Previous studies have shown that Synchronous Neural InteractionsSynchronous Neural Interactions (SNI)Zero-lag partial correlations in pairs of MEG time series and denote the strength and polarity (positive or negative) of neuronal interactions. Anomalies in SNIs as assessed by MEG differentiate psychiatric disorders from healthy brain functioning and can discriminate among various brain diseases. From this research, a highly distinctive, unique PTSD SNI signature characterized by miscommunication of temporal and parietal and/or parieto-occipital right hemispheric areas with other brain areas has emerged. These findings, in addition to the growing research applying MEG to other psychiatric disorders, highlight the utility of MEG in identifying biomarkers of disease and underscore the potential for broader clinical applications of MEG. (SNIs) underlying healthy brain function can be readily distinguished from neural anomalies associated with diseases including dementia; however, it is imperative to identify biomarkers that facilitate early identification of individuals at risk for cognitive decline before the onset of clinical symptoms. Here, we evaluated whether variation in brain function, controlling for age, corresponds with subtle decrements in cognitive performance in cognitively healthy women. A total of 251 women (age range 24-102 yr) who performed above established cutoffs on the Montreal Cognitive AssessmentMontreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)Cognitive function assessment. It consists of 30 questions that test visuospatial/ executive functioning, ability to name objects, memory, attention, general language skills (fluency), abstraction, delayed recall, and orientation. also underwent a task-free magnetoencephalography scan from which SNIs were computed. The results demonstrated that increased SNISynchronous Neural Interactions (SNI)Zero-lag partial correlations in pairs of MEG time series and denote the strength and polarity (positive or negative) of neuronal interactions. Anomalies in SNIs as assessed by MEG differentiate psychiatric disorders from healthy brain functioning and can discriminate among various brain diseases. From this research, a highly distinctive, unique PTSD SNI signature characterized by miscommunication of temporal and parietal and/or parieto-occipital right hemispheric areas with other brain areas has emerged. These findings, in addition to the growing research applying MEG to other psychiatric disorders, highlight the utility of MEG in identifying biomarkers of disease and underscore the potential for broader clinical applications of MEG. was significantly associated with decreased cognitive performance (r² = 0.923, P = 0.009), controlling for age. Compared with the lowest performers with normal cognition (MoCAMontreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)Cognitive function assessment. It consists of 30 questions that test visuospatial/ executive functioning, ability to name objects, memory, attention, general language skills (fluency), abstraction, delayed recall, and orientation. = 26), SNISynchronous Neural Interactions (SNI)Zero-lag partial correlations in pairs of MEG time series and denote the strength and polarity (positive or negative) of neuronal interactions. Anomalies in SNIs as assessed by MEG differentiate psychiatric disorders from healthy brain functioning and can discriminate among various brain diseases. From this research, a highly distinctive, unique PTSD SNI signature characterized by miscommunication of temporal and parietal and/or parieto-occipital right hemispheric areas with other brain areas has emerged. These findings, in addition to the growing research applying MEG to other psychiatric disorders, highlight the utility of MEG in identifying biomarkers of disease and underscore the potential for broader clinical applications of MEG. of the highest performers (MoCAMontreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)Cognitive function assessment. It consists of 30 questions that test visuospatial/ executive functioning, ability to name objects, memory, attention, general language skills (fluency), abstraction, delayed recall, and orientation. = 30) was associated with decorrelation primarily in the right...
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Women's Healthy Brain Aging: Legacy of a Learned Life
Dr. Lisa M. James, PhD

Performance in a cognitive task can be considered as the outcome of a decision-making process operating across various knowledge domains or aspects of a single domain. Therefore, an analysis of these decisions in various tasks can shed light on the interplay and integration of these domains (or elements within a single domain) as they are associated with specific task characteristics. In this study, we applied an information theoretic approach to assess quantitatively the gain of knowledge across various elements of the cognitive domain of spatial, relational knowledge, as a function of development. Specifically, we examined changing spatial relational knowledge from ages 5 to 10 years. Our analyses consisted of a two-step process. First, we performed a hierarchical clustering analysis on the decisions made in 16 different tasks of spatial relational knowledge to determine which tasks were performed similarly at each age group as well as to discover how the tasks clustered...
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Prefrontal cortex influences behavior largely through its connections with other association cortices; however, the nature of the information conveyed by prefrontal output signals and what effect these signals have on computations performed by target structures is largely unknown. To address these questions, we simultaneously recorded the activity of neurons in prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices of monkeys performing a rule-based spatial categorization task. Parietal cortex receives direct prefrontal input, and parietal neurons, like their prefrontal counterparts, exhibit signals that reflect rule-based cognitive processing in this task. By analyzing rapid fluctuations in the cognitive information encoded by activity in the two areas, we obtained evidence that signals reflecting rule-dependent categories were selectively transmitted in a top-down direction from prefrontal to parietal neurons, suggesting that prefrontal output is important for the executive control of distributed cognitive processing.