Fig 1 - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Content may be subject to copyright.
Clusters showing an increased activation for enhanced emotional memory encoding within the discovery sample. Clusters span voxels significantly activated during enhanced emotional memory encoding (P whole-brain-FWE-corrected < 0.05, n = 944). These clusters were used as ROIs to explore the connectivity of the cerebellar cluster (ROI 12). Different colors denote different clusters. (A) Three-dimensional images of the 29 clusters. (B) Sagittal, coronal, and horizontal views, focusing on the cluster located in the cerebellum (ROI 12). L, left; R, right. See SI Appendix, Figs. S3-S7 for additional illustrations.
Source publication
Emotional information is better remembered than neutral information. Extensive evidence indicates that the amygdala and its interactions with other cerebral regions play an important role in the memory-enhancing effect of emotional arousal. While the cerebellum has been found to be involved in fear conditioning, its role in emotional enhancement of...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... did not observe significant positive or negative associations between activity and the effects of sex, age, changes in scanner software, or changes in gradient coils (P whole-brain-FWE-corrected > 0.05). Voxels related to enhanced emotional memory encoding were parcellated into 30 clusters (i.e., ROIs) to reduce the dimensionality of the data ( Fig. 1 and SI Appendix, Figs. S3-S7, see Materials and Methods for details on the parcellation method). One cluster (ROI 11) contained isolated voxels and small clusters of voxels that were not spatially coherent and was therefore removed from further ...
Context 2
... of the 29 remaining ROIs, 28 were located in neocortical and subcortical regions of the cerebrum and one was in the cerebellum ( Fig. 1; see SI Appendix, Table S5 for details on the number of voxels as well as the anatomical correspondence per cluster). According to a probabilistic magnetic resonance (MR) atlas of the human cerebellum (41), the cerebellar cluster in the discovery sample mapped mainly onto the vermis of the cerebellum (local maximum by 76% in lobule IX, ...
Context 3
... sample). Maxima for ROIs 7, 13, and 25 did not reach significance in the replication sample and therefore, these ROIs were not considered for the DCM analysis. In summary, the replicated 26 ROIs mapped onto the occipital, temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex and onto the amygdala/hippocampus, cingulate, thalamus, brainstem, and cerebellum ( Fig. 1; SI Appendix, Table ...
Context 4
... rater decided on pictures that were rated differently. For each participant, we computed how often emotional pictures were recalled compared to neutral pictures: ([recalled positive -recalled neutral] + [recalled negative -recalled neutral])/2. Data points were plotted and were found to be approximately normally distributed (SI Appendix, Fig. S1). Two-sided t tests were applied to test whether emotional memory performance was significantly different from zero. In addition, we tested for the effects of potential confounders. We used a 2-sample t test to assess whether emotional memory performance depended on sex. We used Pearson's linear correlation coefficients to associate ...
Similar publications
Mood symptoms and disorders are common in dementia caregivers, who can be exposed to a myriad of potential stressors including their care recipient’s neuropsychiatric symptoms. Existing evidence indicates that the effects of potentially stressful exposures on mental health depend on the caregiver’s individual characteristics and responses. Specific...
Simple Summary
Adolescent depression represents a risk for chronic’ illness when current treatments fail. Given the modest effectiveness of extant therapies, there is a keen need to develop treatments for depression. We used neurofeedback training and positive autobiographical memory retrieval to modulate neural networks that enable emotion regulat...
Experiencing family material hardship has been shown to be associated with disruptions in physical and psychological development. However, the association between material hardship and functional connectivity in the fronto-limbic circuit during fear learning is unclear. A total of 161 healthy young adults aged 17-28 were recruited in our brain imag...
Citations
... For instance, Crus I and Crus II are linked with higher-order cognitive processes and motor planning, while lobule V and lobules I-IV are crucial for integrating sensory input with motor commands, essential for coordinated movement and proprioception [14,40]. The vermis, particularly vermis VI, is involved in emotional regulation and connects to the limbic system [41]. Focusing on the right hemisphere allows for better observation of functions related to attention and visuospatial processing [42]. ...
Aging involves complex biological changes that affect disease susceptibility and aging trajectories. Although females typically live longer than males, they have a higher susceptibility to diseases like Alzheimer’s, speculated to be influenced by menopause, and reduced ovarian hormone production. Understanding sex-specific differences is crucial for personalized medical interventions and gender equality in health. Our study aims to elucidate sex differences in regional cerebellar structure and connectivity during normal aging by investigating both structural and functional connectivity variations, with a focus on investigating these differences in the context of sex-steroid hormones. The study included 138 participants (mean age = 57(13.3) years, age range = 35-86 years, 54% women). The cohort was divided into three groups: 38 early middle-aged individuals (EMA) (mean age = 41(4.7) years), 48 late middle-aged individuals (LMA) (mean age = 58(4) years), and 42 older adults (OA) (mean age = 72(6.3) years). All participants underwent MRI scans, and saliva samples were collected for sex-steroid hormone quantification (17β-estradiol (E), progesterone (P), and testosterone (T)). We found less connectivity in females between Lobule I-IV and the cuneus, and greater connectivity in females between Crus I, Crus II, and the precuneus with increased age. Higher 17β-estradiol levels were linked to greater connectivity in Crus I and Crus II cerebellar subregions. Analyzing all participants together, testosterone was associated with both higher and lower connectivity in Lobule I-IV and Crus I, respectively, while higher progesterone levels were linked to lower connectivity in females. Structural differences were observed, with EMA males having larger volumes compared to LMA and OA groups, particularly in the right I-IV, right Crus I, right V, and right VI. EMA females showed higher volumes in the right lobules V and VI. These results highlight the significant role of sex hormones in modulating cerebellar connectivity and structure across adulthood, emphasizing the need to consider sex and hormonal status in neuroimaging studies to better understand age-related cognitive decline and neurological disorders.
... 39,55 The cerebellum is crucially implicated involved in the modulation of sensorimotor responses and higher level cognitive and affective function. 31,56,57 The neocortex-cerebellum and basal ganglia-cerebellum circuit are important in reward-related cognitive and emotion processing. 58-60 A study found a positive relationship between the local pontine network activity and the intensity of cLBP, 61 wherein compared with HC, patients with cLBP showed significantly decreased rsFC between the habenula and pons compared with HC. 32 Another study reported significantly altered EC in the cerebellumneocortex and cerebellum-basal ganglia circuits in patients with major depressive disorder, 31 and decreased rsFC between bilateral cerebellar and cortical brain regions in patients with cLBP after motor control exercise. ...
Purpose
Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is a recurring and intractable disease that is often accompanied by emotional and cognitive disorders such as depression and anxiety. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays an important role in mediating emotional and cognitive processes and analgesia. This study investigated the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and effective connectivity (EC) of NAc and its subregions in cLBP.
Methods
Thirty-four cLBP patients and 34 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Seed-based rsFC and Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) were used to examine the alteration of the rsFC and EC of the NAc.
Results
Our results showed that the cLBP group had increased rsFC of the bilateral NAc-left superior frontal cortex (SFC), orbital frontal cortex (OFC), left angular gyrus, the left NAc-bilateral middle temporal gyrus, as well as decreased rsFC of left NAc-left supramarginal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, left cerebellum, brainstem (medulla oblongata), and right insula pathways compared with the HC; the results of the subregions were largely consistent with the whole NAc. In addition, the rsFC of the left NAc-left SFC was negatively correlated with Hamilton’s Depression Scale (HAMD) scores (r = −0.402, p = 0.018), and the rsFC of left NAc-OFC was positively correlated with present pain intensity scores (r = 0.406, p = 0.017) in the cLBP group. DCM showed that the cLBP group showed significantly increased EC from the left cerebellum to the right NAc (p = 0.012) as compared with HC.
Conclusion
Overall, our findings demonstrate aberrant rsFC and EC between NAc and regions that are associated with emotional regulation and cognitive processing in individuals with cLBP, underscoring the pivotal roles of emotion and cognition in cLBP.
... Because it has been shown that successful selfregulation is dependent on top-down control from the prefrontal cortex over subcortical regions involved in reward and the balance of emotion (Heatherton & Wagner, 2011), failure of self-regulation occurs whenever the balance is skewed by particularly strong impulses in subcortical areas or when prefrontal function is impaired. Thus, there is increasing evidence that psychic functions are, indeed, processed in the brain with a defined topographical distribution of intensively connected areas and temporal determinants (Axer & Amunts, 2022;Fastenrath et al., 2022). Changes such as those noted above affect the way we will consider primal and conceptual beliefs and support the notion that evolved in the European history of philosophy that the mind reflects psychological capacities in a being equipped with language (Bennett, 2007). ...
Introduction
Believing comprises multifaceted processes that integrate information from the outside world through meaning‐making processes with personal relevance.
Methods
Qualitative Review of the current literature in social cognitive neuroscience.
Results
Although believing develops rapidly outside an individual's conscious awareness, it results in the formation of beliefs that are stored in memory and play an important role in determining an individual's behavior. Primal beliefs reflect an individual's experience of objects and events, whereas conceptual beliefs are based on narratives that are held in social groups. Conceptual beliefs can be about autobiographical, political, religious, and other aspects of life and may be encouraged by participation in group rituals. We hypothesize that assertions of future gains and rewards that transcend but are inherent in these codices provide incentives to follow the norms and rules of social groups.
Conclusion
The power of conceptual beliefs to provide cultural orientation is likely to fade when circumstances and evidence make it clear that what was asserted no longer applies.
... Anosmia and ageusia have been linked to cerebellar lesions, due to the cerebellum's mediation of olfactory-related responses to unpleasant odors 50,51 . The cerebellum modulates memory storage and retrieval, particularly episodic memory retrieval and the storage of emotional information such as fear memories [52][53][54] . Additionally, acute and chronic stressors can contribute to brain and bodily inflammation and depression, and lockdown itself can introduce stress-related brain volume reductions [55][56][57] . ...
The pathophysiology underlying the post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 remains understudied and poorly understood, particularly in healthy adults with a history of mild infection. Chronic neuroinflammation may underlie these enduring symptoms, but studying neuroinflammatory phenomena in vivo is challenging, especially without a comparable pre-COVID-19 dataset. In this study, we present a unique dataset of 10 otherwise healthy individuals scanned before and after experiencing mild COVID-19. Two emerging MR-based methods were used to map pre- to post-COVID-19 brain temperature and free water changes. Post-COVID-19 brain temperature and free water increases, which are indirect biomarkers of neuroinflammation, were found in structures functionally associated with olfactory, cognitive, and memory processing. The largest pre- to post-COVID brain temperature increase was observed in the left olfactory tubercle (p = 0.007, 95% CI [0.48, 3.01]), with a mean increase of 1.75 °C. Notably, the olfactory tubercle is also the region of the primary olfactory cortex where participants with chronic olfactory dysfunction showed the most pronounced increases as compared to those without lingering olfactory dysfunction (adjusted pFDR = 0.0189, 95% CI [1.42, 5.27]). These preliminary insights suggest a potential link between neuroinflammation and chronic cognitive and olfactory dysfunction following mild COVID-19, although further investigations are needed to improve our understanding of what underlies these phenomena.
... The possible absence of an anterior-posterior growth gradient in vermal areas is interesting, since functional differences are also present throughout the vermis. However, these are functionally distinct from the hemispheres of the cerebellum as the vermis receives sensorimotor afferents from the spinal cord, and is predominantly involved in lower-order functions, such as postural control, locomotion, and gaze 31 , but also plays an important role in emotion processing [32][33][34] . Nevertheless, a note of caution is due here since ranking the ROIs in terms of position is not unambiguous. ...
In the past, the cerebellum has been best known for its crucial role in motor function. However, increasingly more findings highlight the importance of cerebellar contributions in cognitive functions and neurodevelopment. Using a total of 7240 neuroimaging scans from 4862 individuals, we describe and provide detailed, openly available models of cerebellar development in childhood and adolescence (age range: 6–17 years), an important time period for brain development and onset of neuropsychiatric disorders. Next to a traditionally used anatomical parcellation of the cerebellum, we generated growth models based on a recently proposed functional parcellation. In both, we find an anterior-posterior growth gradient mirroring the age-related improvements of underlying behavior and function, which is analogous to cerebral maturation patterns and offers evidence for directly related cerebello-cortical developmental trajectories. Finally, we illustrate how the current approach can be used to detect cerebellar abnormalities in clinical samples.
... We also found reduced sgACC rsFCs with the right cerebellum lobule IV in correlation with more severe depression symptoms. Though best known for its role in motor control, the cerebellum is central to cognitive and emotion processing (Buckner, 2013;Depping et al., 2018;Fastenrath et al., 2022;Schmahmann, 2019;Schutter and Van Honk, 2005). Studies have accumulated to support altered cerebello-striatoprefrontal network function in people with depressive disorders (Depping et al., 2018;Lupo et al., 2019). ...
Genetic variants may confer risks for depression by modulating brain structure and function. Prior evidence has underscored a key role of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) in depression. Here, we built on the literature and examined how the resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the sgACC was associated with polygenic risks for depression. We followed published routines and computed seed-based whole-brain sgACC rsFC and polygenic risk scores (PRS) of 717 young adults curated from the Human Connectome Project. We performed whole-brain regression against PRS and severity of depression symptoms in a single model for all subjects and for men and women alone, controlling for age, sex (for all), race, severity of alcohol use, and household income, and evaluated the results at a corrected threshold. We found lower sgACC rsFC with the default mode network and frontal regions in association with PRS and lower sgACC-cerebellar rsFC in association with depression severity. We also noted sex differences in the connectivity correlates of PRS and depression severity. In an additional set of analyses, we observed a significant correlation between PRS and somatic complaints score and altered sgACC-somatosensory cortical connectivity in link with the severity of somatic complaints. Our findings collectively highlighted the pivotal role of distinct sgACC-based networks in the genetic predisposition to depression and the clinical manifestation of depression. Distinguishing the risk from severity markers of depression may have implications in developing early and effective treatments for individuals at risk for depression.
... Interestingly, Jung et al. (32) have recently reported the existence of a novel disynaptic circuit between the amygdala and the cerebellum, an area of the brain that is crucial for effective locomotor adaptation [and subsequent aftereffect exhibition (33)(34)(35)]. Subsequent work has also found increased connection strength between the amygdala and the cerebellum corresponding to enhanced emotional memories (36). We therefore propose that increased anxiety may enhance motor adaptation, leading to prolonged aftereffects, via direct modulation of cerebellar activity. ...
The ability to adapt our locomotion in a feedforward (i.e., 'predictive') manner is crucial for safe and efficient walking behaviour. Equally important is the ability to quickly de-adapt and update behaviour that is no longer appropriate for the given context. It has been suggested that anxiety induced via postural threat may play a fundamental role in disrupting such de-adaptation. We tested this hypothesis, using the 'broken escalator' phenomenon: Fifty-six healthy young adults walked onto a stationary walkway ('BEFORE' condition, five trials), then onto a moving walkway akin to an airport travellator ('MOVING' condition, 10 trials) and then again onto the stationary walkway ('AFTER' condition, five trials). Participants completed all trials whilst wearing a virtual reality headset, which was used to induce postural threat-related anxiety (raised cliff-like drop at the end of the walkway) during different phases of the paradigm. We found that performing the locomotor adaptation phase in a state of increased threat disrupted subsequent de-adaptation during AFTER trials: These participants displayed anticipatory muscular activity as if expecting the platform to move, and exhibited inappropriate anticipatory forward trunk movement that persisted during multiple AFTER trials. In contrast, postural threat induced during AFTER trials did not affect behavioural or neurophysiological outcomes. These findings highlight that actions learned in the presence of postural threat-induced anxiety are strengthened, leading to difficulties de-adapting these behaviours when no longer appropriate. Given the associations between anxiety and persistent maladaptive gait behaviours (e.g., 'overly-cautious' gait, functional gait disorders), findings have implications for the understanding of such conditions.
... Neuroimaging studies in humans have demonstrated that the cerebellum is a key component of the brain network involved in social cognition (Van Overwalle et al., 2020). While there is limited clinical investigation into cerebellar involvement in SRM, a recent study suggests that the cerebellar vermis is activated along with other brain regions during emotion-enhanced episodic memory (Fastenrath et al., 2022). ...
The cerebellum, traditionally associated with motor coordination and balance, also plays a crucial role in various aspects of higher-order function and dysfunction. Emerging research has shed light on the cerebellum's broader contributions to cognitive, emotional, and reward processes. The cerebellum's influence on autonomic function further highlights its significance in regulating motivational and emotional states. Perturbations in cerebellar development and function have been implicated in various neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. An increasing appreciation for neuropsychiatric symptoms that arise from cerebellar dysfunction underscores the importance of elucidating the circuit mechanisms that underlie complex interactions between the cerebellum and other brain regions for a comprehensive understanding of complex behavior. By briefly discussing new advances in mapping cerebellar function in affective, cognitive, autonomic, and social processing and reviewing the role of the cerebellum in neuropathology beyond the motor domain, this Mini-Symposium review aims to provide a broad perspective of cerebellar intersections with the limbic brain in health and disease.
... The link between the cerebellum and cognitive impairments in these disorders previously seemed perplexing because the cerebellum was traditionally considered a part of the motor system. However, recent studies show that the cerebellum is also involved in various non-motor functions, such as cognitive processing, social behavior, fear, and emotion, through its interaction with other brain regions (Koziol et al., 2014;Palesi et al., 2015;Badura et al., 2018;Vaaga et al., 2020;Fastenrath et al., 2022;Chao et al., 2023). ...
Cerebellar damage early in life often causes long-lasting motor, social, and cognitive impairments, suggesting the roles of the cerebellum in developing a broad spectrum of behaviors. This recent finding has promoted research on how cerebellar damage affects the development of the cerebral cortex, the brain region responsible for higher-order control of all behaviors. However, the cerebral cortex is not directly connected to the cerebellum. The thalamus is the direct postsynaptic target of the cerebellum, sending cerebellar outputs to the cerebral cortex. Despite its crucial position in cerebello-cerebral interaction, thalamic susceptibility to cerebellar damage remains largely unclear. Here, we studied the consequences of early cerebellar perturbation on thalamic development. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings showed that the synaptic organization of the cerebellothlamic circuit is similar to that of the primary sensory thalamus, in which aberrant sensory activity alters synaptic circuit formation. The hemizygous deletion of the tuberous sclerosis complex-1 ( Tsc1 ) gene in the Purkinje cell—known to cause Purkinje cell hypoactivity and autistic behaviors—did not alter cerebellothalamic synapses or intrinsic membrane properties of thalamic neurons. However, the ablation of Purkinje cells in the developing cerebellum strengthened the cerebellothalamic synapses and enhanced thalamic suprathreshold activities. These results suggest that the cerebellothalamic circuit is resistant to moderate perturbation in the developing cerebellum, such as the reduced firing rate of Purkinje cells, and that autistic behaviors are not necessarily linked to thalamic abnormality. Still, Purkinje cell loss alters the thalamic circuit, suggesting the vulnerability of the thalamus to substantial disturbance in the developing cerebellum.
... While the cerebellum is well known for its role in motor coordination and learning (Kanaya et al., 2023), research has demonstrated that it is also associated with non-motor functions such as emotion (Fastenrath et al., 2022) and social cognition (Hoche et al., 2016). Cerebellar links to autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia have also been suggested (Andreasen and Pierson, 2008;Wang et al., 2014). ...
