YNiC is closed for the week while we perform some essential systems
maintenance. All remote desktops and cluster services will be down. We'll
update you once services are back up and running.
Thanks
Joe
--
Joe Lyons, UNIX Systems Administrator
York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC), University of York
Hi all
Just reminding you all that there is a new stim PC with new software
available in OpenPlan to test scripts/stimuli. All the desktops will move
over to this software when we are closed next week
Thanks
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hello
As mentioned in the "This Week at YNiC" email, we'll be doing our annual
software upgrades on the YNiC desktops w/c 4th September. The centre will
be closed while we undertake the upgrades. A wiki page has been setup with
details of the changes.
https://wiki.pages.ynic.york.ac.uk/IT/summer_2023_upgrade.html
A desktop with the new software is available in OpenPlan to test
scripts/stimuli. Please email support if you have any questions.
Thanks
Joe
--
Joe Lyons, UNIX Systems Administrator
York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC), University of York
Hi all,
Due to emergency power testing at the Science Park, the remote desktop may
not be accessible or reliable on Saturday and Sunday. While the remote
desktop machines may be intermittently available they may shut down without
notice, so we strongly advise you do not attempt to work on the remote
desktop this weekend.
Open Plan will also be unavailable.
Thanks
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hello,
Please find details about a change to the YNiC phone system, an upcoming
summer closure, and the next scheduled induction and training sessions
below.
*YNiC phone number change*
Due to an update to phone systems throughout the science park,
unfortunately YNiC can no longer be contacted using our long-standing
number. *You can now reach us on 01904 325940. *Please update our contact
details anywhere you hold them, and in particular,* please update any
material provided to participants.*
As part of the upgrade to the science park phone system, we have new phone
hardware. As these phones serve an important part of our safety procedures,*
we encourage all operators to familiarise themselves with the new phones.*
*YNiC summer closure*
*YNiC will be closed to users for the week commencing Monday the 4th of
September. *This is necessary for us to undertake vital updates to our
computing systems. More details will be provided by email shortly. We
apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let us know if there
are any mitigations we may be able to provide.
*YNiC User Inductions*
If you are aware of any new students/staff that will require access to
YNiC and/or
an IT account, they must attend a YNiC user induction. Our next induction
will be on *Thursday the 14th of September, at 13:00*. Please ask them to
contact support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk to sign up.
*Level 0 operator training*
*The next L0 training session will be held on Monday the 11th of September,
13:00-15:00. *Please note that users requesting Level 0 training should be
a PhD, RA/Postdoc, or staff, and should already have a project proposal
submitted to YNiC. Please email support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk if you have any
questions or wish to book on to this session. Please note that sessions are
limited to 4 trainees, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served
basis. Training must be booked at least a week before the session date, in
order to reserve the scanner booking.
*YNiC Seminar*
If you would like to give a talk next term, please get in touch, there are
no specific requirements; presentations can include previously collected
data, new data, pilot data and/or study plans and ideas. This is a great
way to get feedback in a relaxed and friendly environment. Please message
support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk.
Cheers,
Rich
--
Dr Richard Aveyard
Senior Technical Specialist
York NeuroImaging Centre
University of York, UK
Hi all,
A big new data set has just been published that could be useful for many
of us, particularly for those interested in hippocampal subfields (who
isn't?!):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02449-9
Best wishes,
Aidan
--
*I work 0.8FTE and my working days are Monday-Wednesday and Friday*
=======================================================
Dr Aidan J Horner
Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of York
York YO10 5DD
Mastodon: @aidanhorner@fediscience.org
Twitter: @aidanhorner
Lab website: http://www.aidanhorner.org/
=======================================================
Here's an interesting paper from Nick about how we can reduce the carbon
footprint of fMRI analysis.
https://osf.io/7q5mh/
Let me know what you think :)
Cheers
Beth
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Nick Souter <nes522(a)york.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2023 at 17:00
Subject: Green Computing Paper
To: FLEXSEM <flexsem-group(a)york.ac.uk>
Hi all,
Hope you're all doing well :)
I've just released the preprint for my first post-doc paper
<https://osf.io/7q5mh/>! It's a short perspective piece focusing on 10
steps neuroimagers can take to reduce the carbon footprint of their
research computing (preprocessing and analysis). Thought I would share here
in case there is anything actionable you could take away from it.
In particular, there is stuff about long term data storage and data
cleaning which might be relevant to issues with freeing up space on the
FLEXSEM drive at YNiC. As part of this, we've developed a tool called
fMRIPrepCleanup <https://github.com/NickESouter/fMRIPrepCleanup>
specifically designed to comb over fMRIPrep output and delete all the junk
files (although take caution using it, as covered in the readme!!).
Thanks!
Nick
Nick Souter, PhD
Department of Psychology
University of York
nes522(a)york.ac.uk
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"FLEXSEM" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to flexsem-group+unsubscribe(a)york.ac.uk.
To view this discussion on the web, visit
https://groups.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/d/msgid/flexsem-group/CACz3qpZwiMMdG…
<https://groups.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/d/msgid/flexsem-group/CACz3qpZwiMMdG…>
.
--
Beth Jefferies
Department of Psychology, University of York, UK
+44 01904 324368
Hi all,
We are coming to the end of an era. The "4D / York Instruments / Aveyard
Industries" hybrid MEG scanner that was originally commissioned in 2004
will be allowed to warm up (and thus stop working) as we reach the end
of our allocated liquid helium supply in 2 weeks time.
Firstly, this is a last call for anyone currently using the system to
wrap up ASAP. Contact us if you need support.
Second, for those interested in using MEG at YNiC in the future, the
replacement MEG system (Optical pump magnetometers; no liquid Helium so
more sustainable [and affordable]) has been funded through the
University's Capital Investment Scheme is being ordered and commissioned
as we speak - we hope to have it up and running from Q2 2024.
Best wishes,
--
André
************************************************************************
André Gouws PhD
Lead Technical Specialist
York Neuroimaging Centre and York Diagnostic Imaging
Departmental Safety Advisor - Dept. of Psychology
University of York
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5NY
Dear users,
Following downtime earlier this week, the Siemens scanner is running and
available for use again. Please fill out your scan reimbursement forms if
you were affected by the downtime.
Also note, it will be out of action next Thursday (27th) for further
preventative maintenance.
Thank you
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hi all,
Don't forget to come down to YNiC for our seminar presented by Professor
Micah Murray.
Micah is the Scientific and Academic Director of the Sense Innovation and
Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland and section head, EEG CHUV-UNIL at
the Center for Biomedical Imaging. At noon he will be giving a talk on
recent work he has been doing on high spatial- and temporal-resolution fMRI
and also on recent advances in EEG.
*12 Noon, Weds 19th July, at YNiC*
*Title: "From old dogs to new tricks in human EEG and fMRI"*
Some links are provided to give you more background:
Micah Murray (
https://www.unil.ch/line/en/home/menuinst/people/micah-m-murray.html)
Rapid fMRI (
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540663v2.abstract)
EEG (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10548-021-00882-w).
It would be really great if you could come over to YNiC to attend the talk.
Many thanks,
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hi Everyone,
Tomorrow we are fortunate to be hosting Professor Micah Murray at YNiC.
Micah is the Scientific and Academic Director of the Sense Innovation and
Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland and section head, EEG CHUV-UNIL at
the Center for Biomedical Imaging. At noon he will be giving a talk on
recent work he has been doing on high spatial- and temporal-resolution fMRI
and also on recent advances in EEG.
*12 Noon, Weds 19th July, at YNiC*
*Title: "From old dogs to new tricks in human EEG and fMRI"*
Some links are provided to give you more background:
Micah Murray (
https://www.unil.ch/line/en/home/menuinst/people/micah-m-murray.html)
Rapid fMRI (
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540663v2.abstract)
EEG (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10548-021-00882-w).
It would be really great if you could come over to YNiC to attend the talk.
We look forward to seeing you then!
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Dear Users,
Unfortunately there has been a fault with the Siemens MRI scanner over the
weekend. We are working to get this fixed as soon as possible, but will be
unable to run any scans in the meantime.
We will keep you updated.
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Dear all,
Next Wednesday (19th July) we are fortunate to be hosting Professor Micah
Murray at YNiC. Micah is the Scientific and Academic Director of the Sense
Innovation and Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland and section head, EEG
CHUV-UNIL at the Center for Biomedical Imaging. At noon he will be giving a
talk on recent work he has been doing on high spatial- and
temporal-resolution fMRI and also on recent advances in EEG.
12 Noon, Weds 19th July, at YNiC
Title: "From old dogs to new tricks in human EEG and fMRI"
Some links are provided to give you more background:
Micah Murray (
https://www.unil.ch/line/en/home/menuinst/people/micah-m-murray.html)
Rapid fMRI (
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540663v2.abstract)
EEG (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10548-021-00882-w).
All are welcome to come along
Thanks,
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hi all,
As many of you will have noticed, the Siemens scanner was blocked out for
use next week for the removal of GE. This work has now been postponed, so
we have released the scanner for booking next week. We are not able to
provide operator cover, as we have already committed to covering MEG, but
if you are able to operate yourselves, please go ahead and book.
Apologies for the late notice and any inconvenience caused
Thanks
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hello,
Please find details about submitting poster abstracts to this year's
MEG-UKI meeting below. You can find more information about the meeting
here https://meguk.ac.uk/meg-uki-2023-conference/
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Redmond O'Connell <REOCONNE(a)tcd.ie>
Date: Fri, Jun 23, 2023 at 2:54 PM
Subject: poster abstracts for MEG-UKI
Hi all,
Just a very quick word. Places are filling up nicely for the MEG-UKI
meeting but we haven't had a lot of poster abstract submissions as yet.
Please do encourage your labs and colleagues to submit something (not
obligatory that there be MEG data involved specifically). We understand
that some are not ready to commit to an abstract just yet so please note
that *we're happy for people to register now and submit a poster abstract
later on* through the conference e-mail address (meguki2023(a)gmail.com) with
the deadline for the abstracts being 1st August.
All the best
Redmond
Hi all,
I am sorry to report that due to coolant leak the MRI scanner is offline
for the rest of today, all day tomorrow (Tues 20th) and possibly Wed 21st.
We have diagnosed the problem but it will take a while to ship the parts
for repair from Germany - this could happen today but may only happen
tomorrow.
If you have the scanner booked on tomorrow Tues 20th you will need to
reschedule. If you have the scanner booked on Wed / Thu you may want to
let your participants know that there may be a cancellation, but we are
hopeful to be back online.
We will update you as soon as we have any further information.
Best wishes,
--
André
************************************************************************
André Gouws PhD
Lead Technical Specialist
York Neuroimaging Centre and York Diagnostic Imaging
Departmental Safety Advisor - Dept. of Psychology
University of York
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5NY
Dear Users,
We have a system fault with the Siemens MRI scanner at YNiC, as such the
scanner will be down for the rest of the day. We are working to get this
fixed and we will keep you updated on our progress.
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Hello,
Please find details about upcoming inductions and training.
*YNiC User Inductions*
If you are aware of any new students/staff that will require access
to YNiC and/or an IT account, they must attend a YNiC user induction. Our
next induction will be on *Friday the 30th of June, at 13:00*. Please ask
them to contact support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk to sign up.
*Level 0 operator training*
*The next L0 training session will be held on Thursday the 20th of July,
13:00-15:00. *Please note that users requesting Level 0 training should be
a PhD, RA/Postdoc, or staff, and should already have a project proposal
submitted to YNiC. Please email support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk if you have any
questions or wish to book on to this session. Please note that sessions are
limited to 4 trainees, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served
basis. Training must be booked at least a week before the session date, in
order to reserve the scanner booking.
*YNiC Seminar*
If you would like to give a talk next term, please get in touch, there are
no specific requirements; presentations can include previously collected
data, new data, pilot data and/or study plans and ideas. This is a great
way to get feedback in a relaxed and friendly environment (and there is
usually Pizza!!). Please message support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk.
*Poster Call*
We are still looking to revamp some of our display boards, if you have any
posters from past/present YNiC projects, we would love to display them
around the centre. Our boards are size A0 (landscape or portrait). Please
drop them off at reception next time you are over here :)
Have a great week!
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Hello,
Please find details about upcoming inductions and training. We are also
looking for speakers for our YNiC Thursday seminar (for next term), and for
posters to add to our display boards (see below for details).
*YNiC User Inductions*
If you are aware of any new students/staff that will require access
to YNiC and/or an IT account, they must attend a YNiC user induction. Our
next induction will be on *Friday the 30th of June, at 13:00*. Please ask
them to contact support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk to sign up.
*Level 0 operator training*
*The next L0 training session will be held on Wednesday the 14th of June,
13:00-15:00. * Please note that users requesting Level 0 training should be
a PhD, RA/Postdoc, or staff, and should already have a project proposal
submitted to YNiC. Please email support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk if you have any
questions or wish to book on to this session. Please note that sessions are
limited to 4 trainees, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served
basis. Training must be booked at least a week before the session date, in
order to reserve the scanner booking.
*YNiC Seminar*
We would like to thank all the speakers and attendees who have made the
YNiC seminar series a success this academic year! If you would like to give
a talk next term, please get in touch, there are no specific requirements;
presentations can include previously collected data, new data, pilot data
and/or study plans and ideas. This is a great way to get feedback in a
relaxed and friendly environment (and there is usually Pizza!!). Please
message support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk.
*Poster Call*
We are looking to revamp some of our display boards, if you have any
posters from past/present YNiC projects, we would love to display them
around the centre. Our boards are size A0 (landscape or portrait). Please
drop them off at reception next time you are over here :)
Have a great week!
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Hi all,
See below for details of a great opportunity to get (re)acquainted with MEG
at the MEG-UKI conference, ahead of the installation of our
much-anticipated new OPM system towards the end of the year.
Cheers,
Rich
Dear all,
I'm delighted to say that the registration is now open for the MEG-UKI
conference taking place in Trinity College Dublin on 27th and 28th October
2023 https://meguk.ac.uk/meg-uki-2023-conference/. As places are limited
(200 max), we are starting by inviting the consortium labs to register
first. I would be really grateful if you could do so as soon as you can to
ensure your places are reserved before we advertise the meeting more
widely. As you'll see, there is a really nice lineup of talks there. In the
end, we didn't feel it was possible to dedicate separate slots to every lab
in the consortium as has been done in previous years and instead opted to
group the talks thematically, based on the speaker nominations that you
provided while also trying to maintain a good balance in terms of gender
diversity. We're accepting poster submissions and will be selecting 4
additional early career speakers based on those abstracts so there are
still opportunities there for any labs not currently represented to appear
in the lineup. Please do get in touch if you have any feedback on the
webpage itself or on the running of the meeting. Please also feel free to
share the registration link with other labs at your institution who may be
interested in attending. Really hope you can join us for what promises to
be a fun couple of days!
All the best
Redmond
____________________________
Redmond G. O'Connell, PhD
Professor in Decision Neuroscience
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience & School of Psychology
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
Dublin 2, Ireland.
+353 1 896 4543
http://oconnell-lab.com
--
Dr Richard Aveyard
Senior Technical Specialist
York NeuroImaging Centre
University of York, UK
Hello,
Just a quick reminder that we have a YNiC seminar *tomorrow* (Thursday 1st
of June) at 4pm. This will be the last one of the term and will be given by *Dr
Daniel Baker, Dr Lauren Welbourne and Dr Joel Martin.*
*Title:* Non-canonical binocular pathways in human vision
*Summary:*
The classical view of binocular combination is that signals from the two
eyes remain anatomically segregated until they reach V1, where they are
combined. However there are additional locations in the brain where
binocular combination might occur independently of V1, and which subserve
functions other than conscious visual perception. These include the network
of subcortical nuclei responsible for determining pupil diameter, and a
potential direct koniocellular projection from LGN to MT that might process
rapid motion. We know relatively little about how binocular combination
operates in these pathways, so conducted an fMRI study in which five
different stimuli were presented either monocularly or binocularly. The
stimuli include flickering gratings, a flickering disc (intended to
stimulate light-sensitive pathways), and rapidly drifting achromatic and
isoluminant stimuli (intended to target motion pathways). We will report
the results of whole brain and ROI-based analyses.
Refreshments will be provided for those attending the talk at YNiC, or you
can catch it on zoom using the following link:
https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd=UEluT1lMd3V5azY5YzNmWkJCV1VTdz…
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd%3…>
We hope to see you there! :)
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Hello,
Please find details about upcoming inductions and training below. Please
also note that we have another seminar this Thursday (see details below),
it would be great to see you there!
*YNiC User Inductions*
If you are aware of any new students/staff that will require access
to YNiC and/or an IT account, they must attend a YNiC user induction. Our
next induction will be on *Friday the 2nd of June, at 13:00*. Please ask
them to contact support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk to sign up.
*Level 0 operator training*
*The next L0 training session will be held on Wednesday the 14th of June,
13:00-15:00. * Please note that users requesting Level 0 training should be
a PhD, RA/Postdoc, or staff, and should already have a project proposal
submitted to YNiC. Please email support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk if you have any
questions or wish to book on to this session. Please note that sessions are
limited to 4 trainees, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served
basis. Training must be booked at least a week before the session date, in
order to reserve the scanner booking.
*Seminar*
The next YNiC seminar will be this *Thursday (1st of June) at 4pm* with a
talk from *Dr Daniel Baker *titled *"Non-canonical binocular pathways in
human vision"*. It would be great to see you here at YNiC, where
refreshments will be available after the talk. You can also use the
following link to catch the seminar on zoom
https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd=UEluT1lMd3V5azY5YzNmWkJCV1VTdz…
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd%3…>
Have a great week!
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Today's seminar at 4pm in person or on zoom. Refreshments will be provided.
https://york-ac-uk.zoom
.us/j/96762553290?pwd=UEluT1lMd3V5azY5YzNmWkJCV1VTdz09
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd%3…>
The role of localised sleep spindles in adaptive memory consolidation
Summary:
Sleep spindles are 12-15Hz waxing and waning neural oscillations occurring
during non-rapid eye movement sleep. They are believed to be
mechanistically involved in memory consolidation, the strengthening and
stabilisation of recently acquired memories, through inducing LTP and
synaptic plasticity in learning-related hippocampal-cortical networks. A
recent framework proposes that spindle-mediated memory consolidation should
favour so-called adaptive memories, those experiences that are personally
salient or goal-relevant. In this talk, I will present an outline for a
study designed to directly test this hypothesis for the first time. I will
employ a lateralised encoding task and present stimuli to a single visual
field that should create distinct encoding representations in the
contralateral hemisphere. Memory for items in one visual field will be
prioritised for consolidation by being associated with a financial reward
if remembered at a post-sleep test. I hypothesise that during sleep, sleep
spindle activity will be heightened over the rewarded hemisphere (compared
with unrewarded), and that this spindle activity will correlate with memory
for the high-reward items.
See you all there
Becky
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Hello,
Please find details about upcoming inductions and training below. Please
also note that we have a seminar this Thursday (see details below), it
would be great to see you there!
*YNiC User Inductions*
If you are aware of any new students/staff that will require access to
YNiC and/or
an IT account, they must attend a YNiC user induction. Our next induction
will be on *Friday the 2nd of June, at 13:00*. Please ask them to contact
support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk to sign up.
*Level 0 operator training*
*The next L0 training session will be held on Wednesday the 14th of June,
13:00-15:00. * Please note that users requesting Level 0 training should be
a PhD, RA/Postdoc, or staff, and should already have a project proposal
submitted to YNiC. Please email support(a)ynic.york.ac.uk if you have any
questions or wish to book on to this session. Please note that sessions are
limited to 4 trainees, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served
basis. Training must be booked at least a week before the session date, in
order to reserve the scanner booking.
*Seminar*
The next YNiC seminar will be this *Thursday (25th of May) at 4pm* with a
talk from *Dr Dan Denis *titled "*The role of localised sleep spindles in
adaptive memory consolidation"*. It would be great to see you here at YNiC,
where refreshments will be available after the talk. You can also use the
following link to catch the seminar on zoom https://york-ac-uk.zoom
.us/j/96762553290?pwd=UEluT1lMd3V5azY5YzNmWkJCV1VTdz09
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd%3…>
Have a great week!
Many thanks,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Ashton, PhD
Senior Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
Working days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Hi all,
Don't forget we have a YNiC seminar by *Dr Tirso Gonzalez Alam *titled "*Visual
to default network pathways: A double dissociation between semantic and
spatial cognition**" *tomorrow (Thursday) at 4pm. The seminar will be in
person at YNiC.
You can also use the following link to catch the seminar on zoom
https://york-ac-uk.zoom
.us/j/96762553290?pwd=UEluT1lMd3V5azY5YzNmWkJCV1VTdz09
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/96762553290?pwd%3…>
See you there!
Becky
*Visual to default network pathways: A double dissociation between semantic
and spatial cognition*
Tirso Gonzalez-Alam, Katya-Krieger-Redwood, Dominika Varga, Zhiyao Gao,
Aidan Horner, Tom Hartley, Magdalena Sliwinska, David Pitcher, Jonathan
Smallwood, Elizabeth Jefferies
*Abstract*
The Default Mode Network (DMN) often deactivates to visual input yet it can
couple to visual cortex, and it is composed of multiple subsystems that
might differ in their degree of visual coupling or in the memory
representations that they support. We used a combination of univariate,
connectivity and multivariate fMRI analyses across three samples (combined
N > 250) to investigate the architecture connecting visual cortex to DMN,
and the engagement of visual-DMN pathways in memory-guided decisions across
two domains (semantic and spatial). Participants learned virtual
environments consisting of buildings populated with objects, with half of
the buildings containing objects from a single semantic category allowing
them to associate space with meaning. In a second session, they made
spatial and semantic decisions about these buildings and objects in the
scanner. We found semantic and spatial judgements engaged distinct DMN
subsystems. Frontotemporal DMN regions were primarily engaged by semantic
judgements and showed stronger connectivity to object perception regions in
lateral ventral occipital cortex, while medial temporal DMN regions were
more strongly recruited during spatial judgements and showed stronger
connectivity to medial visual regions involved in processing scenes.
Clusters in angular gyrus and ventral lateral occipital cortex,
topographically situated between these pathways, were implicated in the
integration of semantic and spatial information, suggesting a mechanism for
the interaction of these distinct visual-to-DMN pathways. These results
show how processing streams that capture different unimodal to heteromodal
transformations relevant to conceptual and spatial processing might
interact at multiple levels of the cortical hierarchy to produce coherent
cognition.
--
Rebecca Lowndes
Research Technician
York Neuroimaging Centre
