Hum Brain Mapp [JOURNAL]
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200 papers
Injury Severity Influences Long-Term Cognitive Control in Pediatric "Mild" Traumatic Brain Injury.
Nathaniel U, Wick TV, Ling JL … +6 more , Zotev V, Kumar DS, Miller SD, van der Horn HJ, Phillips JP, Mayer AR
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42400122 · Full text
Pediatric "mild" traumatic brain injury (pmTBI), or concussion, is increasingly associated with persisting and often undiagnosed cognitive difficulties, particularly, in adolescents. Emerging evidence suggests that these...
Pediatric "mild" traumatic brain injury (pmTBI), or concussion, is increasingly associated with persisting and often undiagnosed cognitive difficulties, particularly, in adolescents. Emerging evidence suggests that these deficits are most pronounced during tasks requiring competing attentional demands (i.e., reactive control). However, it remains unclear how injury severity, indexed by loss of consciousness and/or posttraumatic amnesia (LOC/PTA) interacts with neurodevelopment to shape long-term, modality-specific alterations in cognitive control. In this longitudinal fMRI study, we examined reactive cognitive control using a multimodal attention task in a large cohort of pmTBI (N = 236) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls (N = 212), across three timepoints (~1 week, ~4 months, and ~1 year) postinjury. Participants with LOC/PTA+ exhibited reduced task performance across both visual and auditory modalities, accompanied by persistent neural disruptions, indicating that greater injury severity is associated with more widespread, cross-modal impairments in attentional control. In contrast, participants without LOC/PTA- demonstrated increased neural activation early after injury, potentially reflecting compensatory recruitment in the auditory domain to maintain performance. However, this was accompanied by greater clinical burden (i.e., sleep disturbance, depression) and was followed by evidence of dysregulated control by ~1 year postinjury, suggesting that short-term neural compensation may carry longer-term consequences. Notably, neural differences across groups were primarily observed in the auditory domain, with alterations in frontotemporal and cerebellar regions. This modality-specific effect may reflect developmental shifts toward visual dominance during adolescence, which could increase processing demands for auditory information and render it more vulnerable to disruption following injury. Together these findings indicate that pmTBI is associated with persistent alterations in cognitive control processes that evolve over time as a function of injury severity.
Early Adulthood Signatures of Motherhood in Brain Aging.
Peng W, Rilling JK
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42400108 · Full text
Major life transitions have been proposed to influence trajectories of brain aging, yet the timing and cognitive correlates of such divergence remain unclear. Motherhood has been associated with younger brain-predicted a...
Major life transitions have been proposed to influence trajectories of brain aging, yet the timing and cognitive correlates of such divergence remain unclear. Motherhood has been associated with younger brain-predicted age in midlife, but whether similar signatures are already observable in early adulthood-and whether such signatures coincide with differences in cognitive performance-remains unknown. In over 1000 young adults (ages 22-37), brain-predicted age was estimated from structural MRI scans and cognition was assessed across fluid and crystallized domains. Mothers exhibited significantly younger brain-predicted age than non-mothers after adjustment for chronological age, intracranial volume (ICV), socioeconomic status and body mass index (BMI); no comparable association was observed between fathers and non-fathers. Regional analyses revealed a spatially distributed signature, with directionally consistent reductions across all 10 lobar regions, of which bilateral frontal, left parietal, and bilateral subcortical/cerebellar regions survived false discovery rate correction. The younger brain-age profile in mothers did not exhibit a graded association with number of children or the duration of parental experience, providing no support for a strictly linear cumulative exposure pattern in early adulthood. Despite younger-appearing brain anatomy, mothers did not exhibit superior cognitive performance. Instead, crystallized cognition was modestly lower in mothers after covariate adjustment, and a parallel pattern was observed in fathers, whereas fluid cognition did not significantly differ from non-parents in either sex. This cross-sex convergence in crystallized cognition, combined with the brain age effect observed only in mothers, suggests that structural and cognitive correlates of parenthood may have partially distinct origins. Collectively, these findings indicate that motherhood-related differences in brain predicted age are already observable within years of childbirth, albeit without concomitant cognitive advantages.
Neural Markers of Interocular Grouping During Binocular Rivalry With MEG.
Mokri E, Landry M, da Silva Castanheira J … +1 more , Mendola JD
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42394374 · Full text
Binocular rivalry (BR) occurs when incompatible images are simultaneously presented, one to each eye, and elicit perceptual alternations between image dominance and suppression. Remarkably, BR accommodates interocular gr...
Binocular rivalry (BR) occurs when incompatible images are simultaneously presented, one to each eye, and elicit perceptual alternations between image dominance and suppression. Remarkably, BR accommodates interocular grouping (IOG) such that portions of two globally coherent images shown separately to each eye, results in frequent global pattern perception. We investigated the neural correlates of BR and IOG with magnetoencephalography (MEG). Stimuli consisted of red or green orthogonal gratings flickering at 5 or 6.67 Hz, allowing for analysis of tagged fundamental, intermodulation frequencies, and steady-state visually evoked responses (N = 25). Our design included conditions with systematically increasing grouping demands; 2 or 4 complementary patches, with vertical or horizontal meridian image divisions. Participants reported their perception of dominant or mixed percepts, and the latter increased with grouping demands. IOG showed weaker fundamental power than BR in early visual cortex during perceptual dominance, while power for suppression was less affected in depth and topography. Multivariate logistic regression further highlighted differences between BR and IOG in V1 and V2, as well as higher-order visual areas (i.e., IP and LO). A support vector machine distinguished between dominance and suppression, with the highest accuracy near the time of the perceptual alternation. Interestingly, only the conditions with high IOG demands produced higher order intermodulation frequencies and significantly correlated with alternation rate in V1. Overall, we show evidence of a broad similarity for BR and IOG in neural representations across the visual cortex, as well as enhanced mechanisms of monocular image competition via segmentation and integration for IOG.
Neural Correlates of Explicit Outcome Expectation Effects: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis.
Zhou J, Xu Y, Li T … +1 more , Yang X
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42394140 · Full text
To investigate the characteristics of brain region activation associated with explicit outcome expectation effects in treatment contexts, and to identify core brain regions consistently involved across diverse experiment...
To investigate the characteristics of brain region activation associated with explicit outcome expectation effects in treatment contexts, and to identify core brain regions consistently involved across diverse experimental paradigms. A systematic search was conducted for studies published from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2025. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) studies investigating treatment expectation effects were included. In neuroimaging paradigms, these effects are commonly induced through explicit outcome expectations via verbal instructions or contextual cues. Risk of bias was assessed using the ROB 2.0 and ROBINS-I tools. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis was performed using GingerALE 3.0.2 based on whole-brain activation coordinates. Results were visualized using Mango software. Sensitivity analyses were performed by excluding the study with the highest risk of bias and using a leave-one-study-out approach. Additionally, a qualitative synthesis of activation foci was conducted across four domains to address paradigm heterogeneity. A total of 21 articles with 855 subjects were included in this study, consisting of 17 randomized controlled trials and 4 non-randomized studies. The risk of bias assessment indicated that only five RCTs were rated as low risk, while approximately three-quarters of studies showed some concerns or high risk. Most studies modulated expectations through interventions such as verbal instruction and pain stimulation. Convergent neuroimaging studies implicated the insula, frontal lobe, striatum, and additional relevant brain regions. The ALE meta-analysis identified two significant activation clusters located in the caudate nucleus/lentiform nucleus and the red nucleus. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the majority of findings remained stable. Qualitative domain-based synthesis further revealed consistent striatal activation across all domains, together with distinct domain-specific activation patterns. The findings of this study suggest that explicit outcome expectation effects, as a core operationalized component of treatment expectation, do not rely on a single brain region but emerge from distributed and dynamically interacting neural systems that depend on reward expectation and information integration. The coordinated activity of multiple brain regions collectively supports the generation of explicit outcome expectations. The striatum serves as a shared core substrate across different expectancy domains, while domain-specific activation reflects functional specialization for distinct contexts. These findings provide important evidence for elucidating the neural correlates of explicit outcome expectation effects and establish a foundation for further brain mechanism-based intervention strategies. Trial Registration: PROSPERO: CRD420251074894.
Benchmarking fMRI Denoising Pipelines.
Zhai T, Gu H, Holton A … +5 more , Chang E, Frederick BB, Ross TJ, Yang Y, Janes AC
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42383403 · Full text
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful tool for probing neuronal activity in vivo, but fMRI data are inherently noisy. To mitigate this, a wide range of denoising strategies have been developed, inclu...
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful tool for probing neuronal activity in vivo, but fMRI data are inherently noisy. To mitigate this, a wide range of denoising strategies have been developed, including volume censoring, anatomical component-based noise correction (aCompCor), ICA-based methods (e.g., AROMA, FIX), and multi-echo approaches (e.g., ME-ICA, tedana). These techniques are often applied in different combinations and have been predominantly evaluated on single-echo resting-state fMRI data-typically without incorporating more recent methodological advances known to improve modeling, such as order-independent "1-step regression", modeling temporal autocorrelation (pre-whitening), and temporal shifting of physiological nuisance regressors. To fill this gap, we used a framework that incorporates these methods and benchmarked a range of denoising pipelines across task and resting-state, single- and multi-band, and single- and multi-echo fMRI datasets, using different combinations of standard denoising confounds. Pipeline performance was evaluated using temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and percentage remaining degrees-of-freedom (DoF), effectiveness of motion correction, and effectiveness of signal preservation. While pipelines only using ICA were insufficient, those that incorporated physiological nuisance regressors performed well. Additional improvements were observed when temporally shifted physiological regressors were accounted for. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for selecting denoising pipelines and emphasize the need for continued benchmarking as new methods are developed or applied in novel contexts.
Modeled Long-Term Effects of Psilocybin on Dynamic Activity and Effective Connectivity of Fronto-Striatal-Thalamic Circuits.
Pasquini L, Vohryzek J, Escrichs A … +12 more , Perl YS, Ponce-Alvarez A, Idesis S, Girn M, Roseman L, Mitchell JM, Gazzaley A, Kringelbach M, Nutt DJ, Lyons T, Carhart-Harris RL, Deco G
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42381187 · Full text
Psilocybin has been shown to induce fast and sustained symptoms improvements across various psychiatric conditions, yet its long-term mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Initial evidence suggests that longitud...
Psilocybin has been shown to induce fast and sustained symptoms improvements across various psychiatric conditions, yet its long-term mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Initial evidence suggests that longitudinal functional and structural brain changes implicate fronto-striatal-thalamic (FST) circuitry, a broad system involved in goal-directed behavior and motivational states. Here, we performed secondary analyses and applied computational modeling to resting-state fMRI data from a within-subject longitudinal psilocybin trial in psychedelic-naïve healthy volunteers. We first showed that dynamic FST activity increased 4 weeks after a full dose of psilocybin. We then proceeded to mechanistically account for these changes by providing tentative model-based support that reductions in the structure-function coupling contribute to increased dynamic FST activity postpsilocybin. Finally, we used computational approaches to show that psilocybin induces longitudinal increases in bottom-up and reduced top-down modulation of FST circuits. We then used publicly available receptor maps to show that cortical reductions in top-down modulation are linked to regional 5-HT2A receptor availability, while increased information outflow via subcortical and limbic regions relates to local D2 receptor availability. Together, these findings suggest that increased FST flexibility weeks after a high dose of psilocybin is linked to serotonergic-mediated decreases in top-down information flow and dopaminergic-mediated increases in bottom-up information flow. This long-term functional re-organization of FST circuits may represent a common mechanism contributing to the potential clinical efficacy of psilocybin across various neuropsychiatric disorders including substance abuse, major depression, and anorexia nervosa.
Intrinsic Functional Architecture Reflects Individual Differences in Passive Working Memory: An Exploratory Resting-State fMRI Study.
Tian Y, Chen J, Li Z … +2 more , Gong L, Liu Q
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42376739 · Full text
Passive working memory (WM) is rarely detectable because it is thought to rely less on persistent neural firing, leaving a minimal trace in ongoing brain activity. This elusive nature poses a major challenge for explorin...
Passive working memory (WM) is rarely detectable because it is thought to rely less on persistent neural firing, leaving a minimal trace in ongoing brain activity. This elusive nature poses a major challenge for exploring its neural basis. While the activity-silent working memory (ASWM) framework proposes that such latent representations are maintained through transient reconfiguration in intrinsic functional connectivity, tracking these rapid dynamics via functional MRI remains methodologically difficult. Alternatively, investigating the brain's intrinsic functional architecture provides insights into the baseline "neural scaffolding" that predisposes individuals to successful passive WM. To explore this, we combined pre-task resting-state fMRI, structural MRI, and behavioral data from a sequential change-detection paradigm in 151 healthy adults. Functional connectivity-behavior associations revealed that individual differences in passive WM performance were significantly reflected by intrinsic connections among large-scale networks encompassing dorsal attention, control, and sensorimotor. Granger causality analyses further revealed a group-level temporal dependency pattern linking these functional systems. Furthermore, exploratory structural analyses suggested spatial convergence between uncorrected cortical-thickness associations and certain functionally identified sensorimotor nodes. Overall, this study adopts an exploratory approach to demonstrate that baseline intrinsic functional architecture-complemented by preliminary structural findings-is significantly associated with individual differences in passive WM.
Symptom Overlap and Neurobiological Similarities Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Tinnitus.
Moring JC, Husain FT, Franklin C … +12 more , Kaniewska E, Hecht Q, Flores A, Mullen DK, Esquivel C, Fallon A, Lovelace S, Resick PA, Young-McCaughan S, Peterson AL, Fox PT, STRONG STAR Consortium
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42374873 · Full text
Many symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) overlap with the psychological sequelae of tinnitus, including sleep difficulty, concentration problems, hypervigilance, and irritability. Although these two disorder...
Many symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) overlap with the psychological sequelae of tinnitus, including sleep difficulty, concentration problems, hypervigilance, and irritability. Although these two disorders are clearly distinct, they are highly comorbid, may have shared etiology, and are among the top service-connected disabilities within the VA healthcare system. This study aimed to determine neuropathophysiological similarities and differences among veterans with both PTSD and tinnitus, tinnitus only, and healthy controls. Resting-state networks were identified by previous studies and extracted to examine functional connectivity patterns. Networks included the default mode network (DMN), auditory vigilance (AUDVIG), salience (SN), dorsal attention (DAN), and emotion (EMO) networks. Functional connectivity among specific brain regions was decreased among the tinnitus only group compared to the healthy control group and was further decreased when PTSD was present with tinnitus. Findings suggest that the additive and negative effects observed symptomatically may be explained by decreased functional connectivity, especially with respect to the DMN and AUDVIG networks.
Test-Retest Reliability of Sensorimotor Activity Measured With Spinal Cord fMRI.
Kowalczyk OS, Medina S, Venezia A … +6 more , Tsivaka D, Ahmed AI, Williams SCR, Brooks JCW, Lythgoe DJ, Howard MA
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jul · PMID 42367071 · Full text
Establishing the reliability of spinal cord functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is critical before employing it to assess experimental or clinical interventions. Previous studies have mapped human motor activity...
Establishing the reliability of spinal cord functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is critical before employing it to assess experimental or clinical interventions. Previous studies have mapped human motor activity primarily to the ipsilateral ventral horn, aligning with myotomal and dermatomal projections. Despite these insights, the test-retest reliability of spinal fMRI remains under-investigated. Here we assessed spinal cord activation during a sensorimotor paradigm involving right-hand grasping and grip force estimation in 30 healthy volunteers. Participants completed two identical scanning visits, each time performing the same task twice, enabling the investigation of test-retest reliability both within a single experimental visit and between visits performed on different days. Aggregating all task runs, motor-evoked activation was observed in ipsilateral ventro-dorsal regions of spinal segmental levels C5-T1, as well as in medial regions of levels C2-C3. Despite highly reliable task performance (grip force) and fMRI signal quality (temporal signal-to-noise ratio), the reliability of motor activation was predominantly poor-to-fair both within and between visits, with notable variability in spatial distribution observed across task runs. Increasing the number of task runs per individual improved the robustness of group-level activation, as indexed by higher activated voxel count, larger cluster spatial extent, and attenuated t-statistic distribution. Although we demonstrated that motor-evoked activation corresponds to the known neuroanatomical organisation of motor circuits, its low test-retest reliability presents a challenge for wider applications of spinal fMRI. Understanding the drivers of low reliability in functional imaging is warranted, but we suggest that looking beyond measurement error is required, including careful consideration of inherent within-individual variability underpinned by neurophysiological and psychological factors.
The Human Visual Claustrum Responses to Physical Stimulus Properties and Subjective Content During Movie Viewing.
Coates A, Sedlmayr P, Wastian A … +6 more , Mayrhofer H, Linhardt D, Windischberger C, Bartels A, Ischebeck A, Zaretskaya N
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42350931 · Full text
The human claustrum is a small bilateral grey matter structure that is highly interconnected with cortical and subcortical regions. It has been implicated in different functions including sleep, multisensory integration,...
The human claustrum is a small bilateral grey matter structure that is highly interconnected with cortical and subcortical regions. It has been implicated in different functions including sleep, multisensory integration, consciousness and attention, yet its exact function remains unclear. The primate claustrum is known to have distinct sensory regions, with the visual zone recently demonstrated in humans using high-resolution fMRI. In this study, we investigated stimulus properties that drive human visual claustrum activity. First, we tested the association of its response with various low- and mid-level physical stimulus features, including temporal and spatial contrast, color and motion. Second, we tested the association with subjective ratings of arousal, valence and interest. To compare the claustrum's responses with visual cortical regions, we performed the same analysis with the hV4 and hMT/V5+ complex. We found that the claustrum's visual response was associated with motion, as well as with arousal, interest and valence. The pattern of claustrum responses was similar to hMT/V5+. Given the well-established link between arousal and attentional allocation, as well as between saliency and motion, our results suggest that the visual claustrum may contribute to saliency detection and attention modulation during the sensory input.
miniMORPH: A Morphometry Pipeline for Low-Field MRI in Infants.
Casella C, Leknes A, Bourke NJ … +16 more , Zahra A, Cromb D, Barnes D, Segura AM, Silvester F, Kyriakopoulou V, Scheiene DE, Williams SR, Bradford LE, Murungi J, Williams SCR, Deoni SCL, Nankabirwa V, Donald KA, Bruchhage MMK, O'Muircheartaigh J
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42334017 · Full text
Ultra-low-field (ULF) MRI facilitates neuroimaging access, yet its application in early infancy is constrained by low resolution and contrast, and the limited suitability of existing segmentation tools. In this work we i...
Ultra-low-field (ULF) MRI facilitates neuroimaging access, yet its application in early infancy is constrained by low resolution and contrast, and the limited suitability of existing segmentation tools. In this work we introduce and validate miniMORPH, an open-source pipeline for automated brain volumetry from 0.064T T2-weighted MRI acquired across infancy and toddlerhood. ULF scans were acquired from infants aged 2 to 27 months across two cohorts in South Africa and Uganda. Age-specific templates and priors were used to segment major brain tissues and substructures. Validation used two high-field (HF) references: (i) expert manual HF segmentations for key ROIs across ages, and (ii) automated HF segmentations from SuperSynth on paired HF-ULF scans. We quantified (a) between-subject ordering across modalities using Pearson's correlation (r) and (b) systematic scaling differences using percentage error (PE) and time-corrected percentage error (CPE), stratifying performance by cohort and age. Face validity was also tested via mixed-effects models of age, sex, and birthweight. miniMORPH generated anatomically plausible segmentations of major brain regions across infancy. In paired HF-ULF comparisons, between-subject ordering was generally preserved across many ROIs, with stronger correspondence in the South African cohort than in the Ugandan cohort at 12 months. Systematic scaling offsets were most evident in CSF-rich or boundary-sensitive compartments, with consistently negative CPE for ventricles and cerebellum. Performance varied with age, showing the greatest variability at 3 months. miniMORPH successfully captured regional age-related growth trajectories. Sex-dependent volumetric differences were widespread but attenuated after intracranial volume correction. Low birthweight infants exhibited reduced regional volumes and altered growth trajectories. Taken together, these findings indicate that miniMORPH enables volumetric analysis of ULF infant MRI and preserves between-subject variation suitable for developmental and group analyses. ROI- and cohort-specific offsets, particularly in CSF-rich regions, may require calibration when absolute volumes are needed. The pipeline is openly available at https://github.com/UNITY-Physics/fw-minimorph.
Reduced Cerebral Blood Flow in the Early Chronic Phase of Recurrent Concussion Among Female Collegiate-Aged Athletes.
Andersson MJ, Goeckner BD, España LY … +3 more , Mayer AR, Brett BL, Meier TB
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42322082 · Full text
The susceptibility of athletes to long-term adverse outcomes following recurrent concussion remains controversial. Acute concussion precipitates a transient reduction in cerebral blood flow (CBF) that typically returns t...
The susceptibility of athletes to long-term adverse outcomes following recurrent concussion remains controversial. Acute concussion precipitates a transient reduction in cerebral blood flow (CBF) that typically returns to pre-injury levels. Recent work suggests that long-term CBF alterations may be sex-specific. We assessed whether concussion history was associated with chronic CBF alterations and whether sex moderated this relationship in otherwise healthy, active collegiate-aged athletes. Collegiate-aged athletes from the community (N = 204, 37.8% female, M = 21.0 ± 1.7) underwent magnetic resonance imaging with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling to quantify global and regional CBF and spatial coefficient of variation. Participants also completed measures of depression, anxiety, and cognition. Multiple linear regressions incorporating prior concussion-by-sex interaction terms adjusted for relevant covariates were fit to estimate the extent to which sex moderated the concussion history-CBF relationship. Exploratory analyses further assessed whether oral contraceptive use or pill formulation moderated this association in females. The number of prior concussions was negatively associated with global and regional gray-matter CBF in female but not male athletes, with the strongest associations localizing to frontotemporal regions. CBF metrics were not related to cognitive performance or affective symptom burden. Contraceptive use did not appear to substantially moderate the concussion history-CBF association in female athletes. Female-specific associations between concussion history and cerebral hypoperfusion in early adulthood suggest potential sex differences in pathways and trajectories of adverse long-term outcomes. Early chronic CBF alterations may represent one vulnerability to future risk in a sex-specific manner.
Individual Differences in Error-Related Brain Activity and Post-Error Slowing in Children.
Akin G, Schwarze SA, Lindenberger U … +2 more , Bunge SA, Fandakova Y
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42322079 · Full text
Errors play a crucial role in learning and goal-directed behavior by triggering cognitive adjustments to optimize future task performance. One such adjustment is post-error slowing (PES), the tendency to respond more slo...
Errors play a crucial role in learning and goal-directed behavior by triggering cognitive adjustments to optimize future task performance. One such adjustment is post-error slowing (PES), the tendency to respond more slowly after an error. In adults, PES has been associated with regions implicated in error processing, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and anterior insula. The prolonged maturation of these regions is thought to contribute to less efficient error processing in children and PES compared to adults. Additionally, while some errors may be immediately corrected, resulting in isolated errors, others may require multiple correction attempts, resulting in consecutive errors. Compared to adults, children may need more attempts to correct their errors due to the ongoing neurodevelopment of error processing. We investigated age differences in error types and in PES between children (N = 159, 8-11 years) and adults (N = 40, 20-30 years) during task switching. We tested whether individual differences in error processing-related activation contributed to PES within a subsample of children that performed the task during scanning (N = 72). Children made mostly consecutive errors, whereas adults made mostly isolated errors. PES magnitudes were larger in adults than in children. Children showed enhanced error-related activity in dorsal ACC and the anterior insula. Enhanced error-related activity in the insula was associated with better performance and reduced switch costs. These findings suggest that the neurodevelopment of error processing in late childhood contributes to the improved ability to adjust behavior following errors, and consequently to task-switching performance.
Interhemispheric Metabolic Effects of Transcranial Infrared Laser Stimulation of the Prefrontal Cortex.
O'Connor P, Lime T, Barrett DW … +2 more , Huang LD, Gonzalez-Lima F
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42316441 · Full text
Photobiomodulation is the use of low-power, non-ionizing light to stimulate cellular processes. Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) is a method for prefrontal photobiomodulation that produces dose-dependent me...
Photobiomodulation is the use of low-power, non-ionizing light to stimulate cellular processes. Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) is a method for prefrontal photobiomodulation that produces dose-dependent metabolic effects in vivo. However, interhemispheric differences in metabolic responses to unilateral right versus left TILS are unknown. Investigating interhemispheric effects of TILS is important because right-left differences are observed with other forms of transcranial stimulation, including magnetic and electrical stimulation. TILS penetration was first characterized using Monte Carlo simulations of photon propagation in the Colin27 MRI-based brain model. Simulations confirmed that 1%-5% photon penetration was confined unilaterally to the stimulated side of the prefrontal cortex. Eighty-one healthy adults were then randomized to receive unilateral right TILS, unilateral left TILS, or sham stimulation (laser off). Active TILS parameters were selected based on prior studies demonstrating metabolic efficacy (1064 nm continuous wave, 250 mW/cm irradiance, 440 s exposure, 110 J/cm fluence, and 1496 J total energy). Bilateral changes in cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO), oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO), and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) were measured with in vivo spectroscopy before, during, and after unilateral TILS or sham. No adverse effects were reported, and no significant metabolic or hemodynamic changes were observed in the sham condition. Unilateral TILS produced ipsilateral (TILS side) increases in CCO and HbO that were similar regardless of whether the right or left prefrontal cortex was stimulated. In contrast, contralateral (opposite side) metabolic responses differed by stimulation side. Contralateral CCO effects emerged later than ipsilateral effects and were greater in the right hemisphere following TILS to the left. This study is the first to demonstrate an interhemispheric difference in the human brain response to photobiomodulation, specifically contralateral CCO effects. Although ipsilateral metabolic effects were similar for right and left prefrontal stimulation, contralateral responses exhibited hemispheric asymmetry. It is possible that these interhemispheric differences may contribute to the different cognitive and emotional effects of right versus left transcranial photobiomodulation.
Efficient Deep Learning Models for Predicting Individualized Task Activation From Resting-State Functional Connectivity.
Madsen SJ, Lee YE, Quah SKL … +8 more , Uddin LQ, Mumford JA, Barch DM, Fair DA, Gotlib IH, Poldrack RA, Kuceyeski A, Saggar M
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42315989 · Full text
Deep learning models have demonstrated the potential to predict task-evoked brain activation from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, offering a pathway toward individualized brain mapping without requir...
Deep learning models have demonstrated the potential to predict task-evoked brain activation from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, offering a pathway toward individualized brain mapping without requiring task-based data. In this study, we systematically evaluate architectural strategies for improving the efficiency and scalability of such models. Using data from the Human Connectome Project, we replicate the BrainSurfCNN framework and introduce two extensions: BrainSERF, which incorporates channel-wise attention through squeeze-and-excitation modules, and BrainSurfGCN, a graph-based model that leverages cortical mesh topology for efficient message passing. Across multiple evaluation metrics, including spatial correlation, Dice score, Dice AUC, and subject identification accuracy, all models achieve comparable predictive performance. Despite similar accuracy, the proposed models offer distinct advantages. BrainSERF provides modest improvements in capturing individual-specific features, while BrainSurfGCN achieves substantial reductions in model size and training time, highlighting a favorable trade-off between performance and computational efficiency. Beyond architectural comparisons, we investigate factors driving variability in prediction accuracy. We find that behavioral task performance, resting-state data quality, and inter-subject variability in task activation jointly constrain prediction fidelity. In particular, contrasts with lower signal reliability and higher variability exhibit reduced predictability across all models. Together, these findings demonstrate that incorporating topological and functional structural priors can improve the efficiency of deep learning models without sacrificing accuracy, while also emphasizing that prediction performance is fundamentally limited by the reliability of the underlying neural signals.
Evaluation of a New Paracingulate Sulcus Identification and Measurement Protocol.
de Vareilles H, Mitchell SC, Garrison JR … +11 more , Wu SJ, Alvarez-Sanchez L, Thomas R, Kugan S, Al-Manea A, Mamalakis M, Mørch-Johnsen LE, Agartz I, Suckling J, Simons JS, Murray GK
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42290380 · Full text
The folding pattern of the anterior cingulate cortex is variable among individuals. The paracingulate sulcus (PCS), in particular, can be difficult to identify because of this variability. In this paper, we assessed the...
The folding pattern of the anterior cingulate cortex is variable among individuals. The paracingulate sulcus (PCS), in particular, can be difficult to identify because of this variability. In this paper, we assessed the benefits of a new protocol to identify the PCS and measure its length using 3D reconstructions of the brain obtained through the BrainVISA software. Both the previous state-of-the-art protocol and the new protocol were applied to identify the PCS in subjects from a UK cohort (n = 50), with the length of the PCS computed automatically by BrainVISA after PCS identification. We assessed inter-rater reliability for PCS length under both protocols and the correlation of PCS length values output by the two protocols. Inspection of the results indicated an advantage of the new protocol as there are 8 out of 100 hemispheres in which the old protocol detects a PCS due to the mislabelling of the intra-limbic sulcus as the cingulate sulcus and the new protocol does not. This advantage is conferred by the incorporation of identification of the intra-limbic sulcus (when present) in the new protocol. For instances where the protocols agreed on the presence of a PCS, the new protocol for PCS length obtained intra-class correlations of 0.85 and 0.86 on respectively untrained and trained experimenters, compared to 0.81 when trained experimenters used the previous protocol. The PCS length correlation between both protocols was 0.73 for the entire sample and 0.85 after excluding instances where the protocols disagreed on the presence of a PCS. These findings suggest that taking into account the intra-limbic sulcus and taking advantage of 3D sulcal visualisation may help improve reliable PCS identification, and that the new protocol is a reliable tool that is likely to prove useful in research into cingulate and paracingulate cortical folding.
Network-Level Convergence of Adiposity-Related Gray Matter Alterations: A Coordinate-Based Connectome Mapping Meta-Analysis With Imaging Transcriptomics.
Li Y, Lin M, Zhang G … +2 more , Zheng H, Zheng W
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42265909 · Full text
Obesity is commonly associated with atrophy-like gray matter changes, such as lower gray matter volume or density, yet the affected regions reported vary widely across studies. It remains unclear whether these heterogene...
Obesity is commonly associated with atrophy-like gray matter changes, such as lower gray matter volume or density, yet the affected regions reported vary widely across studies. It remains unclear whether these heterogeneous loci converge on a reproducible large-scale network, and whether weight-loss-related increases in gray matter map onto the same network or a distinct set of functional systems. We identified loci of adiposity-related gray matter reduction and post-weight-loss increases from 38 published whole-brain voxel-based morphometry studies, including case-control, dimensional adiposity, and longitudinal weight-loss contrasts. Using coordinate-based connectome mapping applied to a large normative resting-state functional connectome, we reconstructed networks associated with adiposity-related structural alterations. We further performed imaging transcriptomic and gene set enrichment analyses to characterize the molecular programs associated with the adiposity-related network. Gray matter reductions associated with adiposity converged on a reproducible, distributed large-scale network primarily involving frontoparietal control, cingulo-opercular, default mode, and Visual1 systems. In contrast, GMV/GMD increases following weight loss showed a distinct system-level distribution, with the largest contributions in cingulo-opercular, somatomotor, and dorsal attention systems, and comparatively limited representation in default mode and frontoparietal control networks. Imaging transcriptomic analyses further linked the adiposity-related network to coordinated gene expression patterns, and gene set enrichment analyses highlighted pathways related to mitochondrial energy metabolism, synaptic signaling, ion transport, and cellular protein homeostasis. Adiposity-related gray matter alterations converge on a reproducible large-scale network, but the system-level pattern differs across categorical obesity, dimensional adiposity, and GMV/GMD increases following weight loss. Weight-loss-related gray matter increases are not a simple mirror reversal of the cross-sectional network, and imaging transcriptomic analyses implicate coordinated molecular programs related to mitochondrial energetics, synaptic signaling, ion transport, and protein homeostasis.
Replicability of Functional Brain Networks: A Study Through the Lens of Seven Resting-State Networks.
Fales KR, Zhi X, Song H … +1 more , Lazar NA
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42260753 · Full text
The study of brain networks is essential for improving our understanding of how the human brain functions. Functional connectivity (FC) analysis is a widely used approach for studying co-activating patterns among brain r...
The study of brain networks is essential for improving our understanding of how the human brain functions. Functional connectivity (FC) analysis is a widely used approach for studying co-activating patterns among brain regions by estimating their temporal dependencies and constructing an undirected network. Data processing is critical before estimating a subject's functional network, but the absence of a standardized procedure serves as a source of heterogeneity in results, especially in multi-site studies. Commonly studied functional networks include the default mode, sensorimotor, visual, salience, dorsal attention, frontoparietal, and language networks. These networks are stable and still exhibit intrinsic activation when an individual is at rest, making them ideal networks to focus on for studying how processing choices affect the replicability of functional connectivity networks. We use the aforementioned seven networks to assess the impact of various processing choices, including preprocessing pipeline, band-pass filtering, and brain parcellation, on the replicability of functional connectivity estimates for multi-site resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE). Finally, we provide some practical recommendations for how researchers should proceed with processing choices in the face of these effects.
Mitigating the Impact of MR Sequence Parameters: Increasing the Robustness of DL-Based Cortical Thickness Estimates.
Blattner T, Romascano D, McKinley R … +8 more , Rebsamen M, Salmen A, Pistor M, Hoepner R, Wiest R, Radojewski P, Rummel C, Capiglioni M
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42252567 · Full text
Cortical thickness measurements from MRI are increasingly used as biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease progression. However, variations in MRI acquisition parameters, such as inversion time (TI) and repetition time (...
Cortical thickness measurements from MRI are increasingly used as biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease progression. However, variations in MRI acquisition parameters, such as inversion time (TI) and repetition time (TR), which are common in clinical settings, can compromise the reliability and sensitivity of these measurements. We fine-tuned a deep-learning-based segmentation tool (DL+DiReCT) to reduce its dependence to image contrast variations by training it on simulated MPRAGE images derived from quantitative relaxation maps. Fine-tuning markedly reduced contrast sensitivity, with the Pearson correlation coefficient decreasing from to . Evaluation on a synthetic atrophy dataset demonstrated that our model accurately replicated atrophy trends with minimal underestimation, outperforming FreeSurfer and SynthSeg. When applied to a dataset of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients, the fine-tuned model showed a substantial reduction in contrast sensitivity and maintained stable performance after controlling for covariates such as age, sex, field strength, and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score. Overall, the proposed approach achieves robust contrast invariance without sacrificing sensitivity to cortical atrophy, offering a practical improvement for longitudinal and multi-center clinical studies.
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Brain Connectivity Development Using Sign-Aware Graph Theory Metrics.
Viswanathan S, Spinney S, Watts JJ … +1 more , Conrod P
Hum Brain Mapp · 2026 Jun · PMID 42249734 · Full text
Adolescence is marked by significant changes in brain network organization that underlie cognitive and behavioral development. The sensorimotor-association (SA) axis has been proposed as a hierarchical framework for unde...
Adolescence is marked by significant changes in brain network organization that underlie cognitive and behavioral development. The sensorimotor-association (SA) axis has been proposed as a hierarchical framework for understanding functional connectivity development, but most studies rely on cross-sectional data and treat positive and negative connections equivalently. We analyzed longitudinal resting-state fMRI data from 125 adolescents who passed quality control of a total of 151 (ages 12-18, 364 total scan sessions across three time points) using both functional connectivity strength and graph-theoretical metrics, comparing results from absolute-value networks (collapsing connection signs) versus sign-aware approaches. Functional connectivity strength showed age-related changes following the SA axis selectively for positive connections (r = -0.614, p < 0.001), with stronger effects in sensorimotor regions, while negative connections showed no SA alignment (r = 0.031, p = 0.803). Critically, graph-theoretical measures revealed opposing developmental gradients depending on network construction: clustering coefficient and local efficiency showed association-dominant patterns in absolute-value networks (r = 0.317, p < 0.001; r = 0.427, p = 0.001) but sensorimotor-dominant patterns in positive-only networks (r = -0.225, p < 0.001; r = -0.277, p < 0.001). Participation coefficient, an integration-based measure, showed no significant SA association in either construction. These findings demonstrate that developmental inferences critically depend on how negative connections and network topology are treated, challenging the notion of a single organizational gradient and highlighting the necessity of sign-aware graph-theoretical approaches for understanding adolescent brain maturation.
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