The neuroscience of meditation is providing insight into meditation\'s beneficial effects on well-being and informing understanding of consciousness. However, further research is needed to explicate mechanisms linking brain activity and meditation. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) presents a promising approach for causally investigating neural mechanisms of meditation. Prior NIBS-meditation research has predominantly targeted frontal and parietal cortices suggesting that it might be possible to boost the behavioral and neural effects of meditation with NIBS. Moreover, NIBS has revealed distinct neural signatures in long-term meditators. Nonetheless, methodological variations in NIBS-meditation research contributes to challenges for definitive interpretation of previous results. Future NIBS studies should further investigate core substrates of meditation, including specific brain networks and oscillations, and causal neural mechanisms of advanced meditation. Overall, NIBS-meditation research holds promise for enhancing meditation-based interventions in support of well-being and resilience in both non-clinical and clinical populations, and for uncovering the brain-mind mechanisms of meditation and consciousness.

Recent advancements in functional neuroimaging have demonstrated that some unresponsive patients in the intensive care unit retain a level of consciousness that is inconsistent with their behavioral diagnosis of awareness. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a portable optical neuroimaging method that can be used to measure neural activity with good temporal and spatial resolution. However, the reliability of fNIRS for detecting the neural correlates of consciousness remains to be established. In a series of studies, we evaluated whether fNIRS can record sensory, perceptual, and command-driven neural processing in healthy participants and in behaviorally nonresponsive patients. At the individual healthy subject level, we demonstrate that fNIRS can detect commonly studied resting state networks, sensorimotor processing, speech-specific auditory processing, and volitional command-driven brain activity to a motor imagery task. We then tested fNIRS with three acutely brain injured patients and found that one could willfully modulate their brain activity when instructed to imagine playing a game of tennis-providing evidence of preserved consciousness despite no observable behavioral signs of awareness. The successful application of fNIRS for detecting preserved awareness among behaviorally nonresponsive patients highlights its potential as a valuable tool for uncovering hidden cognitive states in critical care settings.

BACKGROUND: Research in functional asymmetry of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) under different tasks is crucial for clinical diagnose.
METHODS: Fifty individuals with MDD and twenty healthy controls (HCS) were recruited for hemodynamic data collection under four fNIRS tasks (Emotional picture, Verbal fluency, Fingering and Negative emotional picture description task). Integral values and functional connectivity strength were employed to probe neural activation and functional connectivity in frontal and temporal lobes in MDD. Following, asymmetry characteristic of the frontal cortex between MDD and HCS under four tasks were carefully analyzed and compared.
RESULTS: Individuals with MDD demonstrated heightened connectivity between the frontal and right temporal lobes and reduced connectivity between the frontal and left temporal lobes compared to HCS in all tasks. Additionally, MDD exhibited attenuated activation in the left frontal lobes and exaggerated activation in the right frontal lobes, diverging from HCS. Furthermore, the disparities in left-right asymmetry characteristic of frontal cortex activation between MDD and HCS were more pronounced during the combined task.
CONCLUSIONS: Further research is required to grasp the neurophysiological mechanisms governing left-right asymmetry across various tasks and the influence of task-induced brain fatigue on cerebral cortex hemodynamics in MDD.
CONCLUSIONS: The left-right asymmetry feature provides valuable neurophysiological insights for diagnosing MDD clinically. Variations in activation patterns and functional connectivity features between MDD and HCS are closely tied to the task chosen. Thus, in clinical practice, carefully selecting appropriate fNIRS tasks and relevant features can significantly improve the diagnostic accuracy of MDD.

A systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies on drug (self-) administration in rodents is lacking. Here, we summarized effects of acute or chronic drug administration of various classes of drugs on brain function and determined consistency with human literature. We performed a systematic literature search and identified 125 studies on in vivo rodent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (n = 84) or positron emission tomography (n = 41) spanning depressants (n = 27), opioids (n = 23), stimulants (n = 72), and cannabis (n = 3). Results primarily showed alterations in the striatum, consistent with the human literature. The anterior cingulate cortex and (nonspecific) prefrontal cortex were also frequently implicated. Upregulation was most often found after shorter administration and downregulation after long chronic administration, particularly in the striatum. Importantly, results were consistent across study design, administration models, imaging method, and animal states. Results provide evidence of altered resting-state brain function in rodents upon drug administration, implicating the brain\'s reward network analogous to human studies. However, alterations were more dynamic than previously known, with dynamic adaptation depending on the length of drug administration.

Late-life depression (LLD) is a relatively common and debilitating mental disorder, also associated with cognitive dysfunctions and an increased risk of mortality. Considering the growing elderly population worldwide, LLD is increasingly emerging as a significant public health issue, also due to the rise in direct and indirect costs borne by healthcare systems. Understanding the neuroanatomical and neurofunctional correlates of LLD is crucial for developing more targeted and effective interventions, both from a preventive and therapeutic standpoint. This ALE meta-analysis aims to evaluate the involvement of specific neurofunctional changes in the neurophysiopathology of LLD by analysing functional neuroimaging studies conducted on patients with LLD compared to healthy subjects (HCs). We included 19 studies conducted on 844 subjects, divided into 439 patients with LLD and 405 HCs. Patients with LLD, compared to HCs, showed significant hypoactivation of the right superior and medial frontal gyri (Brodmann areas (Bas) 8, 9), left cingulate cortex (BA 24), left putamen, and left caudate body. The same patients exhibited significant hyperactivation of the left superior temporal gyrus (BA 42), left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 45), right anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24), right cerebellar culmen, and left cerebellar declive. In summary, we found significant changes in activation patterns and brain functioning in areas encompassed in the cortico-limbic-striatal network in LLD. Furthermore, our results suggest a potential role for areas within the cortico-striatal-cerebellar network in the neurophysiopathology of LLD.

Survival rates after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have improved over the past two decades. Despite this progress, long-term cognitive impairment remains prevalent even in those with early recovery of consciousness after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; however, little is known about the determinants and underlying mechanisms. We utilized the REcovery after cardiac arrest surVIVAL cohort of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors who fully regained consciousness to correlate cognition measurements with brain network changes using resting-state functional MRI and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment at hospital discharge and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment at three-month follow-up. About half of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors displayed cognitive impairments at discharge, and in most, cognitive deficits persisted at three-month follow-up, particularly in the executive and visuospatial functions. Compared to healthy controls, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors exhibited increased connectivity between resting-state networks, particularly involving the frontoparietal network. The increased connectivity between the frontoparietal and visual networks was associated with less favourable cognitive outcomes (β = 14.0, P = 0.01), while higher education seemed to confer some cognitive protection (β = -2.06, P = 0.03). In sum, the data highlight the importance of subtle cognitive impairment, also in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors who are eligible for home discharge, and the potential of functional MRI to identify alterations in brain networks correlating with cognitive outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) previous studies have found that activation differences in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during an autobiographical memory task (AMT) under the condition of different emotional valences may be neurophysiological markers of depression and different depression subtypes. Additionally, compared with non-anxious depression, anxious depression presents abnormal hemodynamic activation in the DLPFC. This study aimed to use fNIRS to investigate hemodynamic activation in the DLPFC of depression patients with and without anxiety during AMT triggered by different emotional valence stimuli.
METHODS: We recruited 194 patients with depression (91 with non-anxious depression, 103 with anxious depression) and 110 healthy controls from Chinese college students. A 53-channel fNIRS was used to detect cerebral hemodynamic differences in the three groups during AMT.
RESULTS: The results showed that: (1) the activation of oxy-Hb in the left DLPFC was significantly higher under positive emotional valence than under negative emotional valence for healthy controls and patients with non-anxious depression, while there was no significant difference between positive and negative emotional valence observed in response to anxious depression; and (2) Oxy-Hb activation under negative emotional valence was significantly higher in the anxious depression group than in the non-anxious depression group.
CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that the hemodynamic hyperactivation of negative emotional valence in the left DLPFC may be due to the neurophysiological differences between anxious and non-anxious patients with depression.

BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain abnormalities have been reported in the corpus callosum (CC) of patients with adult-onset hypothyroidism. However, no study has directly compared CC-specific morphological or functional alterations among subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), overt hypothyroidism (OH), and healthy controls (HC). Moreover, the association of CC alterations with cognition and emotion is not well understood.
METHODS: Demographic data, clinical variables, neuropsychological scores, and MRI data of 152 participants (60 SCH, 37 OH, and 55 HC) were collected. This study investigated the clinical performance, morphological and functional changes of CC subregions across three groups. Moreover, a correlation analysis was performed to explore potential relationships between these factors.
RESULTS: Compared to HC, SCH and OH groups exhibited lower cognitive scores and higher depressive/anxious scores. Notably, rostrum and rostral body volume of CC was larger in the SCH group. Functional connectivity between rostral body, anterior midbody and the right precentral and dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus were increased in the SCH group. In contrast, the SCH and OH groups exhibited a decline in functional connectivity between splenium and the right angular gyrus. Within the SCH group, rostrum volume demonstrated a negative correlation with Montreal Cognitive Assessment and visuospatial/executive scores, while displaying a positive correlation with 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores. In the OH group, rostral body volume exhibited a negative correlation with serum thyroid stimulating hormone levels, while a positive correlation with serum total thyroxine and free thyroxine levels.
CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that patients with different stages of adult-onset hypothyroidism may exhibit different patterns of CC abnormalities. These findings offer new insights into the neuropathophysiological mechanisms in hypothyroidism.

UNASSIGNED: We examined the neurocognitive bases of lexical morphology in children of varied reading abilities to understand the role of meaning-based skills in learning to read with dyslexia.
UNASSIGNED: Children completed auditory morphological and phonological awareness tasks during functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging. We first examined the relation between lexical morphology and phonological processes in typically developing readers (Study 1, N = 66, Mage = 8.39), followed by a more focal inquiry into lexical morphology processes in dyslexia (Study 2, N = 50, Mage = 8.62).
UNASSIGNED: Typical readers exhibited stronger engagement of language neurocircuitry during the morphology task relative to the phonology task, suggesting that morphological analyses involve synthesizing multiple components of sublexical processing. This effect was stronger for more analytically complex derivational affixes (like + ly) than more semantically transparent free base morphemes (snow + man). In contrast, children with dyslexia exhibited stronger activation during the free base condition relative to derivational affix condition. Taken together, the findings suggest that although children with dyslexia may struggle with derivational morphology, they may also use free base morphemes\' semantic information to boost word recognition.
UNASSIGNED: This study informs literacy theories by identifying an interaction between reading ability, word structure, and how the developing brain learns to recognize words in speech and print.
UNASSIGNED: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25944949.

UNASSIGNED: To investigate the central mechanism of lumbar disc herniation in patients with chronic low back pain (LDHCP) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) utilizing the Degree Centrality (DC) method.
UNASSIGNED: Twenty-five LDHCP and twenty-two healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled, and rs-fMRI data from their brains were collected. We compared whole-brain DC values between the LDHCP and HC groups, and examined correlations between DC values within the LDHCP group and the Visual Analogue Score (VAS), Oswestry Dysfunction Index (ODI), and disease duration. Diagnostic efficacy was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
UNASSIGNED: LDHCP patients exhibited increased DC values in the bilateral cerebellum and brainstem, whereas decreased DC values were noted in the left middle temporal gyrus and right post-central gyrus when compared with HCs. The DC values of the left middle temporal gyrus were positively correlated with VAS (r = 0.416, p = 0.039) and ODI (r = 0.405, p = 0.045), whereas there was no correlation with disease duration (p > 0.05). Other brain regions showed no significant correlations with VAS, ODI, or disease duration (p > 0.05). Furthermore, the results obtained from ROC curve analysis demonstrated that the Area Under the Curve (AUC) for the left middle temporal gyrus was 0.929.
UNASSIGNED: The findings indicated local abnormalities in spontaneous neural activity and functional connectivity in the bilateral cerebellum, bilateral brainstem, left middle temporal gyrus, and right postcentral gyrus among LDHCP patients.