Biology subjects

Vidnyanszky, Z.

Publications and source records attributed to Vidnyanszky, Z..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Cognitive exertion reshapes resting-state EEG markers across the adult lifespan

Resting-state electroencephalography (rsEEG) yields robust indices of ageing, notably individual alpha peak frequency (iAPF), alpha power, and the aperiodic exponent. Whether these markers reflect stable traits or shift with cognitive exertion remains unresolved, with direct consequences for lifespan and clinical research. We parameterised periodic and aperiodic rsEEG activity before and after cognitive tasks in a lifespan cohort (N = 390, aged 20-70), a five-year longitudinal follow-up (N = 100), and an independent older-adult dataset completing a different task (N = 71). Across datasets, cognitive exertion produced lifespan-wide iAPF slowing and increase in associated power. Notably, aperiodic shifts were age-dependent, with post-task steepening of the exponent in younger adults that progressively flattened with advancing age, resulting in a stronger effect of age on post-task exponents. Our results demonstrate that widely used spectral metrics exhibit acute state-dependency and post-task recordings offer a promising translational framework for indexing individual differences in healthy ageing and pathology. Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov: NCT05155397

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Slow-wave sleep is associated with nucleus accumbens volume in elderly adults

Slow-wave sleep (SWS) is essential for restorative neural processes, and its decline is associated with both healthy and pathological ageing. Building on previous rodent research, this longitudinal study identified a significant association between nucleus accumbens (NAcc) volume and SWS duration in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Our findings support the involvement of the NAcc in ageing-related modulation of SWS and suggest potential therapeutic targets for improving SWS.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Multi-night EEG reveals positive association between sleep efficiency and hippocampal subfield volumes in healthy aging

Age-related atrophy of the human hippocampus and the enthorinal cortex starts accelerating at around age 60. Due to the contributions of these regions to many cognitive functions seamlessly used in everyday life, this can heavily impact the lives of elderly people. The hippocampus is not a unitary structure and mechanisms of its age-related decline appear to differentially affect its subfields. Human and animal studies have suggested that altered sleep is associated with hippocampal atrophy. Yet, we know little about subfield specific effects of altered sleep in healthy aging and their effect on cognition. Here, in a sample of 118 older adults (Mage = 63.25 years), we examined the association between highly reliable hippocampal subfield volumetry, sleep measures derived from multi-night recordings of portable electroencephalography and episodic memory. Objective sleep efficiency - but not self-report measures of sleep - was associated with entorhinal cortex volume when controlling for age. Age-related differences in subfield volumes were associated with objective sleep efficiency, but not with self-report measures of sleep. Moreover, older adults characterized by a common multivariate pattern of subfield volumes that contributed to positive sleep- subfield volume associations, showed lower rates of forgetting. Our results showcase the benefit of objective sleep measures in identifying potential contributors of age-related differences in brain-behavior couplings.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Lateralization of orthographic processing in fixed-gaze and natural reading conditions

Lateralized processing of orthographic information is a hallmark of proficient reading. However, how this finding obtained for fixed-gaze processing of orthographic stimuli translates to ecologically valid reading conditions remained to be clarified. To address this shortcoming, here we assessed the lateralization of early orthographic processing in fixed-gaze and natural reading conditions using concomitant eye-tracking and EEG data recorded from young adults without reading difficulties. Sensor-space analyses confirmed the well-known left-lateralized negative-going deflection of fixed-gaze EEG activity throughout the period of early orthographic processing. At the same time, fixation-related EEG activity exhibited left-lateralized followed by right-lateralized processing of text stimuli during natural reading. A strong positive relationship was found between the early leftward lateralization in fixed-gaze and natural reading conditions. Using source-space analyses, early left-lateralized brain activity was obtained in lateraloccipital and posterior ventral occipito-temporal cortices reflecting letter-level processing in both conditions. In addition, in the same time interval, left-lateralized source activity was found also in premotor and parietal brain regions during natural reading. While brain activity remained left-lateralized in later stages representing word-level processing in posterior and middle ventral temporal regions in the fixed-gaze condition, fixation-related source activity became stronger in the right hemisphere in medial and more anterior ventral temporal brain regions indicating higher-level processing of orthographic information. Although our results show a strong positive relationship between the lateralization of letter-level processing in the two conditions and suggest lateralized brain activity as a general marker for processing of orthographic information, they also clearly indicate the need for reading research in ecologically valid conditions to identify the neural basis of visuospatial attentional, oculomotor and higher-level processes specific for natural reading.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Face inversion reveals holistic processing of peripheral faces

Face perception is accomplished by face-selective neural processes, involving holistic processing that enables highly efficient integration of facial features into a whole face representation. It has been shown that in face-selective regions of the ventral temporal cortex, neural resources involved in holistic processing are primarily dedicated to the central portion of the visual field. These findings raise the intriguing possibility that holistic processing might be the privilege of centrally presented faces and could be strongly diminished in the case of peripheral faces. We addressed this question using the face inversion effect, a well established marker of holistic face processing. The behavioral results revealed impaired identity discrimination performance for inverted peripheral faces scaled according to the V1 magnification factor, compared to upright presented faces. The size of peripheral face inversion effect (FIE) was comparable to that found for centrally displayed faces. Face inversion affected the early ERP responses to faces in two time intervals. The earliest FIE was most pronounced in the time window between 130-140 ms following stimulus presentation, for both centrally and peripherally displayed faces and in the latter case, it was present only over the contralateral hemisphere. The timing of the next component FIE corresponded closely with the temporal interval of the N170 ERP component and showed strong right hemisphere lateralization, both when faces were displayed in the left or right visual field. Furthermore, we also showed that centrally presented face masks impaired peripheral face identity discrimination performance, but did not reduce the magnitude of the FIE. These findings revealed robust behavioral and neural inversion effects for peripheral faces and thus suggest that faces are processed holistically throughout the visual field.\n\nHighlightsRobust behavioral and neural inversion effect was found for peripheral faces.\n\nP1 ERP component is modulated by inverted central and contralateral faces.\n\nN170 ERP component is modulated by centrally and peripherally presented faces.\n\nNeural face inversion effect shows strong right hemisphere lateralization.\n\nFaces are processed holistically throughout the visual field.

neuroscience↗