Inferring common cognitive mechanisms from brain blood-flow lateralization data: a new methodology for fTCD analysis

Abstract

Current neuroimaging techniques with high spatial resolution constrain participant motion so that many natural tasks cannot be carried out. The aim of this paper is to show how a time-locked correlation-analysis of cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) lateralization data, obtained with functional TransCranial Doppler (fTCD) ultrasound, can be used to infer cerebral activation patterns across tasks. In a first experiment we demonstrate that the proposed analysis method results in data that are comparable with the standard Lateralization Index (LI) for within-task comparisons of CBFV patterns, recorded during cued word generation (CWG) at two difficulty levels. In the main experiment we demonstrate that the proposed analysis method shows correlated blood-flow patterns for two different cognitive tasks that are known to draw on common brain areas, CWG, and Music Synthesis. We show that CBFV patterns for Music and CWG are correlated only for participants with prior musical training. CBFV patterns for tasks that draw on distinct brain areas, the Tower of London and CWG, are not correlated. The proposed methodology extends conventional fTCD analysis by including temporal information in the analysis of cerebral blood-flow patterns to provide a robust, non-invasive method to infer whether common brain areas are used in different cognitive tasks. It complements conventional high resolution imaging techniques.

Hemispheric language organization after congenital left brain lesions: A comparison between functional transcranial Doppler and functional MRI

“…Hemispheric lateralization for language differed significantly between CFBL patients and controls with a LH dominance in the control group and a prevalent activation of right hemisphere in CFBL patients. Interestingly, the shape of the fTCD curves in the two groups was different, suggesting possibly different neural substrates activated by the task, as reported by Meyer, Spray, Fairlie, and Uomini ().…”

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

“…This proposed linkage between the complex nested routines of cleaver-making and the use of symbols (words) as scaffolds for managing the sequencing of tasks, complements neuroimaging research on shared networks for tool-making and language (Uomini and Meyer 2013;Meyer et al 2014;Stout et al 2015;Putt et al 2019), and the experimental studies showing the effectiveness of teaching with language in learning complex tool-making routines (Morgan et al 2015;Lombao et al 2017).…”

Functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound for Measurement of Hemispheric Lateralization During Visual Memory and Visual Search Cognitive Tasks

“…Therefore, if the MCA diameter changes under certain conditions, different approaches may be needed to measure neural activation accurately [16]. One such approach is lateralization, which is measured by comparing blood flow velocity in paired (left and right) cerebral arteries during the execution of specific cognitive tasks [17], [18]. Besides helping account for MCA diameter changes, lateralization provides the ability to differentiate between an increase in CBFV caused by stimuli and an increase caused by unrelated blood flow changes, for example, variations due to breathing [19].…”