overlap in the larynx motor area. Overall, these findings highlight the under-recognized presence of phonation in imaging studies of speech production, and support the role of the larynx motor cortex in mediating the "melodicity" of speech.

Asymmetry and dyslexia

Developmental language disorders are characterized by a maturational trajectory that deviates or lags that of normal children. Given the wide variation in the rate of normal language development, diagnosis and classification of these disorders poses severe problems for the clinician. Our laboratory has been searching for anatomical signatures that could aid the development of a neurobiologically based classification. Quantitative analysis of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of a series of samples of children and adults with reading and language disorders has identified two clusters with contrasting anatomical and reading profiles. Individuals with small symmetrical brain structures tend to have deficits in multiple domains of written and oral language whereas those with larger asymmetrical structures are more likely to have the isolated phonological deficits seen in adults with compensated dyslexia. Surprisingly, the anatomical risk factors that define these clusters do not form a continuum of increasing severity but deviate in opposite directions from normal. Individuals with moderate brain size and asymmetry typically demonstrate the best overall performance. Further research should determine if phonological impairments in the two clusters are associated with differing genetic and environmental risk factors requiring different types of intervention.

Modeling Dynamic Functional Neuroimaging Data Using Structural Equation Modeling

The aims of this study were to present a method for developing a path analytic network model using data acquired from positron emission tomography. Regions of interest within the human brain were identified through quantitative activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. Using this information, a "true" or population path model was then developed using Bayesian structural equation modeling. To evaluate the impact of sample size on parameter estimation bias, proportion of parameter replication coverage, and statistical power, a 2 group (clinical/control) × 6 (sample size: N = 10, N = 15, N = 20, N = 25, N = 50, N = 100) Markov chain Monte Carlo study was conducted. Results indicate that using a sample size of less than N = 15 per group will produce parameter estimates exhibiting bias greater than 5% and statistical power below .80.

Structural and functional abnormalities of the motor system in developmental stuttering

Though stuttering is manifest in its motor characteristics, the cause of stuttering may not relate purely to impairments in the motor system as stuttering frequency is increased by linguistic factors, such as syntactic complexity and length of utterance, and decreased by changes in perception, such as masking or altering auditory feedback. Using functional and diffusion imaging, we examined brain structure and function in the motor and language areas in a group of young people who stutter. During speech production, irrespective of fluency or auditory feedback, the people who stuttered showed overactivity relative to controls in the anterior insula, cerebellum and midbrain bilaterally and underactivity in the ventral premotor, Rolandic opercular and sensorimotor cortex bilaterally and Heschl's gyrus on the left. These results are consistent with a recent meta-analysis of functional imaging studies in developmental stuttering. Two additional findings emerged from our study. First, we found overactivity in the midbrain, which was at the level of the substantia nigra and extended to the pedunculopontine nucleus, red nucleus and subthalamic nucleus. This overactivity is consistent with suggestions in previous studies of abnormal function of the basal ganglia or excessive dopamine in people who stutter. Second, we found underactivity of the cortical motor and premotor areas associated with articulation and speech production. Analysis of the diffusion data revealed that the integrity of the white matter underlying the underactive areas in ventral premotor cortex was reduced in people who stutter. The white matter tracts in this area via connections with posterior superior temporal and inferior parietal cortex provide a substrate for the integration of articulatory planning and sensory feedback, and via connections with primary motor cortex, a substrate for execution of articulatory movements. Our data support the conclusion that stuttering is a disorder related primarily to disruption in the cortical and subcortical neural systems supporting the selection, initiation and execution of motor sequences necessary for fluent speech production.