Biology subjects

Marchewka, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Marchewka, A..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

CLIMATE BRAIN - Questionnaires, Tasks and the Neuroimaging Dataset

Climate change presents a fundamental threat to human populations and ecosystems across the globe. Neuroscience researchers have recently started developing ways to advance research on this topic. However, validated questionnaires, experimental stimuli, and fMRI tasks are still needed. Here we describe the CLIMATE BRAIN dataset, a multimodal collection of questionnaire, behavioural, and neuroimaging data related to climate change, acquired from 160 healthy individuals. In particular, it includes data from (1) various questionnaire measures, including the Inventory of Climate Emotions (ICE); (2) a neuroimaging task for measuring emotional reactions to standardized Emotional Climate Change Stories (ECCS); and (3) a neuroimaging task based on Carbon Emission Task (CET) to measure climate action-taking. For technical validation, we provide image quality metrics and show the evidence for the effectiveness of tasks consistent with prior studies. To our knowledge, the proposed dataset is currently the only publicly available resource specifically designed to investigate human brain responses to climate change.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Understanding functional brain reorganisation for naturalistic piano playing in novice pianists

Learning to play the piano is a unique complex task, integrating multiple sensory modalities and higher-order cognitive functions. Longitudinal neuroimaging studies on adult novice musicians show training-related functional changes in music perception tasks. The reorganisation of brain activity while actually playing an instrument was studied only on a very short time-frame of a single fMRI session, and longer interventions have not yet been performed. Thus, our aim was to investigate the dynamic complexity of functional brain reorganisation while playing the piano within the first half year of musical training. We scanned twenty-four novice keyboard learners (female, 18-23yo) using fMRI while they played increasingly complex musical pieces after 1, 6, 13 and 26 weeks of training. Playing music evoked responses bilaterally in the auditory, inferior frontal and supplementary motor areas, and the left sensorimotor cortex. The effect of training over time, however, invoked widespread changes encompassing the right sensorimotor cortex, cerebellum, superior parietal cortex, anterior insula and hippocampus, among others. As the training progressed, the activation of these regions decreased while playing music. Post-hoc analysis revealed region-specific time-courses for independent auditory and motor regions of interest. These results suggest that while the primary sensory, motor and frontal regions are associated with playing music, the training decreases the involvement of higher-order cognitive control and integrative regions, and basal ganglia. Moreover, training might affect distinct brain regions in different ways, providing evidence in favour of the dynamic nature of brain plasticity. Significance statementMastering the piano is a unique process requiring a collaboration of multiple brain regions. However, associated brain activation changes are not well understood. Using functional MRI, we showed that playing the piano activated brain areas associated with movement and auditory processing. However, as the novice pianists progressed through their training, the activation of other brain regions, involved in memory retrieval, auditory-motor integration, or the processing of musical syntax, was gradually reduced. Our findings suggest that musical training is an optimisation process, with higher-order cognitive networks being activated more strongly at the beginning and their activity decreasing with increased proficiency.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Emotion schema effects on associative memory differ across emotion categories at the behavioural, physiological and neural level

Previous behavioural and neuroimaging studies have consistently reported that our memory is enhanced for associations congruent or incongruent with the structure of our prior knowledge, termed as schemas. However, it remains unclear if similar effects exist if encoded associations are emotional. Do emotional schemas also facilitate learning and subsequent retrieval? Does it depend on the type of experienced emotions? Using a novel face-word pair association paradigm combined with fMRI and eye-tracking techniques, we demonstrated and replicated in two independent studies that congruency with emotion schemas and emotion category interact to affect associative memory. Overall, emotion schemas facilitated memory for associative context, paralleled by the recruitment of left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) during successful encoding of emotionally congruent vs. incongruent pairs. However, emotion schema effects differed across two negative emotion categories: disgust and fear, with disgust remembered better than fear. The IFG engagement was higher during successful encoding of congruent vs. incongruent pairs, but only in the case of disgust, suggestive of more semantic processing involved in learning disgust-related associations. On the contrary, the encoding of congruent vs. incongruent fear-related pairs was supported by activity in right fusiform gyrus (FG), suggesting greater sensory processing of faces. Successful memory formation for congruent disgust-related pairs was associated with a higher loading of pupil dilation component related to sympathetic activation, longer gaze time on words compared to faces, and more gaze switches between the two. This was reversed for fear-related pairs where the faces attracted more attention, as reflected by longer gaze time (compared to words). Overall, our results at the behavioural, physiological, and neural level converge to suggest that emotional congruency influences memory similar to semantic schemas. However, encoding processes and neural effects vary depending on emotion category, reflecting the differential role of semantic processing and visual attention processes in the modulation of memory by disgust and fear.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Learning about threat from friends and strangers is equally effective: an fMRI study on observational fear conditioning

Humans often benefit from social cues when learning about the world. For instance, learning about threats from others can save the individual from dangerous first-hand experiences. Familiarity is believed to increase the effectiveness of social learning, but it is not clear whether it plays a role in learning about threats. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we undertook a naturalistic approach and investigated whether there was a difference between observational fear learning from friends and strangers. Participants (observers) witnessed either their friends or strangers (demonstrators) receiving aversive (shock) stimuli paired with colored squares (observational learning stage). Subsequently, participants watched the same squares, but without receiving any shocks (direct-expression stage). We observed a similar pattern of brain activity in both groups of observers. Regions related to threat responses (amygdala, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex) and social perception (fusiform gyrus, posterior superior temporal sulcus) were activated during the observational phase, reflecting the fear contagion process. The anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex were also activated during the subsequent stage, indicating the expression of learned threat. Because there were no differences between participants observing friends and strangers, we argue that social threat learning is independent of the level of familiarity with the demonstrator. HighlightsO_LIWe compared observational learning of fear from friends and strangers C_LIO_LIFamiliarity does not enhance social learning of fear in humans C_LIO_LIBayesian statistics confirm absence of differences between friends and strangers C_LIO_LIObservational fear learning activates social and fear networks including amygdala C_LIO_LIAmygdala activations are absent when learned fear is recalled C_LI

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Lenticular nucleus volume predicts performance in real-time strategy game - cross-sectional and training approach using voxel-based morphometry

It is unclear why some people learn faster than others. We performed two independent studies in which we investigated the neural basis of real-time strategy (RTS) gaming and neural predictors of RTS games skill-acquisition. In the first (cross-sectional) study we found that experts in the RTS game StarCraft II (SC2) had a larger lenticular nucleus volume than non-RTS players. We followed a cross validation procedure where we used the volume of regions identified in the first study to predict the quality of learning a new, complex skill (SC2) in a sample of individuals who were naive to RTS games (second training study). Our findings provide new insights into how the volume of lenticular nucleus, which is associated with motor as well as cognitive functions, can be utilized to predict successful skill-learning, and be applied to a much broader context than just video games, e.g. contributing to optimizing cognitive training interventions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Universal brain signature of emerging reading in two contrasting languages

Despite dissimilarities among scripts, a universal hallmark of literacy in adults is the convergent brain activity for print and speech. Little is known, however, how early it emerges. Here we compare speech and orthographic processing systems in two contrasting languages, Polish and English, in 100 7-year-old children performing identical fMRI tasks. Results show limited language variation, with speech-print convergence evident mostly in left fronto-temporal perisylvian regions. Correlational and intersect analyses revealed subtle differences in the strength of this coupling in several regions of interest. Specifically, speech-print convergence was higher for transparent Polish than opaque English in right temporal area, associated with phonological processing. Conversely, speech-print convergence was higher for English than Polish in left fusiform, associated with visual reading. We conclude that speech-print convergence is a universal marker of reading even at the beginning of reading acquisition while minor variations can be explained by the differences in the orthographic transparency.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Dissociable brain mechanisms for long-term memory of disgust- and fear- related associations

Remembering events that evoke emotions such as disgust or fear is critical to our survival. However, previous studies investigating the interplay between emotion and memory disregarded the effects of specific emotions, leading to inconsistent results. Also, the role of amygdala throughout memory stages has been poorly understood. Here, we show that after 3 weeks delay, word pairs evoking disgust were remembered better than pairs evoking fear. These two emotions distinctly modulated neural mechanisms of memory. Successful encoding of disgust-evoking information was mediated by univariate activation in amygdala and perirhinal cortex, in contrast to fear-evoking memories that engaged hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus. Critically, univariate activation in the amygdala during encoding was correlated with memory reinstatement of individual word pairs, and more so for disgust than for fear. Together, these findings shed a new light on the role of the amygdala and medial temporal lobe regions in encoding and reinstatement of specific emotional memories.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Wasting food is disgusting: Evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging study of moral judgment of food-wasting behavior

Food-wasting has a profound negative social and environmental impact. Acknowledging that referring to moral judgment can motivate behavior change, the present study aimed to determine moral intuitions underlying the perception of food-wasting behavior. We developed a set of affective standardized scenarios and we used them to collect behavioral and neuroimaging data. In the main study, 50 participants made moral judgments regarding food-wasting, disgusting, harmful, dishonest, or neutral behaviors presented in these scenarios. We found that wasting food was considered morally wrong and it was associated with moral disgust. Neuroimaging data revealed that food-wasting stimuli elicited an increased activity in structures associated with moral judgment, as well as in regions involved in the processing of moral, but also physical disgust. We discuss our results in the context of the evolutionary significance of food that might have led to seeing food-wasting as a moral transgression.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

EEG signal diversity reflects capability for behavioral responsiveness during propofol sedation

Transitions between wakefulness and anesthesia are accompanied by profound changes in brain functioning. A key challenge is thus to disentangle neuronal mechanisms specific to loss and recovery of consciousness, from more general effects that are not directly related to the capacity for conscious experience. Measures of neuronal diversity have been recently proposed to constitute a robust correlate of the global states of consciousness. In the present study we investigated whether EEG signal diversity is indeed related to behavioral responsiveness during propofol sedation, or rather to the general drug-related effects. To this end, we reanalyzed data collected from 20 subjects sedated with propofol. Based on the responsiveness to auditory stimuli all subjects were subdivided into two subgroups - responsive (n = 13), who remains awake throughout the experiment, and drowsy (n = 7), who becomes unresponsive during moderate sedation. Resting state EEG recorded during wakefulness and sedation was characterized by the Mean Information Gain (MIG) and Fluctuation complexity (FC) - information-theory measures estimating signal diversity or complexity, respectively. The main finding is that the drowsy group exhibited a decrease in diversity during sedation but, unexpectedly, the responsive group exhibited a robust increase in diversity (ANOVA group x state interaction: F(3) = 7.81, p < 0.001; BF10 > 197). However, signal complexity neither differentiated the subgroups, nor decreased reliably during sedation (t-test wake vs. moderate sedation: t(19) = 2.57, p = 0.092; BF10 = 3.08). Further, we show that a change in signal diversity is negatively correlated with a delta power change (r = -0.62, p = 0.002), and positively correlated with a beta power change (r = 0.84, p < 0.001). Finally, we show that MIG behaves in a qualitatively similar manner to Lempel-Ziv - another diversity measures used in several recent studies. Overall, we revealed that propofol sedation is initially related to an increase in EEG signal diversity, and that only upon loss of responsiveness EEG diversity decreases. The qualitatively different pattern of changes in the responsive and drowsy groups makes EEG diversity a robust indirect index of responsiveness and, presumably, consciousness.

neuroscience↗