Is it possible to resolve functional activity from specific cortical layers in humans using FMRI? Discuss in relation to contemporary evidence.
The preliminary objective of functional MRI (i.e. fMRI) includes the assessment of brain cortical circuits for evaluating their flow of information. The cortical layers of the human brain prove to be the junction of efferent and afferent connections. Various research studies provide a multitude of findings regarding the directional functional activities of these cortical layers. The human motor cortex remains connected with the premotor and somatosensory areas of the human brain. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) exhibits the capacity of recording somatosensory input and cortico-spinal motor output from the deep cortical areas of the human brain (Huber, et al., 2017). Cerebral blood volume-based fMRI utilization offers the scope of recording the cortical activity of the human brain in the absence of vascular biases. fMRI effectively measures the output and input activity of the primary motor cortex as well as the laminar activity. Laminar resting-state fMRI has the potential to explore the directional connectivity pattern across several regions of the human brain. fMRI explores the hemodynamic changes that occur under the impact of blood vessel dilation and oxygen consumption in the human brain. The fMRI-based recording of the resting state and stimulus-driven states of the cortical layers substantiates the requirement enhancing the spatial resolution. The assessment by (Lawrence, Formisano, Muckli, & de-Lange, 2017) reveals the capacity of fMRI to effectively capture distinct cortical layers’ responses in the human brain. fMRI assists in evaluating the feedback and feedforward brain responses separately. This indeed helps in exploring the interactive pattern between various brain regions at a granular level as compared to the conventional radiological intervention. The capacity of laminar fMRI to segregate the feedback responses of various layers of the sensory cortex makes this technique as the most promising intervention for resolving the functional activity from specific cortical layers in humans. The intervention like fMRI might also assist in evaluating the neural causes of synaesthesia through cortical assessment in the human population (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). fMRI is a systematic technique that provides excellent temporal resolution and non-invasively performs cortical assessment in the absence of radiation. The unique functionality of fMRI expands its scope of utilization for evaluating the physiology of cortical layers in human brain. Presented argumentative essay critically examines various arguments in favour of and against the fMRI application in the functional assessment of these cortical layers. The essay also recommends various strategies and approaches to mitigate the controversies related to the fMRI implications on the functional evaluation of the human brain.
fMRI extends applications in the brain circuitry assessment interventions used to evaluate the response of the autonomous nervous system against nausea. Indeed, nausea leads to elevation in the sympathetic response and a reduction in parasympathetic response that leads to the decrease in cardiac function and enhancement of the cardiac rate (Kim, Napadow, Kuo, & Barbieri, 2012). Positive correlations between fMRI signals in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and elevated cortical/emotional function locations at the time of nausea indicate the impact of motion sickness on the cardiovagal modulation cortical control in the human brain. The study by (Kim, Napadow, Kuo, & Barbieri, 2012) reveals the capacity of fMRI in terms of evaluating the nausea-based sympathovagal shift that occurs under the impact of brain activity across the areas that handle the significant functions like higher cognitive function and emotion. The nausea-based cardiovagal modulation varies in accordance with the functional impact of effective, cognitive, and interceptive brain regions. fMRI assists in evaluating the autonomic nervous system response of the cortical layers of the brain circuitry during nausea episode. These evidence-based findings affirm the effectiveness of fMRI in brain’s cortical assessment and related functional exploration. Researchers continue to utilize electrocortical stimulation mapping to evaluate the sensory, motor, and language functions of the human brain (Austermuehle, et al., 2017). Epilepsy patients require assessment of their executive functions during pre-operative planning to reduce the risk of eloquent cortex deterioration following the resective brain intervention. However, fMRI proves to be a significant intervention that effectively excludes the critical language regions in the brain cortex. This technique helps in evaluating language lateralization while streamlining the search parameters for articulate cortical regions in the human brain. The outcomes eventually assist in the implantation of subdural electrode during the intraoperative period. The analysis by (Burciu, et al., 2017) reveals the potential of trihexyphenidyl in terms of impacting the fMRI output related to the somatosensory cortex in patients affected with cervical dystonia (CD). The administration of trihexyphenidyl in CD patients modifies the primary somatosensory cortex controls to a considerable extent. The subsequent utilization of fMRI fails to record the original cortical signal deterioration that occurs in CD patients without medication intervention. This defect in fMRI signal recording capacity requires further exploration through prospective studies with the objective of evaluating the fMRI capacity and precision to explore the cortical functions in CD patients.
The assessment by (Schaefer, et al., 2017) advocates the effectiveness of Markov Random Field-based resting-state fMRI and task-fMRI interventions in undertaking cerebral cortex parcellations with the objective of evaluating the visuotopic and somatotopic brain characteristics. The researchers believe that the fMRI-based exploration of distinct computational units (i.e. subareal cortical characteristics) will reveal the neurobiological meaningful features of human brain across multiple dimensions. The fMRI-based multiresolution parcellations offer promising results related to the functionality of various cortical layers. The study outcomes however, lack scalability despite the large sample size. This is because the scientific community needs to methodically explore the exact mechanism that the fMRI utilizes while undertaking parcellation analysis of the neurobiological atoms in the human cerebral cortex. Conventional MRI intervention captures occipitotemporal and occpitoparietal atrophy across the right hemisphere of the human brain with the objective of evaluating posterior cortical atrophy (da-Silva, Millington, Bridge, James-Galton, & Plant, 2017). However, this intervention does not effectively demarcate disparate posterior volume loss in patients affected with Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD). fMRI provides significant information regarding resting oxidative metabolism, oxygen extraction fraction, resting blood flow, and cerebrovascular reactivity while utilizing blood oxygen-dependent contrast and arterial spin-labeling (Lajoie, et al., 2017). These findings raise questions regarding the credibility of fMRI in the direct evaluation of cortical functions in AD patients. Contrarily, the assessment by (Wang, Mantini, & Gillebert, 2017) advocates the potential of rt-fMRI (Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging) neurofeedback training in terms of modulating the brain signals. This brain signal modulation assists in modifying the behavioral and neural outcomes in patients affected with stroke and associated clinical manifestations. The study findings reveal the capacity of fMRI in terms of delineating the subcortical and cortical regions of the human brain. This resultantly assists in evaluating the resting state connectivity between these cortical/subcortical areas. The scale of learned self-modulation varies inversely with the extent of motor impairment. The researchers utilize these fMRI findings while conducting rt-fMRI neurofeedback studies in the human population. fMRI based neurofeedback facilitates the self-regulation of cortical function in the context of acquiring the desired behavioral outcomes in the treated subjects.
fMRI effectively utilizes visual presentation paradigm to evaluate the sentence reading and word reading capacity of the human subjects (Zhou & Shu, 2017). fMRI-based assessment facilitates the evaluation of supplementary eye field, the frontal eye field, the parietal eye field, extrastriate cortex, and primary visual cortex across medial frontal gyrus, superior prefrontal gyrus, and posterior parietal cortex in the human brain. The eye movements and word reading tasks execute through the coordination of occipitotemporal, parietal, and frontal cortices along with other dorsal and ventral regions of the human brain. The assessment by (Zhou & Shu, 2017) reveals the capacity of fMRI in terms of delineating these brain regions to evaluate the visual word reading and eye movements in human subjects. The evaluation by (d-Heuvel, et al., 2016) advocates the relationship of the resting?state fMRI connectivity pattern with the cortical regions’ inhibitory and excitatory chemoarchitecture in the human brain. This provides some insight and understanding of the synchronization and neural communication patterns in the human brain. These facts reveal the potential of fMRI in terms of analysing cortical functionality in humans to a measurable extent. Capacity of fMRI in evaluating the impact of cortical brain receptors and neurotransmitter type on the activity and responsiveness of post-synaptic neurons requires evaluation by the scientific community. Researchers are unable to radically substantiate the resting?state fMRI functional connectivity patterns in the context of evaluating the complete cortical activity of the human brain. fMRI can track and segregate the anatomical information in the human brain. However, the mechanism of analysing this information along with its outcomes warrants prospective research interventions by the scientific community.
The evaluation by (Cochereau, et al., 2016) affirms the relevance of the resting state connectivity in the human brain in the context of assessing the responsive cortical stimulation in patients affected with glioma. The study findings affirm the capacity of fMRI in terms of partially undertaking the independent component analysis to identify the surgically removable as well as eloquent cortical regions in the epilepsy patients. This raises the question regarding the independent capacity of fMRI in undertaking the cortical functional assessment of the human brain. The researchers need to evaluate the combination approaches that necessitate the administration of mixed methods with the objective of improving the cortical evaluation capacity of fMRI in the human subjects. The assessment by (Cichy, Pantazis, & Oliva, 2016) followed the same integration strategy with the objective of evaluating the spatio-temporal dynamics of the human brain. The study deployed fMRI and MEG (magnetoencephalography) interventions with the objective of acquiring the temporally and spatially combined neuronal activation characterization in the human subjects. The concomitant assessment by fMRI and MEG revealed the occipital pole activity that anteriorly impacted the dorsal and ventral visual streams. The researchers tracked the fMRI-MEG correspondence across the ventral and dorsal regions before the initial visual cortex. Indeed, researchers need to comparatively analyze the sole capacity of fMRI in determining similar outcomes as compared to the capacity of various integrative approaches.
The assessment by (Brennan, Peck, & Holodny, 2016) reveals the fMRI-based challenge encountered while evaluating speech localization during the DCS (direct cortical stimulation). This challenge substantially impacts the presurgical planning of patients affected with various cortical abnormalities. fMRI activation leads to a several scientific interpretations. The researchers need to acquire the interpretation closest to the patient scenario for analysing the cortical function. The excitatory regions that experience a high predisposition to the DCS interruption require their functional evaluation through the fMRI intervention. However, these excitatory regions might not experience reliable barricading during DCS since these areas might support the cortical function after their deployment by several downstream/upstream regions. fMRI activations also require localization in accordance with brain lesions to facilitate their precise assessment. fMRI activations also extend the scope of evaluating atypical hemispheric dominance. Researchers need to consider the paradigms where the patients need to vocalize their outputs during fMRI interventions. The conventional paradigms indeed disallow head motion during the cortical assessment. However, the fMRI-based behavioural paradigms exhibit comparable results for the localization and lateralization studies in the human population. The assessment by (Gilson, Moreno-Bote, Ponce-Alvarez, Ritter, & Deco, 2016) reveals the non-reciprocal nature of various cortical interactions in the human brain. Cortical effective connectivity is indeed based on the feeder and receptor hubs that do not substantially indicate outgoing or incoming connections. These findings indicate the non-uniformity of activity propagation patterns across the cortical regions. fMRI effectively the time-shifted covariances across the spatial and temporal components of the human brain. This provides a clue of the anatomical connectivity pattern across the cortical regions. These findings however, do not provide significant insight of the mechanisms that dominate while evaluating the functional non-uniformity of specific cortical layers in the human brain. Researchers need to explore these facts to understand and evaluate the true potential of fMRI in terms of resolving the functional cortical outcomes.
The assessment by (Dirkx, et al., 2016) reveals the requirement of simultaneous utilization of fMRI and EMG for sampling the brain activity in tremor dominant patients affected with Parkinson’s disease. The resting tremors in Parkinson patients are based on the pathophysiological alterations across cerebello-thalamo-cortical motor loop and basal ganglia. fMRI-EMG intervention exhibits the potential to explore these alterations for understanding the circuitry mechanisms that dominate the tremor initiation in Parkinson patients. Tremor amplitude substantially impacts the cerebral activity across the cortical and thalamic regions. This change in cerebral function impacts the network functionality of the basal ganglia that eventually disrupts the cerebello-thalamo-cortical motor loop in the affected patients. fMRI-EMG utilization systematically evaluates these activity changes that assist in analysing the etiology and neural complications of Parkinson’s disease. These findings again raise the question of single-handed capacity of fMRI in undertaking cortical functional analysis in the absence of the parallel approaches. The evaluation by (Wise, Frangos, & Komisaruk, 2016) affirms the effectiveness of fMRI in terms of exploring the therapeutic imagery applications in the human brain. The findings provide substantial evidence for exploring the impact of fMRI-based neurofeedback intervention to enhance the erogenous human experience. The study reveals the fMRI capacity in terms of evaluating the imagined tactile self-stimulation across the cortical brain regions. The study findings advocate the effectiveness of fMRI in terms of exploring the activities of the reward system components, limbic structures, sensory-motor integration regions and primary/secondary sensory cortices of the human brain. However, the study methodology does not elaboratively specify the mechanistic rationale that facilitates these fMRI implications in studying the impact of erogenous stimulation on the cortical layers in humans. These findings reaffirm the requirement of mechanistic exploration of fMRI implications and effectiveness in the context of resolving the cortical functionality.
The assessment by (Ferenczi, et al., 2016) affirms the potential of fMRI in terms of evaluating the expression modulation caused by the medial prefrontal cortex in patients affected with anhedonia. The study findings reveal the fMRI-based assessment of overactivity that substantially overrides the reward-motivated behaviors and associated functional interactions in the cortical regions. fMRI exhibits the potential to capture the medial prefrontal cortex-based fluctuations in the striatal response that potentially degrades the behavioral motivation related to the dopaminergic stimulation. Similarly, the findings by (Schneider, et al., 2016) affirm the potential of resting-state fMRI in terms of non-invasively evaluating the functional areas of the sensorimotor cortex of the human brain. fMRI intervention does not necessitate the accomplishment of goal-directed tasks before undertaking the cortical functional assessment. Indeed, the pre-surgical evaluation of the sensorimotor cortex function in a range of clinical scenarios offers the potential implications on the assessment and treatment of numerous patients affected with various pathological conditions.
Conclusion
This evidence-based essay critically explored the capacity of fMRI in terms of evaluating the neuronal activation pattern across the cortical regions of the human brain. Numerous research findings advocate the potential of volume-based fMRI in identifying the defects in cortical function and their active networks. However, limited studies have elaborated the detailed functional mechanism utilized by fMRI approach for effectively undertaking the cortical functional analysis. Furthermore, effective utilization of fMRI in various integrative approaches to evaluate cortical function necessitates the requirement of undertaking prospective studies to delineate the true capacity and potential of this technique in undertaking the cortical assessment. Researchers need to explore and establish scientific underpinnings in the context of enhancing the meaningful and scalable utilization of fMRI for single-handedly resolving the functional activity from specific cortical layers in the human brain.
References
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