ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6317-8549
Current Organisation
Leuven University Hospital
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Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 09-10-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.10.09.328609
Abstract: The exquisite capacity of primates to detect and recognize faces is crucial for social interactions. Although disentangling the neural basis of human face recognition remains a key goal in neuroscience, direct evidence at the single-neuron level is virtually nonexistent. We recorded from face-selective neurons in human visual cortex, in a region characterized by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations for faces compared to objects (i.e. the occipital face area, OFA). The majority of visually responsive neurons in this fMRI activation showed strong selectivity at short latencies for faces compared to objects. Feature scrambled faces and face-like objects could also drive these neurons, suggesting that the OFA is not tightly-tuned to the visual attributes that typically define whole human faces. These single-cell recordings within the human face processing system provide vital experimental evidence linking previous imaging studies in humans and invasive studies in animal models.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 19-01-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.16.524331
Abstract: Investigators in neuroscience have turned to Big Data to address replication and reliability issues by increasing s le sizes, statistical power, and representativeness of data. These efforts unveil new questions about integrating data arising from distinct sources and instruments. We focus on the most frequently assessed cognitive domain - memory testing - and demonstrate a process for reliable data harmonization across three common measures. We aggregated global raw data from 53 studies totaling N = 10,505 in iduals. A mega-analysis was conducted using empirical bayes harmonization to remove site effects, followed by linear models adjusting for common covariates. A continuous item response theory (IRT) model estimated each in idual’s latent verbal learning ability while accounting for item difficulties. Harmonization significantly reduced inter-site variance while preserving covariate effects, and our conversion tool is freely available online. This demonstrates that large-scale data sharing and harmonization initiatives can address reproducibility and integration challenges across the behavioral sciences. We present a global effort to devise harmonization procedures necessary to meaningfully leverage big data.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 03-2023
DOI: 10.1037/NEU0000850
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 15-02-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.02.11.22270818
Abstract: Emerging evidence suggests brain white matter alterations in adolescents with early-onset psychosis (EOP age of onset years). However, as neuroimaging methods vary and s le sizes are modest, results remain inconclusive. Using harmonized data processing protocols and a mega-analytic approach, we compared white matter microstructure in EOP and healthy controls (CTR) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Our s le included 321 adolescents with EOP (mean age: 16.3 ± 1.4 years, 46.4% females) and 265 adolescent CTR (mean age: 16.0 ± 1.7 years, 57.7% females) pooled from nine sites. All sites extracted mean fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD) for 25 white matter regions of interest per participant. ComBat harmonization was performed for all DTI measures to adjust for scanner differences. Multiple linear regression models were fitted to investigate case-control differences and associations with clinical variables in regional DTI measures. We found widespread lower FA in EOP compared to CTR, with the largest effect sizes in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (Cohen’s d = 0.37), posterior corona radiata ( d = 0.32), and superior fronto□occipital fasciculus ( d = 0.31). We also found widespread higher RD and more localized higher MD and AD. We detected significant effects of diagnostic subgroup, sex, and duration of illness, but not medication status. Using the largest EOP DTI s le to date, our findings suggest a profile of widespread white matter microstructure alterations in adolescents with EOP, most prominently in male patients with early-onset schizophrenia and patients with a shorter duration of illness.
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
Date: 03-11-2021
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0349-21.2021
Abstract: The exquisite capacity of primates to detect and recognize faces is crucial for social interactions. Although disentangling the neural basis of human face recognition remains a key goal in neuroscience, direct evidence at the single-neuron level is limited. We recorded from face-selective neurons in human visual cortex in a region characterized by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations for faces compared with objects. The majority of visually responsive neurons in this fMRI activation showed strong selectivity at short latencies for faces compared with objects. Feature-scrambled faces and face-like objects could also drive these neurons, suggesting that this region is not tightly tuned to the visual attributes that typically define whole human faces. These single-cell recordings within the human face processing system provide vital experimental evidence linking previous imaging studies in humans and invasive studies in animal models. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We present the first recordings of face-selective neurons in or near an fMRI-defined patch in human visual cortex. Our unbiased multielectrode array recordings (i.e., no selection of neurons based on a search strategy) confirmed the validity of the BOLD contrast (faces–objects) in humans, a finding with implications for all human imaging studies. By presenting faces, feature-scrambled faces, and face-pareidolia (perceiving faces in inanimate objects) stimuli, we demonstrate that neurons at this level of the visual hierarchy are broadly tuned to the features of a face, independent of spatial configuration and low-level visual attributes.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2019
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 28-09-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-08-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41380-023-02221-W
Abstract: Converging evidence suggests that schizophrenia (SZ) with primary, enduring negative symptoms (i.e., Deficit SZ (DSZ)) represents a distinct entity within the SZ spectrum while the neurobiological underpinnings remain undetermined. In the largest dataset of DSZ and Non-Deficit (NDSZ), we conducted a meta-analysis of data from 1560 in iduals (168 DSZ, 373 NDSZ, 1019 Healthy Controls (HC)) and a mega-analysis of a subs led data from 944 in iduals (115 DSZ, 254 NDSZ, 575 HC) collected across 9 worldwide research centers of the ENIGMA SZ Working Group (8 in the mega-analysis), to clarify whether they differ in terms of cortical morphology. In the meta-analysis, sites computed effect sizes for differences in cortical thickness and surface area between SZ and control groups using a harmonized pipeline. In the mega-analysis, cortical values of in iduals with schizophrenia and control participants were analyzed across sites using mixed-model ANCOVAs. The meta-analysis of cortical thickness showed a converging pattern of widespread thinner cortex in fronto-parietal regions of the left hemisphere in both DSZ and NDSZ, when compared to HC. However, DSZ have more pronounced thickness abnormalities than NDSZ, mostly involving the right fronto-parietal cortices. As for surface area, NDSZ showed differences in fronto-parietal-temporo-occipital cortices as compared to HC, and in temporo-occipital cortices as compared to DSZ. Although DSZ and NDSZ show widespread overlapping regions of thinner cortex as compared to HC, cortical thinning seems to better typify DSZ, being more extensive and bilateral, while surface area alterations are more evident in NDSZ. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that DSZ and NDSZ are characterized by different neuroimaging phenotypes, supporting a nosological distinction between DSZ and NDSZ and point toward the separate disease hypothesis.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 17-05-2022
Abstract: Persistent sensorimotor impairments after stroke can negatively impact quality of life. The hippoc us is vulnerable to poststroke secondary degeneration and is involved in sensorimotor behavior but has not been widely studied within the context of poststroke upper‐limb sensorimotor impairment. We investigated associations between non‐lesioned hippoc al volume and upper limb sensorimotor impairment in people with chronic stroke, hypothesizing that smaller ipsilesional hippoc al volumes would be associated with greater sensorimotor impairment. Cross‐sectional T1‐weighted magnetic resonance images of the brain were pooled from 357 participants with chronic stroke from 18 research cohorts of the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuoImaging Genetics through Meta‐Analysis) Stroke Recovery Working Group. Sensorimotor impairment was estimated from the FMA‐UE (Fugl‐Meyer Assessment of Upper Extremity). Robust mixed‐effects linear models were used to test associations between poststroke sensorimotor impairment and hippoc al volumes (ipsilesional and contralesional separately Bonferroni‐corrected, P .025), controlling for age, sex, lesion volume, and lesioned hemisphere. In exploratory analyses, we tested for a sensorimotor impairment and sex interaction and relationships between lesion volume, sensorimotor damage, and hippoc al volume. Greater sensorimotor impairment was significantly associated with ipsilesional ( P =0.005 β=0.16) but not contralesional ( P =0.96 β=0.003) hippoc al volume, independent of lesion volume and other covariates ( P =0.001 β=0.26). Women showed progressively worsening sensorimotor impairment with smaller ipsilesional ( P =0.008 β=−0.26) and contralesional ( P =0.006 β=−0.27) hippoc al volumes compared with men. Hippoc al volume was associated with lesion size ( P .001 β=−0.21) and extent of sensorimotor damage ( P =0.003 β=−0.15). The present study identifies novel associations between chronic poststroke sensorimotor impairment and ipsilesional hippoc al volume that are not caused by lesion size and may be stronger in women.
No related grants have been discovered for Nerisa Banaj.