This magnetoencephalography study investigated the spatiotemporal neural responses during single-word reading. We used a silent reading task with linguistic stimuli varying in lexicality and frequency (high- and low-frequency words, and pseudowords), and tested typically developing (TD) and dyslexic developing (DD) children (aged 7 to 12). We observed no significant sensitivity to word frequency or lexicality either within or between the groups, likely reflecting the constraints of the silent reading paradigm. Direct comparisons between the groups revealed significant amplitude reductions in the DD group across the bilateral occipito-temporal and left superior temporal cortices. Despite these reduced signal amplitudes, the inter-hemispheric relationship of peak latencies (PLs) in the DD group remained consistent with the TD pattern. Furthermore, within the TD group, we identified a clear relationship between age and PL: older typical readers exhibited decreased latencies in the left hemisphere, pointing to the age-related automatization of the reading network. In contrast, we did not observe this age-related pattern in the DD group, which highlights a functional atypicality that remains evident across the investigated age range. Overall, these findings indicate that the core neural atypicality in dyslexia involves reduced activation strength and an absence of typical age-related PL decreases, rather than a fundamental overall shift in PL.

This study investigated how the emotional valence of distractor words influences age-related differences in phonological encoding, using the picture-word interference paradigm combined with event-related potential (ERP) technology. Behaviorally, younger adults showed a phonological facilitation effect, whereas older adults did not, implying an age-related decline in phonological encoding. Moreover, the influence of distractor word valence on phonological facilitation varied across age groups. In younger adults, facilitation emerged for positive distractor words, while in older adults, it appeared for negative distractor words. Critically, ERP results revealed that in younger adults, phonological effects occurred between 482 and 608 ms, with positive distractors eliciting effects within 436 to 606 ms, each marked by larger positive amplitudes in phonologically related conditions. In contrast, older adults exhibited 2 distinct time windows for negative distractor words (310 to 508 and 618 to 784 ms), both characterized by larger positive amplitudes in phonologically unrelated conditions. These findings indicate that emotional distractors differentially modulate the time course of phonological processing in younger and older adults, highlighting the importance of considering both cognitive aging and emotional context in understanding the dynamics of spoken word production.

This study investigated the impact of prenatal depression on brain function in pregnant women using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Functional signals were recorded during resting-state and sadness/happiness video stimulus tasks in prenatal depression group (n = 22) and healthy controls (n = 31). Compared with controls, the prenatal depression group showed a significantly lower mean total hemoglobin (HbT) signal in the visual cortex (P = 0.029) during the resting-state condition, as well as the HbT slope of the primary motor cortex (P = 0.035) under the happiness video stimulus. Deoxyhemoglobin-based functional connectivity analysis showed that, during the sadness video stimulus, the prenatal depression group exhibited reduced connectivity between the left motor area and the left prefrontal cortex (-0.019 ± 0.077 vs. 0.098 ± 0.124, P = 0.0031) as well as the right prefrontal cortex (-0.038 ± 0.086 vs. 0.081 ± 0.134, P = 0.0127). Graph theory analysis showed higher characteristic path length and lower global efficiency in the prenatal depression group than in controls, under both sadness (all P < 0.01) and happiness (all P < 0.05) conditions. These findings indicate altered regional brain activity patterns in pregnant women with prenatal depression, providing insight into the neural mechanisms underlying prenatal depression.

Whether a given stimulus will be perceived depends not only on its physical intensity but also by the functional state of the visual system, particularly power of the spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) alpha-band activity (7 to 14 Hz) at the stimulus onset. The mechanism behind this effect remains a matter of debate, as some studies reported that low alpha power improves perceptual sensitivity, but others showed alpha power affects only the subjective measures (criterion and confidence/awareness ratings) and thus concluded it is related with non-specific cortical excitability. To address this controversy, we analyzed data from four experimental paradigms in which different types of stimuli-from Gabor patches, through face images, to real-world scenes-were presented to participants at a perceptual threshold. Single-trial analyses revealed that the prestimulus alpha power predicted not only subjective visibility but also objective identification accuracy. Therefore, our results are incompatible with the view that spontaneous alpha activity defines nonspecific, general cortical excitability only, and rather indicates its role in defining perceptual sensitivity and improving signal-to-noise ratio.

Current wisdom of the organization of language in the brain has been shaped primarily by evidence from people with post-stroke aphasia, often emphasizing the role of Broca's and Wernicke's areas for production and comprehension respectively. However, this view may be obscured by the contributions of regions less frequently affected by middle cerebral artery infarcts. To overcome this limitation, we investigated the neural correlates of word- and sentence-level comprehension and production in 115 individuals with left-hemisphere gliomas using multivariate lesion-symptom mapping. Our findings challenge the traditional segregation of language modalities. Both word and sentence tasks were affected by damage to the anterior temporal lobe (ATL), inferior central regions, and inferior frontal gyrus, with additional involvement of the inferior parietal and posterior temporal regions for sentence processing only. Notably, lesions to the ATL impacted both comprehension and production, whereas posterior temporal damage selectively affected sentence-level performance. These findings highlight the importance of considering lesion etiology when investigating the neural architecture of language, suggesting that the classical dichotomy between "production-frontal" and "comprehension-temporal" areas oversimplifies the distributed nature of the language network. Clinically, our findings suggest that intraoperative paradigms relying solely on single-word naming may fail to identify regions critical for sentence-level processing.

Reading ability emerges from interacting phonological and semantic skills. However, the cortical microstructure supporting these traits remains unclear. Multimodal cortical parcellation and diffusion analysis were performed in 1,068 participants, including a genetically informed twin subsample. We identified auditory and anterior temporal subregions predicting oral reading scores. In the left auditory cortex, myelin in a paralemniscal (belt) area was heritably linked to reading, whereas thickness in the lemniscal (core) region reflected experience-dependent contributions. Bilateral anterior temporal lobe (ATL) surface areas were genetically associated with reading and predicted semantic performance, providing novel cortical evidence for heritable semantic substrates of literacy. The left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and a left ATL region connected with the arcuate fasciculus predicted reading scores independent of genetic influences. The cortical traits were linked to reading continuously across the population, challenging categorical models of dyslexia. The findings suggest that genetic and experience-dependent mechanisms jointly shape the phonological and semantic foundations of literacy.

Optimal processing of our environment relies on the integration of information across sensory modalities. The pulvinar is known to play a key role in visual and face processing, but its involvement in auditory and tactile domains remains poorly understood. Here, we used fMRI localizer tasks to characterize pulvinar functional organization and connectivity during face, voice, and tactile processing. We reproduce the activation of the ventro-medial pulvinar during face perception and describe condition-dependent changes in pulvinar connectivity with face-processing areas, together with reduced connectivity with early visual and default mode network regions. Small clusters overlapping the medial pulvinar were also observed during air-puff stimulation of the face, hand, and foot, accompanied by condition-dependent changes in pulvino-cortical connectivity as a function of the stimulated body part, although these effects were detected at exploratory statistical thresholds. No reliable positive pulvinar activation was detected during voice or non-voice stimulation within the sensitivity limits of the present paradigm. Overall, these results highlight robust visual pulvinar responses and suggest a possible, but preliminary, involvement of the medial pulvinar in tactile processing, together with context-dependent patterns of functional connectivity with cortical areas.

Lesion-deficit mapping is a premier technique for dissociating neural correlates of cognitive functions. However, the contribution of domain-general cognition (g) to the performance of virtually all complex behavioral tasks may encumber such efforts. This possibility has been largely unexplored. Here, we examined the influence of g in lesion-deficit mapping using a combination of structural equation modeling, lesion-behavior mapping (LBM), and structural lesion network mapping (sLNM) and functional lesion network mapping (fLNM). We modeled latent variables for visuospatial ability, processing speed, language, and anterograde memory among 473 patients with focal brain damage (age range 20 to 93, 257 men, 216 women), both with and without g-associated variance embedded within each factor. Lesion-deficit maps for domain-specific cognitive abilities were statistically significantly less spatially inter-correlated after partitioning out g (P = 0.010 for LBM; P = 0.003 for sLNM; P = 0.003 for fLNM). Lesion-deficit maps also implicated the existence of distinct neuroanatomy for specific cognitive domains that was, in many cases, only apparent and clearly distinct from lesion-deficit maps of g after partitioning out the influence of g. Overall, our findings suggest that, if left unaccounted for, domain-general cognitive variance could tangibly affect conclusions about the extent to which different cognitive functions rely on distinct neuroanatomy.

Maximizing reward guides how humans learn in a dynamically changing environment. However, the neural mechanisms underlying how reward promotes visual perceptual learning remain largely unknown. We trained 2 groups of participants (the Reward and the Control group) on a contrast categorization task on oriented Gabor patches in 1 visual quadrant for consecutive 5 sessions. Unknown to the participants in the Reward group, one of the orientations, which was presented but remained task-irrelevant during training, was paired with a monetary reward with 80% probability. Participants' orientation discrimination threshold in the Reward group improved for the reward-paired orientation in the trained visual quadrant, indicating visual perceptual learning of the task-irrelevant visual feature in association with reward. Learning also transferred to the untrained visual quadrants. No performance improvement was found in the Control group for either orientation. Surprisingly, we found that the integrity of the locus coeruleus modulates the amount of transfer of visual perceptual learning of the task-irrelevant visual feature: the higher the integrity of the locus coeruleus, the more likely learning of the task-irrelevant information will transfer to the untrained location. Our study provides important implications for the roles of locus coeruleus in reward-induced learning of irrelevant visual information.

The primate neocortex is organized as hierarchical networks of functionally distinct regions. In the dorsal visual stream network, information is conveyed from primary visual (V1) to posterior parietal (PPC) and dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) cortices. This information transfer is mediated primarily by layer 3 pyramidal neurons (L3PNs), which differ across these regions in morphology, excitability, and intracellular Ca2+ regulation. These region-specific L3PN properties may be influenced by alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNA, which occurs extensively in the human brain. To explore the potential impact of AS of region-specific L3PN properties, we analyzed RNA-seq data from pools of L3PNs dissected from human V1, PPC, and DLPFC. We found that <6% of genes with regional differences in expression also differed in AS. This finding indicates that the absence of transcriptional differences is insufficient to conclude that a gene does not contribute functional differences between regions. Additionally, there were numerous regional differences in AS, particularly between V1 and DLPFC or PPC L3PNs, which involved genes associated with neuron morphology and Ca2+ regulation; > 90% of these AS differences involved functionally relevant sequences (eg phosphorylation sites, etc.). These findings suggest AS contributes to region-specific L3PN properties relevant to the function of the dorsal visual stream.

In a cohort of 142 young adults, we probed how figural creative ideation maps onto white matter microstructure, aiming to challenge and refine the dominant view that creativity is driven by widely distributed brain networks. Figural creativity was assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production, and its neural correlates were examined using two diffusion imaging metrics: quantitative anisotropy (QA) and fractional anisotropy (FA). Connectometry analyses uncovered robust, widespread positive associations between creative performance and white matter integrity, with the strongest effects in corticostriatal, corticopontine, and corticospinal pathways; commissural fibers such as the corpus callosum; and key association tracts including the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. Together, these results spotlight sensory, motor, and sensorimotor tracts as core conduits for figural creative ideation, rather than mere supporting players. QA consistently outperformed FA in detecting these creativity-related patterns, underscoring the value of deploying multiple white matter metrics in creativity research. By directly contrasting QA and FA, this study sharpens our understanding of the structural neural architecture underpinning creative processes and highlights the unique power of QA to capture microstructural features that are especially critical for figural creative performance.

Is the extrastriate body area is best characterized as a narrowly defined, feature-selective region or as a node whose significance depends on its network? We argue that this opposition is misleading: feature-level claims (what a region responds to) and function-level claims (what its output is used for) answer different questions and cannot substitute for one another. Recent evidence indicates that the extrastriate body area's degree of feature tuning, including the species-specific tuning relevant to conspecific detection, itself depends on the network it is coupled to, and lateral occipitotemporal cortex fractionates into subdivisions rather than forming a single functional unit. Conspecific detection, on this evidence, is a property achieved by a distributed network, not a property the extrastriate body area supplies independently. We use this distinction to reframe several commentaries' apparent disagreements as answers to different questions rather than competing claims. We close by asking whether this feature/function conflation recurs across other category-selective regions, such as face- and food-selective cortex.

Episodic memory is the ability to bind elements of an experience into coherent associations. This ability declines with age, often producing errors that can interfere with daily life. Memory distortions might arise from unstable hippocampal representations that cannot be maintained across encoding, storage, and later retrieval. However, whether aging disrupts the temporal continuity of these representations across memory phases has not been directly tested. Here, adults aged 20-74 completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning during an associative memory task involving face-object and face-scene pairings, followed by post-encoding rest and a cued retrieval test. Using multivoxel correlation structure analyses, we quantified hippocampal pattern similarity across each memory stage. Increasing age was associated with increased category errors and reduced representational similarity across all transitions. Higher encoding-retrieval similarity predicted better associative accuracy in younger adults and was less predictive in middle-aged and diminished in older adults. Uniquely among older adults, greater cross-phase similarity predicted elevated category-level binding errors, suggesting a shift from selective reactivation to misbinding with age. Baseline hippocampal organization and encoding-specific connectivity supported accurate reinstatement only in younger adults. Aging disrupts hippocampal stability, possibly representing a core mechanism of age-related decline in associative memory across the adult lifespan.

Several aspects of parameterized neural activity, including the aperiodic exponent and individual peak alpha frequency, have emerged as promising biomarkers for ageing, pathology, and cognitive decline. Their potential clinical application is tempered by a lack of evidence on long-term temporal stability. Existing investigations have largely relied on cross-sectional designs or considered stability for up to 90 days. Here, we examined five-year reliability, stability, and age-associated changes in periodic and aperiodic neural activity using electroencephalography in adults aged 20-70 years. Resting-state EEG was recorded in two sessions, approximately five years apart. We extracted the aperiodic exponent, aperiodic offset, peak alpha power, and individual alpha peak frequency and examined test-retest reliability at both the channel and cluster levels. All parameters demonstrated fair to excellent test-retest reliability (intraclass correlations = 0.51-0.88). Linear mixed models revealed that individual peak alpha frequency decreased, the aperiodic exponent flattened, and parameterized alpha power remained unchanged. There were no interactions between time and age. Our findings suggest that parameterized activity is reliable over long timeframes, and demonstrates changes consistent with ageing-related processes. Spectral parameterization may provide a means of characterizing within-person neurophysiological changes across adulthood. Future research should explore the utility of identifying deviations that may indicate pathology.

Voluntary actions are often accompanied by a clear, preceding conscious experience of intention. However, the nature of this experience, and the neural mechanisms underlying it, have proved difficult to study scientifically. Many previous studies instructed participants to make simple manual actions, and then report their preceding intention only retrospectively. We combined a typing-based verbal fluency paradigm with pseudorandom probes of conscious experience to address these issues, and used electroencephalography (EEG) to explore neural correlates of prospective intention. Across one behavioral and one EEG experiment, involving 51 participants, we found conscious intention emerged over 1 s before estimated action onset. Further, we found an EEG readiness-potential-like activity that was stronger prior to probes that participants reported as interrupting a conscious intention, compared to other probes. In addition, probes that interrupted conscious intention were found to occur after lateralization of the readiness-potential-like activity to the hemisphere contralateral to the hand that participants reported would type the first letter. Our results provide novel evidence for a prospective experience of conscious intention associated with neural processes that precede voluntary actions. Significance Statement Many models of voluntary action assume that an experience of conscious intention precedes movement onset, but the mechanisms underlying this experience are highly controversial. By randomly probing experiences of intention during an action generation task involving typing-based verbal fluency, we developed a new method for estimating time of conscious intention, and its neural mechanisms. The method estimates that experiences of prospective intention occur over 1 s before action. Concurrent EEG recordings suggested that the EEG signals classically used as precursor indices of voluntary action are also associated with the experience of prospective intention.