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Major depressive disorder is associated with aberrant topological organizations of brain networks. However, whether this aberrance is shown in broader frequency bands or in a specific frequency band remains unknown. Fifty patients and fifty gender, age and education matched normal controls underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Frequency dependent topological measures based on graph theory were calculated from wavelet decomposed resting state functional brain signals. In the specific frequency band of 0.03–0.06 14Hz, the clustering coefficient and the global efficiency were reduced while the characteristic path length was increased. Furthermore, patients showed aberrant nodal centralities in the default mode network, executive network and occipital network. Network based statistical analysis revealed system-wise topological alterations in these networks. The finding provides the first systematic evidence that depression is associated with frequency specific global and local topological disruptions and highlights the importance of frequency information in investigating major depressive disorders.

Somatic complaints can be important features of an individual's expression of anxiety. Anxiety-related traits are also risk factors for somatic symptoms. However, it is not known which neuroanatomical mechanisms may be responsible for this relationship. In this study, our first step was to use voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approaches to investigate the neuroanatomical basis underlying somatic complaints in a large sample of healthy subjects. We found a significant positive correlation between somatic complaints and parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) volume adjacent to the entorhinal cortex. Further analysis revealed that the interaction between PHG volume/entorhinal cortex and neuroticism-anxiety (N-Anx) predicted somatic complaints. Specifically, somatic complaints were associated with higher N-Anx for individuals with increased PHG volume. These findings suggest that increased PHG volume and higher trait anxiety can predict vulnerability to somatic complaints in the general population.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a multi-faceted construct consisting of our ability to perceive, monitor, regulate and use emotions. Despite much attention being paid to the neural substrates of EI, little is known of the spontaneous brain activity associated with EI during resting state. We used resting-state fMRI to investigate the association between the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) and EI in a large sample of young, healthy adults. We found that EI was significantly associated with ALFFs in key nodes of two networks: the social emotional processing network (the fusiform gyrus, right superior orbital frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule) and the cognitive control network (the bilateral pre-SMA, cerebellum and right precuneus). These findings suggest that the neural correlates of EI involve several brain regions in two crucial networks, which reflect the core components of EI: emotion perception and emotional control.

Switch costs have been constantly found asymmetrical when switching between two tasks of unequal dominance. We used a combined Stroop-task-switching paradigm and recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) signals to explore the neural mechanism underlying the phenomenon of asymmetrical switch costs. The results revealed that a fronto-central N2 component demonstrated greater negativity in word switch (cW) trials relative to word repeat (wW) trials, and both First P3 and P3b components over the parieto-central region exhibited greater positivity in color switch (wC) trials relative to color repeat (cC) trials, whereas a contrasting switch-related fronto-central SP effect was found to have an opposite pattern for each task. Moreover, the time-frequency analysis showed a right-frontal lower alpha band (9-11 Hz) modulation in the word task, whereas a fronto-central upper alpha band (11-13 Hz) modulation was exclusively found in the color task. These results provide evidence for dissociable neural processes, which are related to inhibitory control and endogenous control, contributing to the generation of asymmetrical switch costs.

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