Neural basis underlying the association between thought control ability and happiness: The moderating role of the amygdala.

Thought control ability (TCA) plays an important role in individuals' health and happiness. Previous studies demonstrated that TCA was closely conceptually associated with happiness. However, empirical research supporting this relationship was limited. In addition, the neural basis underlying TCA and how this neural basis influences the relationship between TCA and happiness remain unexplored. In the present study, the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method was adopted to investigate the neuroanatomical basis of TCA in 314 healthy subjects. The behavioral results revealed a significant positive association between TCA and happiness. On the neural level, there was a significant negative correlation between TCA and the gray matter density (GMD) of the bilateral amygdala. Split-half validation analysis revealed similar results, further confirming the stability of the VBM analysis findings. Furthermore, gray matter covariance network and graph theoretical analyses showed positive association between TCA and both the node degree and node strength of the amygdala. Moderation analysis revealed that the GMD of the amygdala moderated the relationship between TCA and happiness. Specifically, the positive association between TCA and self-perceived happiness was stronger in subjects with a lower GMD of the amygdala. The present study indicated the neural basis underlying the association between TCA and happiness and offered a method of improving individual well-being.

The unity and diversity of verbal and visuospatial creativity: Dynamic changes in hemispheric lateralisation.

The investigation of similarities and differences in the mechanisms of verbal and visuospatial creative thinking has long been a controversial topic. Prior studies found that visuospatial creativity was primarily supported by the right hemisphere, whereas verbal creativity relied on the interaction between both hemispheres. However, creative thinking also involves abundant dynamic features that may have been ignored in the previous static view. Recently, a new method has been developed that measures hemispheric laterality from a dynamic perspective, providing new insight into the exploration of creative thinking. In the present study, dynamic lateralisation index was calculated with resting-state fMRI data. We combined the dynamic lateralisation index with sparse canonical correlation analysis to examine similarities and differences in the mechanisms of verbal and visuospatial creativity. Our results showed that the laterality reversal of the default mode network, fronto-parietal network, cingulo-opercular network and visual network contributed significantly to both verbal and visuospatial creativity and consequently could be considered the common neural mechanisms shared by these creative modes. In addition, we found that verbal creativity relied more on the language network, while visuospatial creativity relied more on the somatomotor network, which can be considered a difference in their mechanism. Collectively, these findings indicated that verbal and visuospatial creativity may have similar mechanisms to support the basic creative thinking process and different mechanisms to adapt to the specific task conditions. These findings may have significant implications for our understanding of the neural mechanisms of different types of creative thinking.

Effects of Dopamine on stem cells and its potential roles in the treatment of inflammatory disorders: a narrative review.

Inflammation is the host's protective response against harmful external stimulation that helps tissue repair and remodeling. However, excessive inflammation seriously threatens the patient's life. Due to anti-inflammatory effects, corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and monoclonal antibodies are used to treat various inflammatory diseases, but drug resistance, non-responsiveness, and severe side effect limit their development and application. Therefore, developing other alternative therapies has become essential in anti-inflammatory therapy. In recent years, the in-depth study of stem cells has made them a promising alternative drug for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, and the function of stem cells is regulated by a variety of signals, of which dopamine signaling is one of the main influencing factors. In this review, we review the effects of dopamine on various adult stem cells (neural stem cells, mesenchymal stromal cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and cancer stem cells) and their signaling pathways, as well as the application of some critical dopamine receptor agonists/antagonists. Besides, we also review the role of various adult stem cells in inflammatory diseases and discuss the potential anti-inflammation function of dopamine receptors, which provides a new therapeutic target for regenerative medicine in inflammatory diseases.

Amygdala-based functional connectivity mediates the relationship between thought control ability and trait anxiety.

Thought control ability (TCA) refers to the ability to exclude unwanted thoughts. There has been consistent evidence on the protective effect of TCA on anxiety, that higher TCA is associated with lower anxiety. However, the underlying neural mechanism remains unclear. In this study, with a large sample (N = 495), we investigated how seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) mediates the relationship between TCA and anxiety. Our behaviour results replicated previous findings that TCA is negatively associated with trait anxiety after controlling for gender, age, and depression. More importantly, the RSFC results revealed that TCA is negatively associated with the left amygdala - left frontal pole (LA-LFP), left amygdala - left inferior temporal gyrus (LA-LITG), and left hippocampus - left inferior frontal gyrus (LH-LIFG) connectivity. In addition, a mediation analysis demonstrated that the LA-LFP and LA-LITG connectivity in particular mediated the influence of TCA on trait anxiety. Overall, our study extends previous research by revealing the neural bases underlying the protective effect of TCA on anxiety and pinpointing specific mediating RSFC pathways. Future studies could explore whether targeted TCA training (behavioural or neural) can help alleviate anxiety.

Reduced hippocampal-cortical connectivity during memory suppression predicts the ability to forget unwanted memories.

The ability to suppress unwelcome memories is important for productivity and well-being. Successful memory suppression is associated with hippocampal deactivations and a concomitant disruption of this region's functionality. Much of the previous neuroimaging literature exploring such suppression-related hippocampal modulations has focused on the region's negative coupling with the prefrontal cortex. Task-based changes in functional connectivity between the hippocampus and other brain regions still need further exploration. In the present study, we utilize psychophysiological interactions and seed connectome-based predictive modeling to investigate the relationship between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain as 134 participants attempted to suppress unwanted memories during the Think/No-Think task. The results show that during retrieval suppression, the right hippocampus exhibited decreased functional connectivity with visual cortical areas (lingual and cuneus gyrus), left nucleus accumbens and the brain-stem that predicted superior forgetting of unwanted memories on later memory tests. Validation tests verified that prediction performance was not an artifact of head motion or prediction method and that the negative features remained consistent across different brain parcellations. These findings suggest that systemic memory suppression involves more than the modulation of hippocampal activity-it alters functional connectivity patterns between the hippocampus and visual cortex, leading to successful forgetting.

Everyday Creativity is Associated with Increased Frontal Electroencephalography Alpha Activity During Creative Ideation.

Everyday creativity is the basic ability of human survival and penetrates every aspect of life. Nevertheless, the neural mechanisms underlying everyday creativity was largely unexplored. In this study, seventy-five participants completed the creative behaviour inventory, a tool for assessing creative behaviour in daily life. The participants also completed the alternate uses task (AUT) during an electroencephalography (EEG) assessment to evaluate creative thinking. Alpha power was used to quantify neural oscillations during the creative process, while alpha coherence was used to quantify information communication between frontal regions and other sites during creative ideation. Moreover, these two task-related quantitative measures were combined to investigate the relationship between individual differences in everyday creativity and EEG alpha activity during creative idea generation. Compared with the reference period, increased alpha power was observed in the frontal cortex of the right hemisphere and increased functional coupling was observed between frontal and parietal/temporal regions during the activation period. Interestingly, individual differences in everyday creativity were associated with distinct patterns of EEG alpha activity. Specifically, individuals with higher everyday creativity had increased alpha power in the frontal cortex, and increased changes in coherence in frontal-temporal regions of the right hemisphere while performing the AUT. It might indicate that individuals with higher everyday creativity had an enhanced ability to focus on internal information processing and control bottom-up stimuli, as well as better selection of novel semantic information when performing creative ideation tasks.