Tag

Fmri

All articles tagged with #fmri

science13 days ago•7 min saved

Seven-Day Meditation Retreat Triggers Broad Brain and Body Changes

A small, observational study of 20 adults at a seven-day meditation retreat found brain and blood changes: fMRI showed reduced activity in the default mode and salience networks and greater whole-brain integration; post-retreat plasma caused neurons in a dish to grow longer neurites; blood tests indicated metabolic, immune, and endogenous-opioid shifts; MEQ-30 scores rose, suggesting heightened mystical experiences akin to psychedelic effects, though causality can't be established due to lack of a control group; one co-author is the retreat's CEO, and researchers call for more rigorous, controlled studies to confirm these results.

via ScienceAlert|

#fmri #meditation #mystical-experiences

science14 days ago•5 min saved

Dog Brains Read Human Emotions, Distinguishing Happy, Fear, and Anger

Eight dogs scanned with fMRI showed that happy human faces strongly activate the temporal cortex and caudate, while fear, sadness, and anger trigger distinct whole-brain patterns, indicating dogs can differentiate these emotions at the neural level—though they also rely on body language, voice, and scent in real interactions.

via Ars Technica|

#canine #dogs #emotions

science21 days ago•5 min saved

Misophonia Tied to a Spectrum of Brain Activity, Study Finds

A large resting-state fMRI study links misophonia to activity in the anterior insula and the brain's salience network, with severity correlating to how these regions synchronize with auditory and motor areas, supporting a spectrum view rather than a binary condition. The research used 162 brain scans plus a 777-person survey to estimate misophonia prevalence and severity, and found brain patterns distinct from anxiety, depression, or autism, though the imaging data did not directly test misophonia in participants. Future work should validate brain activity in people with confirmed misophonia and employ other neuroimaging methods.

via ScienceAlert|

#anterior-insula #brain #fmri

science1 month ago•8 min saved

Amygdala Activity Forecasts Teens' Social Lives, Diverging by Sex

Using fMRI data from about 5,800 preteens in the ABCD study, researchers found that baseline amygdala response to emotional faces uniquely predicted social health two years later, with high reactivity linked to more peer involvement in girls but less in boys, suggesting sex-specific brain development trajectories.

via Neuroscience News|

#adolescence #amygdala #fmri

neuroscience1 month ago•29 min saved

Timing of Childhood Trauma Shapes Distinct Brain Signatures in Adulthood

A study of 635 adults using fMRI found that the age at which abuse occurs matters for later emotion processing: abuse before age 13 is linked to heightened hippocampal activity during rapid, non-conscious emotion processing, while abuse in adolescence (13–18) is linked to heightened amygdala activity during conscious emotion processing. These patterns persisted across various mental health diagnoses and healthy controls, suggesting the timing of adversity leaves lasting neural marks and could guide targeted interventions, though retrospective reporting and cross-sectional design limit conclusions.

via PsyPost|

#amygdala #childhood-abuse #emotion-processing

science1 month ago•5 min saved

Practice Rewires the Brain, Unlocking True Multitasking

Georgetown researchers report that extensive practice can relocate a learned task from the prefrontal cortex to the temporal cortex, offloading mental effort and enabling true multitasking, with implications for education, medical training, and AI systems.

via SciTechDaily|

#fmri #learning #multitasking

science2 months ago•8 min saved

Two Brain Signatures Divide Autism Into Distinct Subtypes

A large international study analyzed brain connectivity in about 940 autistic individuals and over 1,000 neurotypical controls, plus mouse models, and found two reproducible autism subtypes: a hyperconnectivity subtype with stronger inter-regional brain communication linked to immune-related pathways, and a hypoconnectivity subtype with reduced communication linked to synaptic pathways. Together these subtypes account for roughly 25% of autism cases and provide a biology-based framework for precision, personalized approaches to care.

via SciTechDaily|

#autism #brain-connectivity #fmri

science2 months ago•8 min saved

Autism Biology Revealed: Two Brain-Connectivity Subtypes Shared Across Species

A cross-species, large-scale study used fMRI and mouse genetics to identify two reproducible autism subtypes: hypoconnectivity (reduced brain-region communication linked to synaptic pathways) and hyperconnectivity (increased communication linked to immune-related systems). Validated across 20 mouse models and ABIDE human data (≈940 autistic individuals and ≈1,000 neurotypical controls), these subtypes account for about 25% of cases, offering a path toward biology-driven, precision autism care beyond traditional behavioral assessments.

via Neuroscience News|

#autism #brain-connectivity #fmri

cognitive-science3 months ago•31 min saved

Time Perception Unfolds Across a Three-Stage Cortical Pathway

A seven-Tesla fMRI study shows that time perception is not a single clock but a three-stage cortical process: early visual areas encode physical durations, parietal and premotor regions map durations across a topographic layout, and frontal regions translate this into a subjective boundary, revealing a distributed, hierarchical network for how the brain experiences the passage of time.

via PsyPost|

#brain #cognitive-science #cortex

science4 months ago•5 min saved

Common neural fingerprint linked to five psychedelics, study suggests

A multinational reanalysis of 11 datasets (267 participants, 519 brain scans) across five psychedelics—psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DMT and ayahuasca—identified a shared neural fingerprint: increased cross-network communication and selective reductions within certain networks across cortical and subcortical regions, suggesting a flattening of the brain's hierarchy. The pattern was most similar for psilocybin and LSD. While promising for understanding psychedelics and potential therapies, the study emphasizes the need for standardized, larger trials and notes that existing datasets used varied methods and doses.

via ScienceAlert|

#brain-connectivity #fmri #mental-health

science5 months ago•6 min saved

Lifespan Atlas Maps How Brain Networks Evolve Across Life

Researchers publish the first lifespan atlas of brain functional connectivity, using fMRI data from about 3,600 people aged from infancy to 100 years to chart how brain networks reorganize from sensory processing to higher‑order cognition and relate to cognitive performance in young adults.

via Nature|

#brain #fmri #functional-connectivity

neuroscience5 months ago•80 min saved

Three Gradients Shape Lifespan Cortical Hierarchy

A large-scale lifespan study maps three core functional gradients—sensory–association (SA), visual–somatosensory (VS), and modulation–representation (MR)—across birth to 100 years, showing early anchoring to primary sensory systems, differentiation along association and control axes through development, and later dedifferentiation with aging; these gradients relate to cognitive performance, structure–function coupling, and transcriptomic patterns, providing a normative lifespan atlas for brain organization.

via Nature|

#brain-development #fmri #functional-gradients

science5 months ago•7 min saved

Sound World: Chronic Back Pain Amplifies Everyday Noises, Reversable with Brain-Based Therapy

New fMRI study shows chronic back pain heightens the brain’s response to ordinary sounds, with stronger activity in the auditory cortex and insula and less regulation by the medial prefrontal cortex; 142 patients vs 51 controls reacted more intensely than 84% of controls. A randomized trial found Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) best reduced this sensory amplification and normalized brain activity, supporting the idea that chronic pain is a whole-brain issue that can be treated with brain-based therapies.

via Neuroscience News|

#chronic-pain #fmri #neuroscience

developmental-psychology6 months ago•28 min saved

Trauma reshapes how children's brains read caregiver cues

A study of 148 children aged 4–9 found that exposure to threat (abuse, witnessing domestic violence) is linked to greater insula activation when processing a caregiver’s cue, suggesting trauma makes caregiver signals more salient and engages interoceptive processing. Deprivation showed no similar effect, indicating adversities affect brain circuitry in distinct ways. The study used a multimodal fMRI task comparing caregivers to strangers and highlighted cross-sectional limits and the need to explore attachment and long-term mental health outcomes.

via PsyPost|

#caregiver-cues #childhood-trauma #developmental-psychology

science6 months ago•7 min saved

Cerebellum Hosts a Language Satellite Echoing the Brain’s Speech Network

New precision MRI work across 800+ participants reveals four cerebellar regions involved in language, including a right-posterior area that acts as a dedicated language satellite mirroring the neocortical language network. Most cerebellar regions also activate during non-linguistic tasks, suggesting the cerebellum helps integrate information across brain networks. The findings extend the language network into the cerebellum, with potential implications for language learning and aphasia therapy through non-invasive brain stimulation.

via Neuroscience News|

#aphasia #cerebellum #fmri