Evaluating Model Fit

The available versions of the Vandenberg and Kuse (1978) Mental Rotations Test (MRT) have physically deteriorated because only copies of copies are available. We report results from a redrawn version of the MRT and for alternate versions of the test. Males perform better than females, and students drawn from the physical sciences perform better than students drawn from the social sciences and humanities, confirming other reports with the original version of the MRT. Subjects find it very hard to perform the MRT when stimuli require rotation along both the top/bottom axis and the left/right axis. The magnitude of effect sizes for sex (which account, on average, for some 20% of the variance) does not increase with increasing difficulty of the task. Minimal strategy effects were observed and females did not perform differently during the menstrual period as opposed to the days between the menstrual periods. Practice effects are dramatic, confirming other reports with the original MRT, and can also be shown to be powerful in a transfer for practice paradigm, where test and retest involve different versions of the MRT. Main effects of handedness on MRT performance were not found.

A redrawn Vandenverg and Kuse mental rotations test : different versions and factors that affect performance

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Although key to understanding individual variation in task-related brain activation, the genetic contribution to these individual differences remains largely unknown. Here we report voxel-by-voxel genetic model fitting in a large sample of 319 healthy, young adult, human identical and fraternal twins (mean ± SD age, 23.6 ±1.8 years) who performed an n-back working memory task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at a high magnetic field (4 tesla). Patterns of task-related brain response (BOLD signal difference of 2-back minus 0-back) were significantly heritable, with the highest estimates (40 - 65%) in the inferior, middle, and superior frontal gyri, left supplementary motor area, precentral and postcentral gyri, middle cingulate cortex, superior medial gyrus, angular gyrus, superior parietal lobule, including precuneus, and superior occipital gyri. Furthermore, high test-retest reliability for a subsample of 40 twins indicates that nongenetic variance in the fMRI brain response is largely due to unique environmental influences rather than measurement error. Individual variations in activation of the working memory network are therefore significantly influenced by genetic factors. By establishing the heritability of cognitive brain function in a large sample that affords good statistical power, and using voxel-by-voxel analyses, this study provides the necessary evidence for task-related brain activation to be considered as an endophenotype for psychiatric or neurological disorders, and represents a substantial new contribution to the field of neuroimaging genetics. These genetic brain maps should facilitate discovery of gene variants influencing cognitive brain function through genome-wide association studies, potentially opening up new avenues in the treatment of brain disorders.

Heritability of working memory brain activation

Cellphone addiction during the Covid-19 outbreak: How online social anxiety and cyber danger belief mediate the influence of personality

Social interaction is critical to emotional well-being. Previous studies have suggested sex differences in the perception of social interaction. However, the findings depend on the nature of interactions and whether it involves facial emotions. Here, we explored sex differences in neural responses to the perception of social interaction using the Human Connectome Project data. Participants (n = 969, 505 women) were engaged in a social cognition task with geometric objects moving and colliding to simulate social interaction. Behaviorally, men relative to women demonstrated higher accuracy in perceiving social vs. random interactions. Men vs. women showed higher activation in the right superior temporal gyrus, bilateral occipital and posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, and women vs. men showed higher activation in the right inferior frontal cortex, during exposure to social vs. random interactions. In whole-brain regressions, the differences in accuracy rate in identifying social vs. random interactions (AR SOC - AR RAN ) were associated with higher activation in the paracentral lobule (PCL) and lower activation in bilateral anterior insula (AI), pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA), and left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in men and women combined, lower activation in bilateral AI, preSMA and left MFG in men alone, and higher activation in the PCL and the medial orbitofrontal cortex in women alone. The latter sex differences were confirmed by slope tests. Further, the PCL activity mediated the correlation between an internalizing syndromal score, as assessed by the Achenbach Self-Report, and (AR SOC - AR RAN ) across all subjects. These findings highlighted sex differences in the behavioral and neural processes underlying the perception of social interaction, as well as the influence of internalizing traits on these processes.

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Sex Differences in Neural Responses to the Perception of Social Interactions.

Gray matter volumetric correlates of behavioral activation and inhibition system traits in children: An exploratory voxel-based morphometry study of the ABCD project data

Working memory has been examined extensively using the N-back task. However, less is known about the neural bases underlying individual variation in the accuracy rate (AR) and reaction time (RT) as metrics of N-back performance. Whereas AR indexes the overall performance, RT may more specifically reflect the efficiency in updating target identify. Further, studies have associated fluid intelligence (Gf) with working memory, but the cerebral correlates shared between Gf and N-back performance remain unclear. We addressed these issues using the Human Connectome Project dataset. We quantified the differences in AR (critical success index or CSI) and RT between 2- and 0-backs (CSI2–0 and RT2–0) and identified the neural correlates of individual variation in CSI2–0, RT2–0, and Gf, as indexed by the number of correct items scored in the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) test. The results showed that CSI2–0 and RT2–0 were negatively correlated, suggesting that a prolonged response time did not facilitate accuracy. At voxel p < 0.05, FWE-corrected, the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA), bilateral frontoparietal cortex (biFPC) and right anterior insula (rAI) showed activities in negative correlation with CSI2–0 and positive correlation with RT2–0. In contrast, a cluster in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) bordering the SMA showed activities in positive correlation with CSI2–0 and negative correlation with RT2–0. Further, path analyses showed a significant fit of the model dACC → RT2–0 → CSI2–0, suggesting a critical role of target switching in determining performance accuracy. Individual variations in RT2–0 and Gf were positively correlated, although the effect size was small (f2 = 0.0246). RT2–0 and Gf shared activities both in positive correlation with the preSMA, biFPC, rAI, and dorsal precuneus. These results together suggest inter-related neural substrates of individual variation in N-back performance and highlight a complex relationship in the neural processes supporting 2-back and RSPM performance.

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Neural correlates of individual variation in two-back working memory and the relationship with fluid intelligence.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) occurs more frequently and manifests with greater symptom severity in men than in women. Although studies have implicated basal ganglia dysfunction, the functional connectivity (FC) of the dorsal striatum (DS), particularly in terms of sex differences, has not been fully investigated in ADHD. Here, using resting state fMRI data of a large sample of adults (n = 744; 395 women; 22–36 years) curated from the Human Connectome Project, we performed seed-based correlations for caudate and lentiform nucleus (LN) FC. ADHD symptom severity was quantified with the Achenbach Adult Self-Report ADHD total score as well as inattention and hyperactivity subscores. Imaging data were processed with published routines and evaluated at a corrected threshold. Men showed significantly higher ADHD total score than women. In men, inattention was negatively associated with LN FC with the right superior frontal gyrus. In women, inattention was negatively associated with caudate FC with the right inferior parietal gyrus and positively with LN FC with the left inferior frontal gyrus, and hyperactivity was positively associated with LN FC with a cluster in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and supplementary motor area. Sex differences in most of these connectivity patterns were confirmed by slope tests. Further, k-means clustering of FC's identified 3 groups each in men and in women. In men, group 1 showed higher inattention and hyperactivity than both group 2 and 3, and group 2 showed higher inattention than group 3. In women, group 1 showed higher inattention and hyperactivity than group 3 and higher inattention than group 2, and group 2 showed higher hyperactivity than group 3. These findings together suggest sex differences in DS FC as neural markers of ADHD and potentially of ADHD subtypes, with men and women each showing altered FC predominantly in the executive control and ventral attention/saliency networks.

Yu Chen

Papers

Gray matter volumetric correlates of behavioral activation and inhibition system traits in children: An exploratory voxel-based morphometry study of the ABCD project data

Sex Differences in Neural Responses to the Perception of Social Interactions.

Neural correlates of individual variation in two-back working memory and the relationship with fluid intelligence.

Sex differences in attention deficit hyperactivity symptom severity and functional connectivity of the dorsal striatum in young adults

Perceived friendship and binge drinking in young adults: A study of the Human Connectome Project data.