Biology subjects

Suttrup, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Suttrup, J..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2019

Bayesian statistics show a lack of change in excitability following bi-hemispheric HD-TDCS over the primary somatosensory cortices

BackgroundHigh Definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) is a method meant to explore the causal structure-function relationship of brain areas, developed to improve the spatial resolution of tDCS, but the validity of tDCS results is currently under intense debate\n\nObjectiveThe goal of this study is to validate a new HD-tDCS protocol for bilateral modulation of the Somatosensory Cortex (SI). The new montage is meant to increase the focus of the stimulation while limiting the area of the scalp covered by electrodes. We aim to characterize the effect of the stimulation in terms of directionality, consistency and reproducibility.\n\nMethodsWe aim to leverage a 1 x 1 montage to most focally stimulate the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and measure modulation via Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SEP) triggered by median nerve stimulation.\n\nResultsThe results of Experiment1 suggest that our montage increases the amplitude of the SEP component N30. In Experiment2, we aim to replicate our finding and to assess the duration of the modulatory effect on N30 over time. Data from Experiment2 fails to replicate N30 modulation. A sequential Bayesian analysis performed on N30 data from both experiments indicates that the effect fluctuates across participants, without a clear homogenous directionality.\n\nConclusionThis study sets boundaries on the effect size that can be expected for this montage and illustrates the need to include replication samples or larger sample sizes to avoid overestimating effect sizes. We conclude that our montage has insufficient effect size for use in moderately sample-sized experimental studies and clinical applications.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Does higher sampling rate (Multiband + SENSE) benefit the detection of task correlated BOLD for cognitive neuroscience applications at 3T?

Multiband (MB) or Simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) acquisition schemes allow the acquisition of MRI signals from more than one spatial coordinate at a time. Commercial availability has brought this technique within the reach of many neuroscientists and psychologists. Most early evaluation of the performance of MB acquisition employed resting state fMRI or the most basic tasks. In this study, we tested whether the advantages of using MB acquisition schemes generalize to group analyses using a cognitive task more representative of typical cognitive neuroscience applications. Twenty-three subjects were scanned on a Philips 3T scanner using five sequences up to eight-fold acceleration with MB-factors 1 to 4, SENSE factors up to 2 and corresponding TRs of 2.45s down to 0.63s, while they viewed (i) movies showing complex actions with hand object interactions and (ii) control movies without hand object interaction. Using random effects group-level, voxel-wise analysis we found that all sequences were able to detect the basic action observation network known to be recruited by our task. The highest t-values were found for sequences with MB4 acceleration. For the MB1 sequence, a 50% bigger voxel volume was needed to reach comparable t-statistics. The group-level t-values for resting state networks (RSNs) were also highest for MB4 sequences. Here the MB1 sequence with larger voxel size did not perform comparable to the MB4 sequence. Altogether, we can thus recommend the use of MB4 (and SENSE 1.5 or 2) on a Philips scanner when aiming to perform group-level analyses using cognitive block design fMRI tasks and voxel sizes in the range of cortical thickness (e.g. 2.7mm isotropic). While results will not be dramatically changed by the use of multiband, our results suggest that MB will bring a moderate but significant benefit.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Action perception recruits the cerebellum and is impaired in spinocerebellar ataxia patients

Our cerebellum has been proposed to generate prediction signals that may help us plan and execute our motor programs. However, to what extent our cerebellum is also actively involved in perceiving the action of others remains to be elucidated. Using fMRI, we show here that observing goal-directed hand actions of others bilaterally recruits cerebellar Lobules VI, VIIb and VIIIa. Moreover, whereas healthy subjects (n=31) were found to be able to discriminate subtle differences in the kinematics of observed limb movements of others, patients suffering from spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6; n=21) were severely impaired in performing such tasks. Our data suggest that the human cerebellum is actively involved in perceiving the kinematics of the hand actions of others and that SCA6 patients deficits include a difficulty in perceiving the actions of other individuals. This finding alerts us to the fact that cerebellar disorders can alter social cognition. Given that impairments in social cognition have been reported to be one of the most debilitating consequences of neurological disorders, this finding may be relevant to improving the quality of life of patients and their families.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Perceiving Hesitation requires both the Motor and Mentalizing systems

The mentalizing network and the putative mirror neuron system (pMNS) are two important large scale brain networks for social cognition, with very little overlap between them. Evidence suggests however that the two networks can collaborate for understanding the state of mind of others on the basis of their body movements. Here using fMRI we find that when participants view hand actions to detect hesitations they activate both their mentalizing and pMNS networks and information is exchanged across these networks. In a follow-up experiment using repetitive TMS we find that disturbing activity in either network slows hesitation attribution. In contrast, watching the same actions to determine the size of the object being grasped only triggered activity in the pMNS network, and rTMS over the mentalizing network then no longer slowed reactions. When we see others actions, we recruit our own motor system. Our results suggest that for detecting a simple mental state like hesitation, this pre-processed motor information becomes a necessary input into a mentalizing network that is essential for associating deviations from a predicted motor program with a specific mental state.

neuroscience↗