Biology subjects

Kung, C.-C.

Publications and source records attributed to Kung, C.-C..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Increased Activation in the Fusiform Face Area to Greebles is a Result of Expertise Training, Not by its Face-likeness

In 2011, Brants, Wagemans, & Op de Beeck (JOCN 23:12, pp. 3949-3958) trained eight individuals to become Greeble experts, and found neuronal inversion effects [NIEs; i.e., higher Fusiform Face Area (FFA) activity for upright, rather than inverted Greebles]. These effects were also found for faces, both before and after training. By claiming to have replicated the seminal Greeble training study (i.e., Gauthier, Tarr, Anderson, Skudlarski, & Gore, 1999, Nat Neurosci, 2, 568-573), Brants et al. interpreted these results as participants viewing Greebles as faces throughout training, contrary to the original argument of subjects becoming Greeble experts only after training. However, such a claim presents two issues. First, the behavioral training results of Brants et al. did not replicate those of Gauthier et al (1999), raising concerns of whether the right training regime had been adopted. Second, both a literature review and meta-analysis of NIE in the FFA suggest its unreliability as an index of face(-like) processing. To empirically evaluate these issues, the present study compared two documented training paradigms (i.e., Gauthier & Tarr, 1997, Vision Res, 37, 1673-1682; and Gauthier, Williams, Tarr, & Tanaka, 1998, Vision Res, 38, 2401-2428) and explored their impact on the FFA. The results showed significant increases in the FFA for Greebles, and a clear neural "adaptation" (i.e., decreased activity for faces following Greebles, but not following non-face objects, in the FFA) both only in the Gauthier97 group, and only after training, reflecting clear modulation of expertise following "appropriate" training. In both groups, no clear NIE for faces nor Greebles were found. Collectively, these data invalidate the two assumptions behind the Brants et al. findings, and provide not only the updated support, but also the new evidence, for the perceptual expertise hypothesis of FFA.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Musicians and non-musicians consonant/dissonant perception investigated by EEG and fMRI

The perception of two (or more) simultaneous musical notes, depending on their pitch interval(s), could be broadly categorized as consonant or dissonant. Previous studies have suggested that musicians and non-musicians adopt different strategies when discerning music intervals: the frequency ratio (perfect fifth or tritone) for the former, and frequency differences (e.g., roughness vs. non-roughness) for the latter. To extend and replicate this previous finding, in this follow-up study we reran the ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG) experiment, and separately collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of the same protocol. The behavioral results replicated our previous findings that musicians used pitch intervals and nonmusicians roughness for consonant judgments. And the ERP amplitude differences between groups in both frequency ratio and frequency differences were primarily around N1 and P2 periods along the midline channels. The fMRI results, with the joint analyses by univariate, multivariate, and connectivity approaches, further reinforce the involvement of midline and related-brain regions in consonant/dissonance judgments. Additional representational similarity analysis (or RSA), and the final spatio-temporal searchlight RSA (or ss-RSA), jointly combined the fMRI-EEG into the same representational space, providing final support on the neural substrates of neurophysiological signatures. Together, these analyses not just exemplify the importance of replication, that musicians rely more on top-down knowledge for consonance/dissonance perception; but also demonstrate the advantages of multiple analyses in constraining the findings from both EEG and fMRI. Significance StatementIn this study, the neural correlates of consonant and dissonant perception has been revisited with both EEG and fMRI. Behavioral results of the current study well replicated the pattern of our earlier work (Kung et al., 2014), and the ERP results, though showing that both musicians and nonmusicians processed rough vs. non-rough notes similarly, still supported the top-down modulation in musicians likely through long-term practice. The fMRI results, combining univariate (GLM contrast and functional connectivity) and multivariate (MVPA searchlight and RSA on voxel-, connectivity-, and spatio-temporal RSA searchlight-level) analyses, commonly speak to lateralized and midline regions, at different time windows, as the core brain networks that underpin both musicians and nonmusicians consonant/dissonant perceptions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Cerebral coherence in task-based fMRI hyperscanning: a new trick to an old dog

This study features an fMRI hyperscanning experiment, mapping the brains of the dyads from two fMRI sites, 305 km apart. There are two conditions: in half of the trials (the cooperation condition), the dyad had to collaborate to win and then split the reward, whereas in the other half (the competition condition), the winner took all the reward, thereby resulting in dynamic strategic interactions. Each subject took alternating turns as senders and receivers. To calculate the cerebral coherence in such jittered event-related fMRI tasks, we first estimated the feedback-related BOLD responses of each trial, using 8 finite impulse response functions (16 seconds), and then concatenated the beta volume series. With the right temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) as the seed, the interpersonal connected brain areas in the cooperation and competition conditions were separately identified: the former condition with the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) and the latter with the left precuneus (lPrecuneus) (as well as some other regions of interest), both peaking at the designated frequency bin (1/16 s = 0.0625 Hz), but not in permuted pairs. In addition, the extended coherence analyses on shorter (12 s, or .083 Hz) and longer (20 s, or .05 Hz) concatenated volumes verified that only approximately in the trial length were the rTPJ-rSTG and rTPJ-lPrecuneus couplings found. In sum, our approach both showcases a flexible analysis method that widens the applicability of interpersonal coherence in the rapid event-related fMRI hyperscanning, and reveals a context-based interpersonal coupling between pairs in cooperation vs. competition. Author summarySocial neuroscience is gaining momentum, while coherence analysis as one of the interpersonal connectivity measures is rarely applied to the rapid event-related fMRI. The reason could be that the inherent task design (such as the periodicity constraint for Fourier transformation), among others, limits its applicability and usage. In this fMRI hyperscanning study of a two-person strategic interactions, we independently estimated the feedback-related BOLD responses of each trial, and concatenated the beta time series for interpersonal coherence. The main advantage of this method is in its flexibility against the constraints of jittered experimental trials intermixing several task conditions in most task-based fMRI runs. In addition, our coherence results, which highlight two inter-brain couplings (e.g., rTPJ-rSTG between collaborating, and rTPJ-lPrecuneus for competing dyads) among other brain regions, plus its temporal specificity of such seed-brain couplings only between pairs, both replicate previous run-wide fMRI coherence results, and hold great promise in extending its applicability in task-based fMRI hyperscanning.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Collaborations and deceptions in strategic interactions revealed by hyperscanning fMRI

Despite its ubiquity, deceiving as a social phenomenon is scarcely addressed with fMRI, partly due to the spontaneity and individual differences in cheating, and the contextual variability that fosters lying. In this hyperscanning fMRI study, the participant pairs (n=33) from Taipei and Tainan joined an opening-treasure-chest (OTC) game, where the dyads took alternative turns as senders (to inform) and receivers (to decide) for guessing the right chest. The cooperation condition was achieved by, upon successful guessing, splitting the $200NTD trial reward, thereby promoting mutual trust. The competition condition, in contrast, was done by, also upon winning, the latter receivers taking all the $150NTD reward, thereby encouraging strategic interactions. One key fMRI finding was the negative correlations between the connectivity of the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ), known as the theory-of-mind function, and amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus, and rostral anterior cingulate (rACC), to senders behavioral lying rates. Furthermore, the Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis (MVPA) over multiple searchlight-identified Region-Of-Interests (ROIs), in classifying either the "truthful vs. lying in $150" or the "truthful in $200 vs. truthful in $150" conditions achieved 61% and 84.5% accuracy, respectively, reflecting the idiosyncratic brain networks involved in distinguishing the social trust vs. deceptions in the dyadic interactions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Consensus-seeking and conflict-resolving -an fMRI study on college couples shopping interaction

One of the typical campus scenes is the social interaction between college couples, and the lesson couples must keep learning is to adapt to each other. This fMRI study investigated the shopping interactions of 30 college couples, one lying inside and the other outside the scanner, beholding the same item from two connected PCs, making preference ratings and subsequent buy/not-buy decisions. The behavioral results showed the clear modulation of significant others preferences onto ones own decisions, and the contrast of the "shop-together vs. shop-alone", and the "congruent (both liked or disliked the item, 68%) vs. incongruent (one liked but the other disliked, and vice versa)" together trials, both revealed bilateral temporal parietal junction (TPJ) among other reward-related regions, likely reflecting mentalizing during preference harmony. Moreover, when contrasting "own-high/other-low vs. own-low/other-high" incongruent trials, left anterior inferior parietal lobule (l-aIPL) was parametrically mapped, and the "yield (e.g., own-high/not-buy) vs. insist (e.g., own-low/not-buy)" modulation further revealed left lateral-IPL (l-lIPL), together with left TPJ forming a local social decision network that was further constrained by the mediation analysis among left TPJ-lIPL-aIPL. In sum, these results exemplify, via the two-person fMRI, the neural substrate of shopping interactions between couples.

neuroscience↗