Biology subjects

Lumaca, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Lumaca, M..

7 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Prediction of individual melodic contour processing in sensory association cortices from resting state functional connectivity

Recent studies suggest that it is possible to predict an individual brains spatial activation pattern in response to a paradigm from their functional connectivity at rest (rsFC). However, it is unclear whether this prediction works across the brain. We here aim to understand whether individual task activation can be best predicted in local regions that are highly specialised to the task at hand or whether there are domain-independent regions in the brain that carry most information about the individual. To answer this question, we used fMRI data from participants (nonmusicians, N=52) at rest and during an auditory oddball paradigm while watching a silent movie. We then predicted individual differences in brain responses to melodic deviants from their rsFC both across the whole brain (global parcellation in 22 regions) and within the auditory cortices (local parcellation in 22 regions). Predictability was consistently higher in specific brain areas. These areas are centred around sensory association cortices: In the local (auditory cortex) parcellation, the best predicted area is the right superior temporal gyrus (STG), an auditory association area. The right STG is a critical region in melodic contour processing, a capacity that is central to the paradigm at hand. Interestingly, the best predicted network in the global parcellation is the bilateral visual association cortex. Sensory association cortices may carry more information specific to an individual regardless of the particular paradigm. Our results indicate that individual differences can be predicted in paradigm-relevant areas or general areas with higher inter-individual variability.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Vividness of Visual Imagery Supported by Intrinsic Structural-Functional Brain Network Dynamics

Vividness of visual imagery is subject to individual variability, a phenomenon with largely unexplored neurobiological underpinnings. By analyzing data from 273 participants we explored the link between the structural-functional organization of brain connectomes and the reported intensity of visual imagery (measured with VVIQ-2). Employing graph theory analyses we investigated both the structural (DTI) and functional (rs-fMRI) connectomes within a network of regions often implicated in visual imagery. Our results indicate a relationship between increased local efficiency and clustering coefficients in the structural connectome in individuals who experience more vivid visual imagery. Increased local efficiency and clustering coefficients were mirrored in the functional connectome with increases in left inferior temporal regions, a region frequently identified as a critical hub in the visual imagery literature. Furthermore, individuals with more vivid imagery were found to have lower levels of global efficiency in their functional connectome. We propose that the clarity and intensity of visual imagery are optimized by a network organization characterized by heightened localized information transfer and interconnectedness. Conversely, an excessively globally integrated network might dilute the specific neural activity crucial for generating vivid visual images, leading to less locally concentrated resource allocation in key regions involved in visual imagery vividness.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Neurophysiological correlates of short-term recognition of sounds: Insights from magnetoencephalography

Understanding the brains dynamic retrieval and updating of encoded information is a key focus in memory research. This study employed a same versus different auditory paradigm to investigate short-term auditory recognition within a predictive coding (PC) framework, concerning the perceptual interplay between experience-informed predictions and incoming sensory information. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we captured the neurophysiological correlates associated with a single-sound, short-term memory task. Twenty-six healthy participants were tasked with recognizing whether presented sounds were same or different compared to strings of standard stimuli. To prompt conscious memory retention, a white noise interlude separated these sounds from the standards. MEG sensor-level results revealed that recognition of same sounds elicited two significantly stronger negative components of the event-related field compared to different sounds. The first one was the N1, peaking 100ms post-sound onset, while the second one corresponded to a slower negative component arising between 300 and 600ms after sound onset. This effect was observed in several significant clusters of MEG sensors, especially temporal and parietal regions of the scalp. Conversely, different sounds produced scattered and smaller clusters of stronger activity than same sounds, peaking later than 600ms after sound onset. Source reconstruction using beamforming algorithms revealed the involvement of auditory cortices, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus in both conditions. Overall, the results are coherent with PC principles and previous results on the brain mechanisms underlying auditory recognition, highlighting the relevance of early and later negative brain responses for successful prediction of previously listened sounds in the context of conscious short-term memory.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Challenging age-related decline in brain function: Evidence from fast neuroimaging of musical sequence recognition

Aging is often associated with decline in brain processing power and neural predictive capabilities. To challenge this notion, we used the excellent temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record the whole-brain activity of 39 older adults (over 60 years old) and 37 young adults (aged 18-25 years) during recognition of previously memorised and novel musical sequences. Our results demonstrate that independent of behavioural measures, older compared to young adults showed increased rapid auditory cortex responses (around 100 and 250 ms after each tone of the sequence) and decreased later responses (around 250 and 350 ms) in hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. Working memory abilities were associated with stronger brain activity for both young and older adults. Our findings unpick the complexity of the healthy aging brain, showing age-related neural transformations in predictive and memory processes and challenging simplistic notions that non-pathological aging merely diminishes neural predictive capabilities.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Decreased inter-hemispheric connectivity predicts a coherent retrieval of auditory symbolic material in a laboratory model of cultural transmission

Investigating the transmission of information between individuals is essential to understand how human culture evolved. Coherent information transmission (i.e., transmission without significant modifications or loss of fidelity) helps preserving cultural traits and traditions over time, while innovation may lead to new cultural variants. Although much research has focused on the cognitive mechanisms underlying cultural transmission, little is known on the brain underpinnings of coherent transmission of information. To address this gap, we combined a laboratory model of cultural transmission, the signalling games, with structural (from high-resolution diffusion imaging) and functional connectivity (from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]). We found that individuals who exhibited more coherence in the transmission of the information were characterized by lower levels of both structural and functional inter-hemispheric connectivity. Specifically, higher coherence negatively correlated with the strength of bilateral structural connections between frontal and subcortical, insular and temporal brain regions. Similarly, we observed increased inter-hemispheric functional connectivity between inferior frontal brain regions derived from structural connectivity analysis in individuals who exhibited lower transmission coherence. Our results suggest that inter-hemispheric connections may bwe detrimental for preserving coherence in information transmission, while a certain degree of lateralization in the brain may be required.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

On the brain networks organization of individuals with high versus average fluid intelligence: a combined DTI and MEG study

The neural underpinning of human fluid intelligence (Gf) has gathered a large interest in the scientific community. Nonetheless, previous research did not provide a full understanding of such intriguing topic. Here, we studied the structural (from diffusion tensor imaging, DTI) and functional (from magnetoencephalography (MEG) resting state) connectivity in individuals with high versus average Gf scores. Our findings showed greater values in the brain areas degree distribution and higher proportion of long-range anatomical connections for high versus average Gfs. Further, the two groups presented different community structures, highlighting the structural and functional integration of the cingulate within frontal subnetworks of the brain in high Gfs. These results were consistently observed for structural connectivity and functional connectivity of delta, theta and alpha. Notably, gamma presented an opposite pattern, showing more segregation and lower degree distribution and connectivity in high versus average Gfs. Our study confirmed and expanded previous perspectives and knowledge on the "small-worldness" of the brain. Further, it complemented the widely investigated structural brain network of highly intelligent individuals with analyses on fast-scale functional networks in five frequency bands, highlighting key differences in the integration and segregation of information flow between slow and fast oscillations in groups with different Gf.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Learning of complex auditory patterns changes intrinsic and feedforward effective connectivity between Heschl's gyrus and planum temporale

Learning of complex auditory sequences such as language and music can be thought of as the continuous optimisation of internal predictive representations of sound-pattern regularities, driven by prediction errors. In predictive coding (PC), this occurs through changes in the intrinsic and extrinsic connectivity of the relevant cortical networks, whereby minimization of precision-weighted prediction error signals improves the accuracy of future predictions. Here, we employed Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) on functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) data acquired during the presentation of complex auditory patterns. In an oddball paradigm, we presented 52 volunteers (non-musicians) with isochronous 5-tone melodic patterns (standards), randomly interleaved with rare novel patterns comprising contour or pitch interval changes (deviants). Here, listeners must update their standard melodic models whenever they encounter unexpected deviant stimuli. Contour deviants induced an increased BOLD response, as compared to standards, in primary (Heschls gyrus, HG) and secondary auditory cortices (planum temporale, PT). Within this network, we found a left-lateralized increase in feedforward connectivity from HG to PT for deviant responses and a concomitant disinhibition within left HG. Consistent with PC, our results suggest that model updating in auditory pattern perception and learning is associated with specific changes in the excitatory feedforward connections encoding prediction errors and in the intrinsic connections that encode the precision of these errors and modulate their gain. Significance statementThe learning of complex auditory stimuli such as music and speech can be thought of as the continuous optimisation of brain predictive models driven by prediction errors. Using dynamic causal modelling on fMRI data acquired during a melodic oddball paradigm, we here show that brain responses to unexpected sounds were best explained by an increase in excitation within Heschls gyrus and an increase in forward connections from Heschls gyrus to planum temporale. Our results are consistent with a predictive coding account of sensory learning, whereby prediction error responses to new sounds drive model adjustments via feedforward connections and intrinsic connections encode the confidence of these prediction errors.

neuroscience↗