281 research outputs found
Elementy japońskich wierzeń i obrzędów w mandze Mieruko-chan. Dziewczyna, która widzi więcej Tomoki Izumiego
Get PDFThe aim of the article is to reflect on religious themes in contemporary Japanese comics. The manga Mieruko-chan by Tomoki Izumi is analyzed. The themes include the Japanese tradition of horror, derived from folk beliefs, as well as Shintō and Buddhist rituals. The author draws attention to religion as an important element of creating cultural reality and its function that makes it more attractive.The aim of the article is to reflect on religious themes in contemporary Japanese comics. The manga Mieruko-chan by Tomoki Izumi is analyzed. The themes include the Japanese tradition of horror, derived from folk beliefs, as well as Shintō and Buddhist rituals. The author draws attention to religion as an important element of creating cultural reality and its function that makes it more attractive
Characterisation of the Haemodynamic Response Function (HRF) in the neonatal brain using functional MRI
Get PDFBackground: Preterm birth is associated with a marked increase in the risk of later
neurodevelopmental impairment. With the incidence rising, novel tools are needed to provide an
improved understanding of the underlying pathology and better prognostic information. Functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) with Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) contrast has the
potential to add greatly to the knowledge gained through traditional MRI techniques. However, it
has been rarely used with neonatal subjects due to difficulties in application and inconsistent results.
Central to this is uncertainity regarding the effects of early brain development on the
Haemodynamic Response Function (HRF), knowledge of which is fundamental to fMRI methodology
and analysis.
Hypotheses: (1) Well localised and positive BOLD functional responses can be identified in the
neonatal brain. (2) The morphology of the neonatal HRF differs significantly during early human
development. (3) The application of an age-appropriate HRF will improve the identification of
functional responses in neonatal fMRI studies.
Methods: To test these hypotheses, a systematic fMRI study of neonatal subjects was carried out
using a custom made somatosensory stimulus, and an adapted study design and analysis pipeline.
The neonatal HRF was then characterised using an event related study design. The potential future
application of the findings was then tested in a series of small experiments.
Results: Well localised and positive BOLD functional responses were identified in neonatal subjects,
with a maturational tendency towards an increasingly complex pattern of activation. A positive
amplitude HRF was identified in neonatal subjects, with a maturational trend of a decreasing time-to-peak and increasing positive peak amplitude. Application of the empirical HRF significantly
improved the precision of analysis in further fMRI studies.
Conclusions: fMRI can be used to study functional activity in the neonatal brain, and may provide
vital new information about both development and pathology
Task-based fMRI investigation of the newborn brain: sensorimotor development and learning
Get PDFHuman brain development relies upon the interaction between genetic and environmental factors, and the latter plays a critical role during the perinatal period. In this period, neuronal plasticity through experience-dependent activity is enhanced in the sensory systems, and drive the maturation of the brain. While plasticity is essential for maturation, it is also a source of vulnerability as altered early experiences may interact with the normal course of development. This is particularly evident in infants born preterm, who are prematurely exposed to a sensory-rich environment, and at risk or neurodevelopmental disorders. In keeping with the somatosensory system being at a critical period for development during late gestation, sensorimotor disorders, such as cerebral palsy, are more common in preterm compared with full-term born infants. It is therefore important to understand the normal trajectory of sensorimotor development and how this may be moulded by early sensory experiences.
It is well acknowledged that the sensorimotor cortex is topographically organised so that different body parts map to a specific location within the cortex and this map is generally referred to as the ``homunculus". Although the somatotopy has been well characterised in the mature brain, it remains unknown when this organisation emerges during development. Animal studies hints that functional cortical maps might emerge across the equivalent period to the third trimester of human gestation, nevertheless there is currently no evidence. Therefore, I first investigated the topography of the preterm somatosensory cortex in a group of newborn infants. In this purpose I used fMRI and automated robotic tools and measured the functional responses to different sensory simulations (delivered to the mouth, wrists and ankles). The results provide evidence that it is possible to identify distinct areas in the somatosensory cortex devoted to different body parts even in the preterm brain supporting the presence of an immature \textit{homunculus}.
Next, I wanted to investigate how activity and development in the sensorimotor system are influenced by experience. Experience-dependent plasticity is the basis of learning (e.g. adaptive behaviour), which is observed in newborn infants. Associative learning in particular has been widely investigated in infants, however, the underlining neuronal processes have previously been poorly understood. To study the neural correlates of associative learning in newborn infants, I developed and used a classical conditioning paradigm in combination with robot-assisted fMRI. The results confirm that associative learning can occur even at this early stage of life and with non-aversive stimuli. More importantly, I could observe learning-induced changes in brain activity within the primary sensory cortices, suggesting that such experience can shape cortical circuitry and is likely to influence early brain development.Open Acces
Connectome Analysis:Characterization, Methods, and Analysis
No full textConnectome Analysis: Characterization, Methods, and Analysis is a comprehensive companion for the analysis of brain networks, or connectomes. The book provides sources of constituent structural and functional MRI signals, network construction and practices for analysis, cutting-edge methods that address the latest challenges in neuroscience, and the fundamentals of network theory in the context of giving practical methods for building connectomes for analysis. Emphasis is placed on quality control of the individual analysis steps. Subsequent chapters discuss networks in neuroscience in clinical and general populations, including how findings are related to underlying neurophysiology and neuropsychology. This book is aimed at students and early-career researchers in brain connectomics and neuroimaging who have a background in computer science, mathematics and physics, as well as more broadly to neuroscientists and psychologists who want to start incorporating connectomics into their research.</p
Bridging the gap between early corpus callosal growth and neurodevelopmental outcome in infants born very preterm
No full textIs there predictive value in early magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in infants born preterm?
No full textGenome-wide association meta-analysis of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants of European ancestry
No full textAge at onset of walking is an important early childhood milestone which is used clinically and in public health screening. In this genome-wide association study meta-analysis of age at onset of walking (N = 70,560 European-ancestry infants), we identified 11 independent genome-wide significant loci. SNP-based heritability was 24.13% (95% confidence intervals = 21.86–26.40) with ~11,900 variants accounting for about 90% of it, suggesting high polygenicity. One of these loci, in gene RBL2, co-localized with an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) in the brain. Age at onset of walking (in months) was negatively genetically correlated with ADHD and body-mass index, and positively genetically correlated with brain gyrification in both infant and adult brains. The polygenic score showed out-of-sample prediction of 3–5.6%, confirmed as largely due to direct effects in sib-pair analyses, and was separately associated with volume of neonatal brain structures involved in motor control. This study offers biological insights into a key behavioural marker of neurodevelopment.</p
Characterizing Large-Scale Human Circuit Development with In Vivo Neuroimaging
No full textLarge-scale coordinated patterns of neural activity are crucial for the integration of information in the human brain and to enable complex and flexible human behavior across the life span. Through recent advances in noninvasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, it is now possible to study this activity and how it emerges in the living fetal brain across the second half of human gestation. This work has demonstrated that functional activity in the fetal brain has several features in keeping with highly organized networks of activity, which are undergoing a highly programmed and rapid sequence of development before birth, in which long-range connections emerge and core features of the mature functional connectome (such as hub regions and a gradient organization) are established. In this review, the findings of these studies are summarized, their relationship to the known changes in developmental neurobiology is considered, and considerations for future work in the context of limitations to the fMRI approach are presented.</p
Early Development and Co-Evolution of Microstructural and Functional Brain Connectomes:A Multi-Modal MRI Study in Preterm and Full-Term Infants
Get PDFFunctional networks characterized by coherent neural activity across distributed brain regions have been observed to emerge early in neurodevelopment. Synchronized maturation across regions that relate to functional connectivity (FC) could be partially reflected in the developmental changes in underlying microstructure. Nevertheless, covariation of regional microstructural properties, termed "microstructural connectivity" (MC), and its relationship to the emergence of functional specialization during the early neurodevelopmental period remain poorly understood. We investigated the evolution of MC and FC postnatally across a set of cortical and subcortical regions, focusing on 45 preterm infants scanned longitudinally, and compared to 45 matched full-term neonates as part of the developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP) using direct comparisons of grey-matter connectivity strengths as well as network-based analyses. Our findings revealed a global strengthening of both MC and FC with age, with connection-specific variability influenced by the connection maturational stage. Prematurity at term-equivalent age was associated with significant connectivity disruptions, particularly in FC. During the preterm period, direct comparisons of MC and FC strength showed a positive linear relationship, which seemed to weaken with development. On the other hand, overlaps between MC- and FC-derived networks (estimated with Mutual Information) increased with age, suggesting a potential convergence towards a shared underlying network structure that may support the co-evolution of microstructural and functional systems. Our study offers novel insights into the dynamic interplay between microstructural and functional brain development and highlights the potential of MC as a complementary descriptor for characterizing brain network development and alterations due to perinatal insults such as premature birth.</p
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