wheelcon-wheel-control-based-gaming-platform-for-studying-human

WheelCon: A Wheel Control-Based Gaming Platform for Studying Human Sensorimotor Control

Feedback control theory has been extensively implemented to theoretically model human sensorimotor control. However, experimental platforms capable of ...

Southern University of Science and Technology

California Institute of Technology

Huntington Medical Research Institutes

Oxytocin (OT) has modulatory effects in both human behavior and in the brain, which is not limited in the specific brain area but also with the potential effect on connectivity with other brain regions. Evidence indicates that OT effects on human behavior are multifaceted, such as trust behavior, decrease anxiety, empathy and bonding behavior. For the vital role of mentalizing in understanding others, here we examine whether OT has a general effect on mentalizing brain network which is associated to the effect of related social behavioral and personality traits. Using a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled group design, we investigate the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging after intranasal OT or placebo. The functional connectivity (FC) maps with seed in left/right temporoparietal junction (lTPJ/rTPJ) showed that OT significantly increased connectivity between rTPJ and default attention network (DAN), but decreased the FC between lTPJ and medial prefrontal network (MPN). With machine learning approach, we report that identified altered FCs of TPJ can classify OT and placebo (PL) group. Moreover, individual's empathy trait can modulate the FC between left TPJ and right rectus (RECT), which shows a positive correlation with empathic concern in PL group but a negative correlation in OT group. These results demonstrate that OT has significant effect on FC with lTPJ and rTPJ, brain regions where are critical for mentalizing, and the empathy concern can modulate the FC. These findings advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms by which OT modulates social behaviors, especially in social interaction involving mentalizing.

Oxytocin effects on the resting-state mentalizing brain network.

Fluorescent probes in the second near-infrared region (NIR-II, 1000~1700 nm) have resulted in unprecedented imaging performance. Here, we describe a fluorination strategy in semiconducting polymers for development of highly bright NIR-II probes. Notably, tetrafluorination yielded a fluorescence QY of 3.2% for the polymer dots (Pdots), over 3-fold enhancement as compared to non-fluorinated counterparts. The fluorescence enhancement was attributable to nanoscale fluorous effect in the Pdots that maintained the molecular planarity and minimized the structure distortion between the excited state and ground state, thus reducing the nonradiative relaxations. Followed by through-skull and through-scalp imaging of the brain vasculature of live mice, we quantitatively analyzed the vascular morphology of transgenic brain tumors in terms of the vessel lengths, vessel branches, and vessel symmetry, which showed statistically significant differences from the wild type animals. The bright NIR-II Pdots achieved by fluorination chemistry provide insightful information for precise diagnosis of the malignancy of the brain tumor.

Article	Year
Oxytocin effects on the resting-state mentalizing brain network. Brain imaging and behavior\| PubMed ID: 31955321	2020
Fluorination Chemistry Enhances NIR-II Fluorescence of Polymer Dots for Quantitative Brain Tumor Imaging. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)\| PubMed ID: 32767727	2020

Quanying Liu

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