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Project

The comparison of functional localization theory and network perspectives on the neural basis of socio-emotional processing

The cerebral organization of cognition and behavior has been set by 2 early opposing hypotheses. According to ‘Cerebral euipotentiality’ hypothesis, the brain functions as a whole, implying that any intact part of a functional brain is capable to carry out the functions which are lost by destruction of the other parts while ‘functional localization’ hypothesis posits specific brain-behavior associations. The functional localization hypothesis has dominated the field in the past decades with consistent observations such as fusiform face area. However, there are some contra-evidences against localization hypothesis such as interindividual differences, distributed responses to a single stimulus, low specificity in brain-behavior associations, and inconsistent symptom-lesion associations. As an intermediate view, the network hypothesis can be an explanation to problematic issues of locationist approach. It refers to that cognitive tasks are performed by networks consisting of multiple discrete brain regions that are functionally connected using a key mechanism degeneracy, ‘equi-finality’. Functional brain imaging studies in healthy subjects provide important evidence regarding the nature of brain-behavior associations, yet studies in brain-damaged patients are crucial to evaluate any hypothesis derived from healthy controls. Neurodegenerative diseases showing early socio-emotional deficits such as frontotemporal dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease are well suited to clinically validate any network hypothesis derived from studies in healthy subjects. The objectives of the study are to define the social cognitive brain, reveal associations between brain characteristics at the network level and social cognition behavior in healthy subjects, and reveal associations between functional brain characteristics and breakdown of social cognition in pre-symptomatic and symptomatic neurodegeneration. Therefore, the collected MRI and fMRI data from healthy subjects will be used to define social cognitive brain as social brain network and emotional brain network. Next, the network-level characteristics and social cognition performance will be calculated and correlated to investigate whether a network model outperforms a locationist model. Finally, a retrospective FDG-PET study in pre-symptomatic and symptomatic neurodegeneration will be performed to clinically validate the findings of previous analyses.

Date:30 Oct 2020 →  Today
Keywords:emotion, social cognition, network hypothesis, degeneracy, neuroimaging
Disciplines:Behavioural neuroscience, Cognitive neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Neuropsychology, Social perception and cognition
Project type:PhD project