Biology subjects

Pando-Naude, V.

Publications and source records attributed to Pando-Naude, V..

8 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Computational markers of rhythmic timing in Parkinson's disease

Sensorimotor synchronization requires the nervous system to predict upcoming events while continuously correcting the timing of ongoing actions. Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with impaired temporal processing, but it remains unclear which cognitive-computational mechanisms underlie rhythmic timing deficits. Here, we applied the Adaptation and Anticipation Model (ADAM) to synchronized finger-tapping data from participants with PD and controls across four steady tempi. After data screening, analyzes included 35 participants with PD and 28 controls. PD was associated with reduced synchronization accuracy and stability, reflected in larger absolute asynchronies and higher variability of asynchronies. ADAM parameter estimates indicated lower phase correction (coupling strength) and higher central timekeeper noise in the PD group, whereas period correction (tempo matching) and peripheral motor noise showed no robust group differences. Across participants, timekeeper noise predicted synchronization accuracy. Phase correction, timekeeper noise, and motor noise predicted synchronization stability, but their associations differed between groups: phase correction was more closely associated with stability in PD, whereas timekeeper and motor noise were more closely associated with stability in controls. These findings suggest that sensorimotor synchronization deficits in PD reflect reduced use of recent timing errors to guide upcoming movements and less precise internal timekeeping. Error correction and timekeeper noise thus emerge as candidate computational markers of altered rhythmic timing in PD, with potential relevance for understanding individual differences in responses to rhythmic auditory cueing.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Somatosensory timing and cerebellar-basal ganglia beta-band interactions in Parkinson's disease

Rhythmic cognition relies on the interplay between endogenous and exogenous temporal structures, allowing organisms to anticipate and adapt to events in time. Neural oscillations, particularly in the beta-band (14-30 Hz), have been implicated in this predictive capacity, coordinating sensorimotor networks that support timing and rhythm perception. Parkinson's disease (PD), a movement disorder characterized by disrupted basal ganglia function, offers a unique framework to probe the neural mechanisms underlying rhythmic cognition. We estimated beta-band source activity and connectivity across the cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalamus, and motor cortex during a rhythmic somatosensory timing task to compare brain activity between participants with PD (n=24) and age-matched controls (n=25). Using magnetoencephalography, participants received tactile stimuli in regular (non-jittered) and irregular (jittered) sequences, with the final stimulus omitted to probe prediction before and evaluation after the omission. We found prediction-related differences between participants with PD and controls in the cerebellum and basal ganglia before the omissions, while replicating earlier findings in controls, consistent with cerebellar evaluation responses after the omissions. In PD, basal ganglia activity showed greater activity for jittered over non-jittered somatosensory rhythms, opposite to controls. Altered cerebellar beta-band responses correlated with PD symptom severity. Connectivity analyzes showed group-by-regularity interactions in a sensory-integration network. These findings suggest that temporal prediction and evaluation in rhythmic cognition rely on coordinated beta-band dynamics across the cerebello-striatal-thalamo-cortical network. In PD, disrupted basal ganglia function may be associated with increased cerebellar engagement and altered network dynamics under irregular temporal conditions, potentially reflecting differences in the processing of rhythmic structure.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Peripheral Beta-Blockade Differentially Enhances Cardiac and Respiratory Interoception

Interoception, the perception of internal visceral states, arises from complex brain-body interactions across the central and peripheral nervous systems. Despite noradrenalines key role in these interactions, its specific contribution to interoceptive processes remains unclear. In a placebo-controlled, randomised, within-subject study, we employed computational modelling of interoceptive psychophysics to determine how pharmacological beta-adrenoceptor antagonism controls interoception across cardiac and respiratory domains. Both cardio-selective bisoprolol and non-selective propranolol improved cardiac perceptual sensitivity, with bisoprolol exerting an enhanced effect on cardiac metacognition. In contrast, both beta-blockers increased respiratory perceptual precision, with no corresponding changes in sensitivity or metacognition. These findings reveal a novel dissociation between central and peripheral beta-adrenergic mechanisms in interoception, highlighting the pivotal role of peripheral noradrenaline in regulating multi-organ brain-body interactions. Our results suggest that beta-blockers may provide promising routes for modulating distinct facets of interoception, potentially opening new avenues for intervention in conditions characterised by disrupted bodily self-awareness.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

The major-minor mode dichotomy in music perception: A systematic review on its behavioural, physiological, and clinical correlates

Since ancient Greece, major and minor modes in Western tonal music have been identified as the primary responsible musical feature for eliciting emotional states. As such, the underlying correlates of the major-minor mode dichotomy in music perception have been extensively investigated through decades of psychological and neuroscientific research, providing plentiful yet often discordant results. Specifically, crucial questions remain about the several factors contributing to the affective perception of major and minor modes, at times very different among individuals. Moreover, major and minor mode perception has never been quantitatively compared in literature. This comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to provide a qualitative and quantitative synthesis of musical mode perception and its behavioural and neural correlates. The qualitative synthesis resulted in 69 studies, showing great diversity in how the major-minor dichotomy has been empirically approached. Most studies reviewed were conducted on adults, considered participants expertise, employed real-life musical stimuli, performed behavioural evaluations, and were carried out among Western listeners. Behavioural, electroencephalography, and neuroimaging meta-analyses (36 studies) consistently showed that major and minor mode elicit distinct neural and emotional responses. Based on our findings, a framework to describe a Major-Minor Mode(l) of music perception and its behavioural and physiological correlates is proposed, incorporating individual factors such as age, expertise, cultural background, and emotional disorders. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed, including putative clinical applications of major-minor dichotomy and best practices regarding stimulation paradigms for musical mode investigation. Public Significance StatementThis study provides qualitative and quantitative evidence of the distinct behavioral and neural responses elicited by major and minor mode, while also highlighting the influence of factors such as age, culture, personality, and health. Results offers a detailed overview of the major-minor dichotomy in music, putting forward an integrated and critical discussion of methodologies, paradigms, and clinical implications of this pivotal musical feature.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Dopamine dysregulation in Parkinson's disease flattens the pleasurable urge to move to musical rhythms

The pleasurable urge to move to music (PLUMM) elicits activity in motor and reward areas of the brain and is thought to be driven by predictive processes. Dopamine within motor and limbic cortico-striatal networks is implicated in the predictive processes underlying beat-based timing and music-induced pleasure, respectively. This suggests a central role of cortico-striatal dopamine in PLUMM. This study tested this hypothesis by comparing PLUMM in Parkinsons disease patients, healthy age-matched, and young controls. Participants listened to musical sequences with varying rhythmic and harmonic complexity (low, medium, high), and rated their experienced pleasure and urge to move to the rhythm. In line with previous results, healthy younger participants showed an inverted U-shaped relation between rhythmic complexity and ratings, with a preference for medium complexity rhythms, while age-matched controls showed a similar, but weaker, inverted U-shaped response. Conversely, PD patients showed a significantly flattened response for both the urge to move and pleasure. Crucially, this flattened response could not be attributed to differences in rhythm discrimination and did not reflect an overall decrease in ratings. Together, these results support the role of dopamine within cortico-striatal networks in the predictive processes that form the link between the perceptual processing of rhythmic patterns, and the affective and motor responses to rhythmic music.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Revisiting top-down and bottom-up multi-modal brain processes: a systematic review and ALE meta-analysis of musical studies

A remarkable feature of the human brain is its ability to integrate information from the environment with internally generated content. The integration of top-down and bottom-up processes during complex multi-modal human activities, however, is yet to be fully understood. Music provides an excellent model for understanding this since music listening leads to the urge to move, and music making entails both playing and listening at the same time (i.e. audio-motor coupling). Here, we conducted activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses of 130 neuroimaging studies of music perception, production and imagery, with 2660 foci, 139 experiments, and 2516 participants. We found that music perception and production rely on auditory cortices and sensorimotor cortices, while music imagery recruits distinct parietal regions. This indicates that the brain requires different structures to process similar information which is made available either by an interaction with the environment (i.e. bottom-up) or by internally generated content (i.e. top-down).

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Rediscovering the musician's brain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Through long-term training, music experts acquire complex and specialized sensorimotor skills, which are paralleled by continuous neuro-anatomical and -functional adaptations. The underlying neuroplasticity mechanisms have been extensively explored in decades of research in music, cognitive, and translational neuroscience. However, the absence of a comprehensive review and quantitative meta-analysis prevents the plethora of variegated findings to ultimately converge into a unified picture of the neuroanatomy of musical expertise. Here, we performed a comprehensive neuroimaging meta-analysis of publications investigating neuro-anatomical and -functional differences between musicians (M) and non-musicians (NM). Eighty-four studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. From these, 58 publications were included in coordinate-based meta-analyses using the anatomic/activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method. This comprehensive approach delivers a coherent cortico-subcortical network encompassing sensorimotor and limbic regions bilaterally. Particularly, M exhibited higher volume/activity in auditory, sensorimotor, interoceptive, and limbic brain areas and lower volume/activity in parietal areas as opposed to NM. Notably, we reveal topographical (dis-)similarities between the identified functional and anatomical networks and characterize their link to various cognitive functions by means of meta-analytic connectivity modelling. Overall, we effectively synthesized decades of research in the field and provide a consistent and controversies-free picture of the neuroanatomy of musical expertise.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Gray and white matter morphology in substance use disorders: A neuroimaging systematic review and meta-analysis.

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are characterized by a compulsion to seek and consume one or more substances of abuse, with a perceived loss of control and negative emotional state. Repeated use of a substance results in synaptic and morphological changes, secondary to toxicity and SUD pathology in the dopamine striato-thalamo-cortical and limbic pathways. These neuroadaptations seem to vary between studies, which could be related to divergent effects of substances, consumption severity or other unknown factors. We therefore identified studies investigating the effects of SUDs using volumetric whole-brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in gray (GM) and white matter (WM). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of VBM studies using the anatomic likelihood estimation (ALE) method implemented in GingerALE (PROSPERO pre-registration CRD42017071222). Fifty studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the final quantitative meta-analysis, with a total of 538 foci, 88 experiments and 4370 participants. We found convergence and divergence in brain regions and volume effects (higher vs lower volume) in GM and WM depending on the severity of consumption pattern and type of substance. Convergent pathology was evident across substances in GM of the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, putamen, and thalamus, and in WM of the thalamic radiation and internal capsule bundle. Divergent pathology between occasional use (cortical pathology) and addiction (cortical-subcortical pathology) provides evidence of a possible top-down neuroadaptation. Our findings indicate distinctive brain morphometry alterations in SUDs, which may inform our understanding of disease progression and ultimately therapeutic approaches.

neuroscience↗