Data sharing is increasingly recommended as a means of accelerating science by facilitating collaboration, transparency, and reproducibility. While few oppose data sharing philosophically, a range of ...barriers deter most researchers from implementing it in practice. To justify the significant effort required for sharing data, funding agencies, institutions, and investigators need clear evidence of benefit. Here, using the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative, we present a case study that provides direct evidence of the impact of open sharing on brain imaging data use and resulting peer-reviewed publications. We demonstrate that openly shared data can increase the scale of scientific studies conducted by data contributors, and can recruit scientists from a broader range of disciplines. These findings dispel the myth that scientific findings using shared data cannot be published in high-impact journals, suggest the transformative power of data sharing for accelerating science, and underscore the need for implementing data sharing universally.
Hypertension‐related changes in brain function place individuals at higher risk for cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. The existing functional neuroimaging literature has identified ...important neural and behavioural differences between normotensive and hypertensive individuals. However, previously‐used methods (i.e. magnetic resonance imaging, functional near‐infrared spectroscopy) rely on neurovascular coupling, which is a useful but indirect measure of neuronal activity. Furthermore, most studies fail to distinguish between controlled and uncontrolled hypertensive individuals, who exhibit significant behavioural and clinical differences. To partially remedy this gap in the literature, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to directly examine neuronal activity that is invariant to neurovascular coupling changes induced by hypertension. Our study included 52 participants (19 healthy controls, 15 controlled hypertensives, 18 uncontrolled hypertensives) who completed a modified flanker attention task during MEG. We identified significant oscillatory neural responses in two frequencies (alpha: 8–14 Hz, gamma: 48–60 Hz) for imaging and used grand‐averaged images to determine seeds for whole‐brain connectivity analysis. We then conducted Fisher‐z tests for each pair of groups, using the relationship between the neural connectivity and behavioural attention effects. This highlighted a distributed network of regions associated with cognitive control and selective attention, including frontal‐occipital and interhemispheric occipital connections. Importantly, the inferior frontal cortex exhibited a unique neurobehavioural relationship that distinguished the uncontrolled hypertensive group from the controlled hypertensive and normotensive groups. This is the first investigation of hypertension using MEG and identifies critical whole‐brain connectivity differences based on hypertension profiles.
Key points
Structural and functional changes in brain circuitry scale with hypertension severity and increase the risk of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
We harness the excellent spatiotemporal precision of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to directly quantify dynamic functional connectivity in healthy control, controlled hypertensive and uncontrolled hypertensive groups during a flanker task.
In the first MEG study of hypertension, we show that there are neurobehavioural relationships that distinguish the uncontrolled hypertensive group from healthy and controlled hypertensive group in the prefrontal cortex.
These results provide novel insights into the differential impact of hypertension on brain dynamics underlying selective attention.
figure legend The relationship between magnetoencephalography‐based connectivity and behavioural (reaction time) measures collected during a flanker task were examined in healthy controls, adults with controlled hypertension and those with uncontrolled hypertension. Spectrally‐specific neurobehavioural profiles of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex distinguished the uncontrolled hypertension group from healthy control and controlled hypertensive groups.
Throughout childhood and adolescence, the brain undergoes significant structural and functional changes that contribute to the maturation of multiple cognitive domains, including selective attention. ...Selective attention is crucial for healthy executive functioning and while key brain regions serving selective attention have been identified, their age-related changes in neural oscillatory dynamics and connectivity remain largely unknown. We examined the developmental sensitivity of selective attention circuitry in 91 typically developing youth aged 6 – 13 years old. Participants completed a number-based Simon task while undergoing magnetoencephalography (MEG) and the resulting data were preprocessed and transformed into the time-frequency domain. Significant oscillatory brain responses were imaged using a beamforming approach, and task-related peak voxels in the occipital, parietal, and cerebellar cortices were used as seeds for subsequent whole-brain connectivity analyses in the alpha and gamma range. Our key findings revealed developmentally sensitive connectivity profiles in multiple regions crucial for selective attention, including the temporoparietal junction (alpha) and prefrontal cortex (gamma). Overall, these findings suggest that brain regions serving selective attention are highly sensitive to developmental changes during the pubertal transition period.
•Selective attention processing is known to be developmentally sensitive.•The Simon task can be used to gauge interference effects on selective attention.•Alpha and gamma oscillations in attention areas are affected by Simon interference.•Interference affects connectivity of these areas with the TPJ and prefrontal cortex.•Development modulates the impact of interference on connectivity between such areas.
The default mode network (DMN) plays a crucial role in internal self-processing, rumination, and social functions. Disruptions to DMN connectivity have been linked with early adversity and the ...emergence of psychopathology in adolescence and early adulthood. Herein, we investigate how subclinical psychiatric symptoms can impact DMN functional connectivity during the pubertal transition. Resting-state fMRI data were collected annually from 190 typically-developing youth (9–15 years-old) at three timepoints and within-network DMN connectivity was computed. We used latent growth curve modeling to determine how self-reported depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms predicted rates of change in DMN connectivity over the three-year period. In the baseline model without predictors, we found no systematic changes in DMN connectivity over time. However, significant modulation emerged after adding psychopathology predictors; greater depressive symptomatology was associated with significant decreases in connectivity over time, whereas posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with significant increases in connectivity over time. Follow-up analyses revealed that these effects were driven by connectivity changes involving the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex subnetwork. In conclusion, these data suggest that subclinical depressive and posttraumatic symptoms alter the trajectory of DMN connectivity, which may indicate that this network is a nexus of clinical significance in mental health disorders.
Age-related changes in the neurophysiology underlying motor control are well documented, but whether these changes are specific to motor function or more broadly reflect age-related alterations in ...fronto-parietal circuitry serving attention and other higher-level processes remains unknown. Herein, we collected high-density magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 72 healthy adults (age 28–63 years) as they completed an adapted version of the multi-source interference task that involved two subtypes of cognitive interference (i.e., flanker and Simon) and their integration (i.e., multi-source). All MEG data were examined for age-related changes in neural oscillatory activity using a whole-brain beamforming approach. Our primary findings indicated robust behavioral differences in task performance based on the type of interference, as well as stronger beta oscillations with increasing age in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (flanker and multi-source conditions), left parietal (flanker and Simon), and medial parietal regions (multi-source). Overall, these data indicate that healthy aging is associated with alterations in higher-order association cortices that are critical for attention and motor control in the context of cognitive interference.
Abstract
Selective attention is an important component of cognitive control and is essential for day-to-day functioning. The Simon task is a common test of visual selective attention that has been ...widely used to probe response selection, inhibition and cognitive control. However, to date, there is a dearth of literature that has focused on the oscillatory dynamics serving task performance in the selective attention component of this task. In this study, 32 healthy adults (mean age: 33.09 years, SD: 7.27 years) successfully completed a modified version of the Simon task during magnetoencephalography. All magnetoencephalographic data were pre-processed and transformed into the time–frequency domain. Significant oscillatory brain responses were imaged using a beamforming approach, and peak task-related neural activity was extracted to examine the temporal dynamics. Across both congruent and Simon conditions, our results indicated robust decreases in alpha (8–12 Hz) activity in the bilateral occipital regions and cuneus during task performance, while increases in theta (3–6 Hz) oscillatory activity were detected in regions of the dorsal frontoparietal attention network, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields and insula. Lastly, whole-brain condition-wise analyses showed Simon interference effects in the theta range in the superior parietal region and the alpha range in the posterior cingulate and inferior frontal cortices. These findings provide network-specific insights into the oscillatory dynamics serving visual selective attention.
Using magnetoencephalography and a modified Simon task to investigate the neural oscillatory dynamics serving selective attention, Son et al. report decreases in alpha (8–12 Hz) activity in primary visual regions and increases in theta (3–6 Hz) activity in regions of the dorsal frontoparietal attention network.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Wearable devices provide a means of tracking hand position in relation to the head, but have mostly relied on wrist-worn inertial measurement unit sensors and proximity sensors, which are inadequate ...for identifying specific locations. This limits their utility for accurate and precise monitoring of behaviors or providing feedback to guide behaviors. A potential clinical application is monitoring body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs), recurrent, injurious behaviors directed toward the body, such as nail biting and hair pulling, which are often misdiagnosed and undertreated. Here, we demonstrate that including thermal sensors achieves higher accuracy in position tracking when compared against inertial measurement unit and proximity sensor data alone. Our Tingle device distinguished between behaviors from six locations on the head across 39 adult participants, with high AUROC values (best was back of the head: median (1.0), median absolute deviation (0.0); worst was on the cheek: median (0.93), median absolute deviation (0.09)). This study presents preliminary evidence of the advantage of including thermal sensors for position tracking and the Tingle wearable device's potential use in a wide variety of settings, including BFRB diagnosis and management.
Abstract
PAGER-CoV (http://discovery.informatics.uab.edu/PAGER-CoV/) is a new web-based database that can help biomedical researchers interpret coronavirus-related functional genomic study results in ...the context of curated knowledge of host viral infection, inflammatory response, organ damage, and tissue repair. The new database consists of 11 835 PAGs (Pathways, Annotated gene-lists, or Gene signatures) from 33 public data sources. Through the web user interface, users can search by a query gene or a query term and retrieve significantly matched PAGs with all the curated information. Users can navigate from a PAG of interest to other related PAGs through either shared PAG-to-PAG co-membership relationships or PAG-to-PAG regulatory relationships, totaling 19 996 993. Users can also retrieve enriched PAGs from an input list of COVID-19 functional study result genes, customize the search data sources, and export all results for subsequent offline data analysis. In a case study, we performed a gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of a COVID-19 RNA-seq data set from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Compared with the results using the standard PAGER database, PAGER-CoV allows for more sensitive matching of known immune-related gene signatures. We expect PAGER-CoV to be invaluable for biomedical researchers to find molecular biology mechanisms and tailored therapeutics to treat COVID-19 patients.
Background and Aims
Outcomes of persons with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the era of antiviral therapy (AVT) are not well characterized. We determined the incidence and factors ...associated with clinical outcomes in a multiethnic, North American cohort of adults with chronic HBV infection, who were not on AVT at enrollment.
Approach and Results
Adults with chronic HBV infection, not receiving AVT, and without a history of decompensation, HCC, or liver transplantation (LT), were prospectively followed. Participants with known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus, or hepatitis D virus (HDV) coinfection were excluded. During follow‐up, treatment could be initiated per standard of care. Clinical outcomes included: incident cirrhosis, decompensation, HCC, OLT, and HBV‐related death. Among 1,418 participants analyzed, 51.5% were women, median age was 41.1 years, 75% were Asian, 10% White, 13% Black, 24% HBeAg(+), and 1.5% cirrhosis at baseline. During the study, 274 started treatment, 83 had an alanine aminotransferase flare, 118 of 330 initially HBeAg(+) became HBeAg(−), and 90 of 1,329 became HBsAg(−). After 6,641 person‐years follow‐up, 8 participants (4 of 21 with baseline cirrhosis) had 12 clinical outcomes (2 decompensation, 5 HCC, 2 OLT, and 3 HBV‐related deaths) and 19 of 1,397 had incident cirrhosis. Twenty‐one of 26 participants had first outcome before treatment, none had become HBsAg(−), whereas 5/9 HBeAg(+) had become HBeAg(−) at time of first outcome. Cumulative percentage of clinical outcomes was 16% at year 4 in participants with baseline cirrhosis and 2% (including incident cirrhosis) at year 7 in those without.
Conclusions
Incidence of adverse outcomes was low in this closely monitored, large cohort of North American adults with predominantly inactive, chronic HBV without cirrhosis. Our data highlight the benefits of HBsAg loss and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment to prevent cirrhosis and other complications of chronic HBV infection.
Prostate cancer (PCa) was estimated to have the second highest global incidence rate for male non-skin tumors and is the fifth most deadly in men thus mandating the need for novel treatment options. ...MG1-Maraba is a potent and versatile oncolytic virus capable of lethally infecting a variety of prostatic tumor cell lines alongside primary PCa biopsies and exerts direct oncolytic effects against large TRAMP-C2 tumors in vivo. An oncolytic immunotherapeutic strategy utilizing a priming vaccine and intravenously administered MG1-Maraba both expressing the human six-transmembrane antigen of the prostate (STEAP) protein generated specific CD8+ T-cell responses against multiple STEAP epitopes and resulted in functional breach of tolerance. Treatment of mice with bulky TRAMP-C2 tumors using oncolytic STEAP immunotherapy induced an overt delay in tumor progression, marked intratumoral lymphocytic infiltration with an active transcriptional profile and up-regulation of MHC class I. The preclinical data generated here offers clear rationale for clinically evaluating this approach for men with advanced PCa.
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