Article
Neurosciences
Sijia Zhao, Yajie Liu, Kunlin Wei
Summary: Attentional control is impaired in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and this impairment may be related to dysregulation in the locus ceruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. Research has shown that children with ASD have difficulties in attention habituation and phasic response, particularly to stimuli containing social information. These impairments are correlated with the severity of ASD symptoms.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Carolina Bonmassar, Florian Scharf, Andreas Widmann, Nicole Wetzel
Summary: This study found that highly arousing emotional distractor sounds impair performance less compared to moderately arousing neutral distractor sounds in a task. The study also found that the reduction in distraction effects caused by emotional distractor sounds is related to an enhancement of arousal evoked by processing these sounds.
Article
Neurosciences
Liang Gong, Min Shi, Jian Wang, Ronghua Xu, Siyi Yu, Duan Liu, Xin Ding, Bei Zhang, Xingping Zhang, Chunhua Xi
Summary: The study found abnormal LC-NE functional network in patients with CID, and the altered LC-NE function in dACC was associated with anxiety symptoms in CID. This extends the understanding of the neuropathological basis of CID and provides a potential treatment target for CID patients with anxiety.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Brandon Keehn, Girija Kadlaskar, Rebecca McNally Keehn
Summary: Autistic individuals excel at visual search and show larger resting pupil size. They search faster and more efficiently compared to neurotypical children. Accelerated search is associated with fewer fixations in the autism group.
Article
Neurosciences
Hsiang-Yu Chen, Michael Marxen, Martin J. Dahl, Franka Gloeckner
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the impact of age-related declines in NE functioning on reward-based decision-making. The results showed impairments in value estimation and updating in older adults, as indicated by smaller uncertainty-evoked pupil dilations. The task-related pupillary responses and LC-MRI contrast could reflect age-related deficits in value representations.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alejandro Osorio-Forero, Romain Cardis, Gil Vantomme, Aurelie Guillaume-Gentil, Georgia Katsioudi, Christiane Devenoges, Laura M. J. Fernandez, Anita Luthi
Summary: During NREMS, fluctuation of noradrenaline levels in thalamus are associated with sleep spindle rhythms and heart-rate variations, indicating vigilance-promoting mechanism by LC neurons. Optogenetic activation or inhibition of LC neurons can modulate sleep-spindle clustering and heart-rate variations, affecting sensory arousability during NREMS. Noradrenergic modulation of thalamic circuits plays a key role in maintaining sensory arousability in mammalian NREMS.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Ying Zhou, Fan Ding, Guo-Jun Zhang, Li-Na Tang, Yu-Tao Li
Summary: The study developed a micro-needle electrode for real-time monitoring of NE release in rat brain LC and investigated the effects of alpha 2-adrenoceptors on NE release. The electrode showed excellent electrochemical performance and biocompatibility for highly sensitive NE detection. Results indicated that alpha 2-adrenoceptors regulated NE release in the locus ceruleus, suggesting potential applications for studying neural signal transmission.
CHINESE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Joost M. Riphagen, Maxime van Egroo, Heidi I. L. Jacobs
Summary: The study indicates that elevated NE-metabolism can predict decline in learning, supporting the role of the LC-NE system in early Alzheimer's disease processes.
JOURNAL OF ALZHEIMERS DISEASE
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nico Bast, Sebastian B. Gaigg, Dermot M. Bowler, Veit Roessner, Christine M. Freitag, Melanie Ring
Summary: This study investigates pupil dilation during a memory task in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results show that adults with ASD have reduced memory accuracy compared to neurotypical individuals (TD), and this is related to altered pupil responses during encoding and retrieval processes. Higher pupil dilation during encoding and lower pupil dilation during retrieval are associated with decreased recognition accuracy, suggesting an altered modulation of memory encoding and retrieval in ASD.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Brandon Keehn, Girija Kadlaskar, Sophia Bergmann, Rebecca McNally Keehn, Alexander Francis
Summary: Differences in attention functions have been identified as early features distinguishing infants later diagnosed with ASD. The atypical activity of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system may contribute to attentional disengagement impairments observed in ASD. Children with ASD showed larger resting pupil size and poorer attentional disengagement compared to TD peers.
FRONTIERS IN INTEGRATIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Andrea Cardenas, Alexander Papadogiannis, Eugene Dimitrov
Summary: Our study revealed that injection of CFA induced inflammatory pain leading to decreased thermal thresholds in both male and female mice. However, only male mice showed anxiety-like behavior and cognitive deficits, while females were unaffected. Additionally, our findings suggest that dysregulation of the top-down control of locus ceruleus's activity by the medial prefrontal cortex may contribute to sex differences in cognitive effects associated with inflammatory pain.
Review
Neurosciences
Tony James, Bartosz Kula, Seowon Choi, Shahzad S. Khan, Lane K. Bekar, Nathan A. Smith
Summary: Catecholamine neurons of the locus coeruleus play a crucial role in regulating various functions such as attention, arousal, sleep, learning, memory, anxiety, pain, mood, and brain metabolism. The release of norepinephrine and dopamine from LC terminals in the hippocampus is involved in all stages of hippocampal memory processing. The firing modes of LC neurons in awake animals have different effects on post-synaptic dendritic spines, regulating long-term potentiation and depression in the hippocampus. Loss of catecholaminergic regulation from LC degeneration in Alzheimer's disease contributes to memory dysfunction and impaired attention and task completion functions.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shijing Yu, Moritz Mueckschel, Christian Beste
Summary: Impairment of cognitive performance is often observed in time-on tasks, especially in prefrontal cortex cognitive control functions. This study investigated time-on-task effects in cognitive control and found a relationship between cognitive control resources in the prefrontal cortical structures and effort/task engagement.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Magda Dubois, Johanna Habicht, Jochen Michely, Rani Moran, Ray J. Dolan, Tobias U. Hauser
Summary: The exploration-exploitation trade-off between sampling a lesser-known option against a known rich option has traditionally been solved using computationally demanding algorithms. However, research shows that humans may also deploy cheaper strategies, such as value-free random exploration and novelty exploration. A drug study involving dopamine and noradrenaline suggests that value-free random exploration is under noradrenergic control, highlighting the presence of distinct computationally cheap exploration strategies in humans.
Article
Biology
Marine Megemont, Jim McBurney-Lin, Hongdian Yang
Summary: Pupil diameter is often used as a noninvasive measure of locus coeruleus (LC) activity. However, there is substantial variability in the relationship between pupil diameter and LC activity, limiting its accuracy in predicting LC activity. Additionally, pupil responses to optical stimulation in the LC show session-to-session fluctuations, and these variations are correlated with decision bias-related behavioral variables.
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Martin J. Dahl, Mara Mather, Markus Werkle-Bergner, Briana L. Kennedy, Samuel Guzman, Kyle Hurth, Carol A. Miller, Yuchuan Qiao, Yonggang Shi, Helena C. Chui, John M. Ringman
Summary: This study found a link between locus coeruleus degeneration and tau burden and memory decline in Alzheimer's disease. Neuronal loss in the locus coeruleus may play a significant role in the pathological process of Alzheimer's.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Paul Loprinzi, Danielle Olafson, Claire Scavuzzo, Ashley Lovorn, Mara Mather, Emily Frith, Esther Fujiwara
Summary: Three laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the effects of acute exercise on both neutral and emotional memory performance. The results showed that acute exercise did not significantly influence emotional or neutral memory performance. However, there were some notable outcomes suggesting that acute exercise may be associated with improvements in memory confidence and accuracy for central aspects of emotional memory stimuli, as well as increased frequency of memory intrusions.
COGNITION & EMOTION
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Kaoru Nashiro, Hyun Joo Yoo, Jungwon Min, Christine Cho, Padideh Nasseri, Yong Zhang, Paul Lehrer, Julian F. Thayer, Mara Mather
Summary: This study investigates the effects of heart rate variability biofeedback on mind wandering and associated brain function. The results suggest that daily practice involving high amplitude heart rate oscillations may help reduce negative mind wandering and associated brain function.
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Peripheral Vascular Disease
Isabel J. Sible, Jung Yun Jang, Shubir Dutt, Belinda Yew, John Paul M. Alitin, Yanrong Li, Anna E. Blanken, Jean K. Ho, Anisa J. Marshall, Arunima Kapoor, Fatemah Shenasa, Aimee Gaubert, Amy Nguyen, Virginia E. Sturm, Mara Mather, Kathleen E. Rodgers, Xingfeng Shao, Danny J. Wang, Daniel A. Nation
Summary: Elevated blood pressure variability is associated with decreased cerebrovascular reactivity, indicating potential early markers of cerebrovascular dysfunction and disease.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Kaoru Nashiro, Jungwon Min, Hyun Joo Yoo, Christine Cho, Shelby L. Bachman, Shubir Dutt, Julian F. Thayer, Paul M. Lehrer, Tiantian Feng, Noah Mercer, Padideh Nasseri, Diana Wang, Catie Chang, Vasilis Z. Marmarelis, Shri Narayanan, Daniel A. Nation, Mara Mather
Summary: Heart rate variability is a biomarker of emotional well-being, and modulating heart rate oscillatory activity can change emotion network coordination in the brain.
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Correction
Psychology, Clinical
Kaoru Nashiro, Hyun Joo Yoo, Christine Cho, Jungwon Min, Tiantian Feng, Padideh Nasseri, Shelby L. Bachman, Paul Lehrer, Julian F. Thayer, Mara Mather
APPLIED PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND BIOFEEDBACK
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Kaoru Nashiro, Hyun Joo Yoo, Christine Cho, Jungwon Min, Tiantian Feng, Padideh Nasseri, Shelby L. Bachman, Paul Lehrer, Julian F. Thayer, Mara Mather
Summary: Previous research suggests that higher heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with better cognitive function. This study investigated whether there are causal relationships between HRV and cognitive performance by using a 5-week HRV biofeedback intervention. The results showed that the intervention did not significantly improve cognitive performance across age groups, but improvement in inhibitory control was associated with heart rate oscillations during practice sessions.
APPLIED PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND BIOFEEDBACK
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Alexander J. Ehrenberg, Michael A. Kelberman, Kathy Y. Liu, Martin J. Dahl, David Weinshenker, Neus Falgas, Shubir Dutt, Mara Mather, Mareike Ludwig, Matthew J. Betts, Joseph R. Winer, Stefan Teipel, Alexandra J. Weigand, Oxana Eschenko, Dorothea Haemmerer, Marina Leiman, Scott E. Counts, James M. Shine, Ian H. Robertson, Allan I. Levey, Elisa Lancini, Gowoon Son, Chrisoph Schneider, Maxime Van Egroo, Claudio Liguori, Qin Wang, Elena M. Vazey, Federico Rodriguez-Porcel, Lena Haag, Mark W. Bondi, Sven Vanneste, Whitney M. Freeze, Yeo-Jin Yi, Mihovil Maldinov, Jennifer Gatchel, Abhijit Satpati, Claudio Babiloni, William S. Kremen, Robert Howard, Heidi I. L. Jacobs, Lea T. Grinberg
Summary: The nuclei in the neuromodulatory subcortical system (NSS) play critical roles in survival, hedonic tone, and homeostasis. Degeneration of NSS occurs early in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), even before the emergence of memory dysfunction and cortical lesions. NSS dysfunction and degeneration are associated with the behavioral and neuropsychiatric symptoms observed in early AD stages. Experimental studies suggest that NSS degeneration contributes to the neuroinflammatory status and disease progression in AD. It is important to understand the mechanisms underlying NSS vulnerability and the clinical progression of NSS changes in AD.
ALZHEIMERS & DEMENTIA
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Christine Cho, Hyun Joo Yoo, Jungwon Min, Kaoru Nashiro, Julian F. Thayer, Paul M. Lehrer, Mara Mather
Summary: In a randomized clinical trial, participants were assigned to increase or decrease heart rate oscillations while receiving biofeedback to examine the effects on brain mechanisms of emotion regulation. Participants who increased heart rate variability showed a higher false alarm rate for positive images and recalled more positive items compared to those who decreased heart rate variability. The increased functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and the left amygdala mediated the effects of increasing heart rate oscillations on emotional bias.
APPLIED PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND BIOFEEDBACK
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Jungwon Min, Julian Koenig, Kaoru Nashiro, Hyun Joo Yoo, Christine Cho, Julian F. Thayer, Mara Mather
Summary: Previous studies suggest that sex differences in emotion regulation ability contribute to sex disparities in affective disorders. Females rely more on maladaptive strategies to cope with emotional distress, while males regulate emotion more efficiently. However, physiological studies show that females have higher resting heart rate variability, indicating better control of emotion. To resolve these inconsistencies, we examined sex differences in how resting heart rate variability relates to brain activity during cognitive reappraisal.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jungwon Min, Jeremy Rouanet, Alessandra Cadete Martini, Kaoru Nashiro, Hyun Joo Yoo, Shai Porat, Christine Cho, Junxiang Wan, Steve W. W. Cole, Elizabeth Head, Daniel A. A. Nation, Julian F. F. Thayer, Mara Mather
Summary: Slow paced breathing via HRV biofeedback affects plasma levels of Alzheimer's disease-related proteins. Increasing heart rate oscillations decreases plasma Alpha beta, while decreasing heart rate oscillations increases Alpha beta. The interventions also have opposing effects on tTau and pTau-181 for different age groups.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Ya-Yun Chen, Hyungwook Yim, Tae-Ho Lee
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in children's daily lives, with increased screen time for learning and socializing. Excessive screen use is associated with a preference for immediate rewards over delayed outcomes. By analyzing data from the ABCD Study, we found that more screen time was linked to higher reward orientation and weaker fronto-striatal connectivity in children. Importantly, daily screen exposure mediated the effect of reward sensitivity on the development of the inhibitory control system in the brain over a two year period. These findings suggest potential negative long-term impacts of increased screen time on children's neuropsychological development.
DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Gerontology
Shelby L. Bachman, Sumedha Attanti, Mara Mather
Summary: This study investigated the effects of physiological arousal on attention and memory, and found that short bursts of isometric handgrip exercise can improve processing speed and working memory performance. The findings suggest potential benefits for older adults who experience declines in processing speed and working memory.
PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mason Mcclay, Matthew E. Sachs, David Clewett
Summary: The fluctuation of emotions influences the organization of episodic memory. This study shows that emotional dynamics transform experiences into memorable events, with shifts in emotional valence biasing the encoding process towards memory integration or separation. The rise and fall of emotions can sculpt unfolding experiences into memories of meaningful events.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Joshua Neal, Inuk Song, Benjamin Katz, Tae-Ho Lee
Summary: The locus coeruleus (LC) plays a role in neural arousal and cognitive processes, including sustained attention. Dysfunctions in the salience network (SAL) and frontoparietal network have been associated with attention deficits. This study found that dysfunction in LC-SAL connectivity may impair attention.
JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)