• Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.512-527
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• 2018

This review provides a comprehensive overview of brain imaging studies of the brain-gut interaction in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). Functional neuroimaging studies during gut stimulation have shown enhanced brain responses in regions related to sensory processing of the homeostatic condition of the gut (homeostatic afferent) and responses to salience stimuli (salience network), as well as increased and decreased brain activity in the emotional response areas and reduced activation in areas associated with the top-down modulation of visceral afferent signals. Altered central regulation of the endocrine and autonomic nervous responses, the key mediators of the brain-gut axis, has been demonstrated. Studies using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging reported abnormal local and global connectivity in the areas related to pain processing and the default mode network (a physiological baseline of brain activity at rest associated with self-awareness and memory) in FGIDs. Structural imaging with brain morphometry and diffusion imaging demonstrated altered gray- and white-matter structures in areas that also showed changes in functional imaging studies, although this requires replication. Molecular imaging by magnetic resonance spectroscopy and positron emission tomography in FGIDs remains relatively sparse. Progress using analytical methods such as machine learning algorithms may shift neuroimaging studies from brain mapping to predicting clinical outcomes. Because several factors contribute to the pathophysiology of FGIDs and because its population is quite heterogeneous, a new model is needed in future studies to assess the importance of the factors and brain functions that are responsible for an optimal homeostatic state.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.161-175
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• 2022

Oscillatory magnetic fields produced in the brain due to neuronal activity can be measured by the sensor. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive technique to record such neuronal activity due to excellent temporal and fair amount of spatial resolution, which gives information about the brain's functional activity. Potential utilization of high spatial resolution in MEG is likely to provide information related to in-depth brain functioning and underlying factors responsible for changes in neuronal waves in some diseases under resting state or task state. This review is a comprehensive report to introduce statistical models from MEG data including graphical network modelling. It is also meaningful to note that statisticians should play an important role in the brain science field.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2011

Objectives : Cerebral laterality is thought to be an important marker for neurodevelopment. Prenatal testosterone could influence both cerebral laterality and 2nd to 4th finger length ratio(2D : 4D). EEG coherence and 2D : 4D were examined to investigate the relationship between prenatal testosterone level and cerebral laterality. Methods : EEG was recorded in 24 healthy subjects in the eyes closed resting state. Differences in 2D : 4D finger ratio were used to discriminate "masculine finger type" and "feminine finger type" groups. The 2D : 4D ratio was lower and greater than one for the "masculine finger type" group and "feminine finger type" group, respectively. We used coherence analysis to estimate the cortical functional connectivity. Results : There were statistically meaningful relationships among cerebral functional connectivity, sex and finger ratio. Man and masculine finger type group showed higher intra-hemispheric coherence than those of woman and feminine finger type group. Woman and feminine finger type group showed higher inter-hemispheric coherence than those of man and masculine finger type group. Conclusions : These results imply that prenatal testosterone might act as important determinants of cerebral laterality. Further examination of the relationship between 2D : 4D and EEG coherence in schizophrenia could give some clues for the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia genesis.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

Cognitive reserve (CR) is a concept that can explain the discrepancies between the pathologic burden of the disease and clinical manifestations. It refers to the individual susceptibility to age-related brain changes and pathologies related to Alzheimer's disease, thus recognized as a factor affecting the trajectories of the disease. The purpose of this study was to explore the current states of clinical studies on neural substrates of CR in Alzheimer's disease using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We searched for clinical studies on CR using fMRI in the Pubmed, Cochrane library, RISS, KISS and ScienceON on August 14, 2023. Once the online search was finished, studies were selected manually by the inclusion criteria. Finally, we analyzed the characteristics of selected articles and reviewed the neural substrates of CR. Total thirty-four studies were included in this study. As surrogate markers of CR, not only education and occupational complexity, but also composite score and questionnaire-based method, which cover various areas of life, were mainly used. The most utilized methods in resting-state fMRI were independent component analysis, seed-based analysis, and graph theory analysis. Through the analysis, we demonstrated that neuroimaging techniques could capture the neural substrates associated with cognitive reserve. Moreover, functional connectivity of brain regions centered on prefrontal and parietal cortex and network areas such as default mode network showed a significant correlation with CR, which indicated a significant association with cognitive performance. CR may induce differential effects according to the disease status. We hope that this perspective on cognitive reserve would be helpful when conducting clinical researches on the mechanisms of traditional Korean medicine for Alzheimer's disease in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.113-127
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• 2023

Background: Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) may aid in understanding the link between painmodulating brain regions and the descending pain modulatory system (DPMS) in fibromyalgia (FM). This study investigated whether the differences in rs-FC of the primary somatosensory cortex in responders and non-responders to the conditioned pain modulation test (CPM-test) are related to pain, sleep quality, central sensitization, and the impact of FM on quality of life. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 33 females with FM. rs-FC was assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Change in the numerical pain scale during the CPM-test assessed the DPMS function. Subjects were classified either as non-responders (i.e., DPMS dysfunction, n = 13) or responders (n = 20) to CPM-test. A generalized linear model (GLM) and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed to check the accuracy of the rs-FC to differentiate each group. Results: Non-responders showed a decreased rs-FC between the left somatosensory cortex (S1) and the periaqueductal gray (PAG) (P < 0.001). The GLM analysis revealed that the S1-PAG rs-FC in the left-brain hemisphere was positively correlated with a central sensitization symptom and negatively correlated with sleep quality and pain scores. ROC curve analysis showed that left S1-PAG rs-FC offers a sensitivity and specificity of 85% or higher (area under the curve, 0.78, 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.94) to discriminate who does/does not respond to the CPM-test. Conclusions: These results support using the rs-FC patterns in the left S1-PAG as a marker for predicting CPM-test response, which may aid in treatment individualization in FM patients.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.109-133
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• 2022

Episodic memory consists of a core event and the associated contexts. Although the role of the hippocampus and its neighboring regions in contextual representations during encoding has become increasingly evident, it remains unclear how these regions handle various context-specific information other than spatio-temporal contexts. Using high-resolution functional MRI, we explored the patterns of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and cortical regions' involvement during the encoding of various types of contextual information (i.e., journalism principle 5W1H): "Who did it?," "Why did it happen?," "What happened?," "When did it happen?," "Where did it happen?," and "How did it happen?" Participants answered six different contextual questions while looking at simple experimental events consisting of two faces with one object on the screen. The MTL was divided to sub-regions by hierarchical clustering from resting-state data. General linear model analyses revealed a stronger activation of MTL sub-regions, the prefrontal lobe (PFC), and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) during social (Who), behavioral (How), and intentional (Why) contextual processing when compared with spatio-temporal (Where/When) contextual processing. To further investigate the functional networks involved in contextual encoding dissociation, a multivariate pattern analysis was conducted with features selected as the task-based connectivity links between the hippocampal subfields and PFC/IPL. Each social, behavioral, and intentional contextual processing was individually and successfully classified from spatio-temporal contextual processing, respectively. Thus, specific contexts in episodic memory, namely social, behavior, and intention, involve distinct functional connectivity patterns that are distinct from those for spatio-temporal contextual memory.