bioRxiv
September 19, 2025
Hengda He, B. G. Yazdi, Amir Sedaghat et al.
preprint
While the hemodynamic response function (HRF) of the positive blood oxygenated level dependent (BOLD) signal is well characterized in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) field, studies investigating the shape and properties of the negative BOLD HRF, often observed in the default mode network (DMN) regions, are rare. In this study, we first investigated the linearity of the...
Neurobiology of Stress
September 12, 2025
Zi-Ni Chen, Chanyu Wang, T. Toulopoulou et al.
The psychological benefits of exposure to natural environments are well established. However, whether simply viewing nature images produce similar restorative effects and the brain mechanisms involved remain unclear. For study purposes, we recruited 131 healthy university students and randomly assigned them to a nature image viewing group (NG) or a city image viewing group (CG), with 49...
European Journal of Cancer
September 12, 2025
Zhuo-Nan Wang, Gui-Hua Tian, Jie-Rui Ding et al.
OBJECTIVE To use functional MRI to assess the effect of acupuncture on brain resting-state functional connectivity in breast cancer patients with hot flashes. METHODS A total of 24 breast cancer patients experiencing hot flashes (BC-HF) underwent 5 weeks of acupuncture treatment and follow-up at 4-6 months after therapy. The control groups included 35 patients with breast cancer without hot...
Sensors
September 12, 2025
Kei Suzuki, Midori Sugaya
Alexithymia is regarded as one of the risk factors for several prevalent mental disorders, and there is a growing need for convenient and objective methods to assess alexithymia. Therefore, this study proposes a method for constructing models to assess alexithymia using machine learning and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The explanatory variables for the models were functional connectivity...
Developmental Psychobiology
September 1, 2025
O. Allison, Caroline M. Kelsey, Tobias Grossmann
Abstract The current study used functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate whether and how individual differences in positive social engagement among 5‐month‐old (N = 109; N = 35 final sample) infants relate to variability in functional connectivity in the human brain's Default‐Mode Network (DMN). Neuroimaging results showed that on average infants displayed greater functional...
Cerebral Cortex
September 1, 2025
Alexander Skowron, Julian Q. Kosciessa, Robert Lorenz et al.
Abstract To make optimal decisions, intelligent agents must learn latent environmental states from discrete observations. Bayesian frameworks argue that integration of evidence over time allows us to refine our state belief by reducing uncertainty about alternate possibilities. How is this increasing belief precision during learning reflected in the brain? We propose that temporal neural...
bioRxiv
August 24, 2025
Yinan Xu, C. Prat, Florian Sense et al.
preprint
Despite the importance of memories in everyday life and the progress made in understanding how they are encoded and retrieved, the neural processes by which declarative memories are maintained or forgotten remain elusive. Part of the problem is that it is empirically difficult to measure the rate at which memories fade, even between repeated presentations of the source of the memory. Without...
Imaging Neuroscience
August 14, 2025
Radek Ptak, Naz Doganci, Emilie Marti et al.
Abstract Mental transformations, such as mental rotation, rely on motor representations and engage neural processes similarly to physical actions. Neuroimaging studies reveal that mental rotation activates the occipito-parietal cortex and motor-related areas, with differences based on whether stimuli are bodily or non-bodily. These findings emphasize the role of frontoparietal networks in...
Galen Medical Journal
August 5, 2025
Shingo Ueda
Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed a significant interplay between the neuropeptide oxytocin and the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN), suggesting a pivotal role in modulating attachment and self-referential processing. This review synthesizes current findings from neuroimaging, behavioral studies, and clinical research to explore the “oxytocin-DMN axis” and its impact on social...
Scientific Reports
August 4, 2025
Sandrine Cremona, Achille Gillig, Emmanuel Mellet et al.
Cognitive functions emerge from the dynamic interplay of distributed, large-scale brain networks. Functional connectivity (FC) reflects stable brain organization and general cognitive abilities, while also capturing individual variations in transient cognitive states. Analyzing data from 1,717 participants, we show that rich and diverse spontaneous thought profiles align with distinct patterns...