Topic: mid-cingulate cortex

Over the course of evolution, the amygdala (AMG) and medial frontal cortex (mPFC) network, involved in behavioral adaptation, underwent structural changes in the old-world monkey and human lineages. Yet, whether and how the functional organization of this network differs remains poorly understood. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imagery, we show that the functional connectivity (FC) between AMG nuclei and mPFC regions differs between humans and awake macaques. In humans, the AMG-mPFC FC displays U-shaped pattern along the corpus callosum: a positive FC with the ventromedial p

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder that can result in motor, mood and cognitive symptoms. HD pathophysiology has been linked to neuroinflammation, which is the presence of inflammatory mediators and reactive glial cells in the brain parenchyma. Many signalling pathways likely interact to propagate neuroinflammation and contribute to cell loss. Previous literature indicates that in the anterior cingulate cortex, cell loss and neuroinflammation are correlated with HD mood symptoms. This project gives insight into inflammation-related differential gene expression in

The aim of this fMRI study was to assess the role of affect sharing (AS), an important aspect of empathy, in observational fear learning. N=37 students completed an observational Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm, in which they learned to fear a cue (assessed in a subsequent test stage) by watching videos of a demonstrator receiving shocks with that cue (learning stage). Participants watched the videos in a state of high or low AS, respectively, induced by hypnotic suggestions, using a within-subjects design. Unconditioned responses (UR) to the demonstrator’s pain during learning and condit