The Link between Brain Areas and Behavior: Neuromodulation and Lesion Studies

A special issue of NeuroSci (ISSN 2673-4087).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 5729

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Center for Perceptual Systems, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Interests: object recognition; segmentation; decision making; face patch; body patch; computational vision; fMRI; fMRI-guided electrophysiology; optical imaging; proteomics; cortex; vision; non-human primate; neural networks; CNN; neural prosthetics; optogenetics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Assessing the stimulus selectivity of neurons informs us about the nature of information these neurons encode, which is determined by their inputs but does not tell us what these neurons effectively contribute to behavioral decisions, which is determined by their output. To determine the latter, one needs to employ causal techniques in which one manipulates the activity of the neurons and assess its effect on behavior. Therefore, we need to establish the causal contribution of the neurons of a given area to perception and perceptual decisions. This causal link can be accomplished by perturbing the patterns of neural activity of a brain area or circuit. Electrical microstimulation, optogenetics, and pharmacological manipulations can be used in animal models, while transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be applied to healthy humans while they perform behavioral tasks. Similarly, the study of patients with lesions has also provided insights into the relationship between brain areas and behavior over the past century. We have gained a better understanding of several functional areas of the brain through these approaches. We are pleased to invite you to contribute any research work concerning the use of causal techniques to perturb neural activity and lesion studies in humans to study brain areas and circuits. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and short communications describing novel methods or techniques that link brain areas with behavior in this Special Issue.

Dr. Satwant Kumar
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • microstimulation
  • neuromodulation
  • optogenetics
  • TMS
  • tDCS
  • stroke lesions

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1461 KiB  
Article
Intraclass Correlation in Paired Associative Stimulation and Metaplasticity
by Giuditta Schapira, Justin Chang, Yeun Kim, Jacqueline P. Ngo, Choi Deblieck, Valentina Bianco, Dylan J. Edwards, Bruce H. Dobkin, Allan D. Wu and Marco Iacoboni
NeuroSci 2022, 3(4), 589-603; https://doi.org/10.3390/neurosci3040042 - 25 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1716
Abstract
Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is a widely used noninvasive brain stimulation protocol to assess neural plasticity. Its reproducibility, however, has been rarely tested and with mixed results. With two consecutive studies, we aimed to provide further tests and a more systematic assessment of [...] Read more.
Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is a widely used noninvasive brain stimulation protocol to assess neural plasticity. Its reproducibility, however, has been rarely tested and with mixed results. With two consecutive studies, we aimed to provide further tests and a more systematic assessment of PAS reproducibility. We measured intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs)—a widely used tool to assess whether groups of measurements resemble each other—in two PAS studies on healthy volunteers. The first study included five PAS sessions recording 10 MEPS every 10 min for an hour post-PAS. The second study included two PAS sessions recording 50 MEPS at 20 and 50 min post-PAS, based on analyses from the first study. In both studies PAS sessions were spaced one week apart. Within sessions ICC was fair to excellent for both studies, yet between sessions ICC was poor for both studies. We suggest that long term meta-plasticity effects (longer than one week) may interfere with between sessions reproducibility. Full article
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Review

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12 pages, 4540 KiB  
Review
How Do We Connect Brain Areas with Cognitive Functions? The Past, the Present and the Future
by Khushboo Verma and Satwant Kumar
NeuroSci 2022, 3(3), 521-532; https://doi.org/10.3390/neurosci3030037 - 14 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3469
Abstract
One of the central goals of cognitive neuroscience is to understand how structure relates to function. Over the past century, clinical studies on patients with lesions have provided key insights into the relationship between brain areas and behavior. Since the early efforts for [...] Read more.
One of the central goals of cognitive neuroscience is to understand how structure relates to function. Over the past century, clinical studies on patients with lesions have provided key insights into the relationship between brain areas and behavior. Since the early efforts for characterization of cognitive functions focused on localization, we provide an account of cognitive function in terms of localization. Next, using body perception as an example, we summarize the contemporary techniques. Finally, we outline the trajectory of current progress into the future and discuss the implications for clinical and basic neuroscience. Full article
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