J. Molina-Mateo

Abnormal synchrony and effective connectivity in patients with schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations.

Auditory hallucinations (AH) are the most frequent positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Hallucinations have been related to emotional processing disturbances, altered functional connectivity and effective connectivity deficits. Previously, we observed that, compared to healthy controls, the limbic network responses of patients with auditory hallucinations differed when the subjects were listening to emotionally charged words. We aimed to compare the synchrony patterns and effective connectivity of task-related networks between schizophrenia patients with and without AH and healthy controls. Schizophrenia patients with AH (n = 27) and without AH (n = 14) were compared with healthy participants (n = 31). We examined functional connectivity by analyzing correlations and cross-correlations among previously detected independent component analysis time courses. Granger causality was used to infer the information flow direction in the brain regions. The results demonstrate that the patterns of cortico-cortical functional synchrony differentiated the patients with AH from the patients without AH and from the healthy participants. Additionally, Granger-causal relationships between the networks clearly differentiated the groups. In the patients with AH, the principal causal source was an occipital–cerebellar component, versus a temporal component in the patients without AH and the healthy controls. These data indicate that an anomalous process of neural connectivity exists when patients with AH process emotional auditory stimuli. Additionally, a central role is suggested for the cerebellum in processing emotional stimuli in patients with persistent AH.

Brain Connections – Resting State fMRI Functional Connectivity

With the introduction of electroencephalography (EEG) in 1930, researchers began to explore spontaneous activity in the brain by recording the individual, independently of any task. Subsequently, evoked potential studies, where electrical potentials were recorded at the onset of a stimulus, marked a milestone in brain research. Utilizing such methods coupled with experimental psychology, researchers were able to explore task-related brain activity. These early methods paved the way for new approaches to exploring brain function.

Magnetic resonance imaging postprocessing techniques in the study of brain connectivity

Abstract Brain connectivity is a key concept for understanding brain function. Current methods to detect and quantify different types of connectivity with neuroimaging techniques are fundamental for understanding the pathophysiology of many neurologic and psychiatric disorders. This article aims to present a critical review of the magnetic resonance imaging techniques used to measure brain connectivity within the context of the Human Connectome Project. We review techniques used to measure: a) structural connectivity b) functional connectivity (main component analysis, independent component analysis, seed voxel, meta-analysis), and c) effective connectivity (psychophysiological interactions, causal dynamic models, multivariate autoregressive models, and structural equation models). These three approaches make it possible to combine and use different statistical techniques to elaborate mathematical models in the attempt to understand the functioning of the brain. The findings obtained with these techniques must be validated by other techniques for analyzing structural and functional connectivity. This information is integrated in the Human Connectome Project where all these approaches converge to provide a representation of all the different models of connectivity.

Técnicas de análisis de posproceso en resonancia magnetica para el estudio de la conectividad cerebral

Brain connectivity is a key concept for understanding brain function. Current methods to detect and quantify different types of connectivity with neuroimaging techniques are fundamental for understanding the pathophysiology of many neurologic and psychiatric disorders. This article aims to present a critical review of the magnetic resonance imaging techniques used to measure brain connectivity within the context of the Human Connectome Project. We review techniques used to measure: a) structural connectivity b) functional connectivity (main component analysis, independent component analysis, seed voxel, meta-analysis), and c) effective connectivity (psychophysiological interactions, causal dynamic models, multivariate autoregressive models, and structural equation models). These three approaches make it possible to combine and use different statistical techniques to elaborate mathematical models in the attempt to understand the functioning of the brain. The findings obtained with these techniques must be validated by other techniques for analyzing structural and functional connectivity. This information is integrated in the Human Connectome Project where all these approaches converge to provide a representation of all the different models of connectivity.

Valoración del alumnado sobre distintos formatos de vídeos utilizados en docencia inversa en prácticas de laboratorio.

Los autores agradecen al Instituto de Ciencias de la Educacion de la universitat Politecnica de Valencia su apoyo al grupo de Innovacion e-MACAFI y al Proyecto PIME/2016/A/017.

Percepción de los estudiantes sobre la utilización de screencast en la enseñanza de la física

En los ultimos anos, screencast se ha utilizado ampliamente como herramienta de ensenanza en diferentes areas. Un screencast es un video corto obtenido a partir de la captura de la pantalla del ordenador acompanada de la narracion de un profesor. Este trabajo explora la opinion de los estudiantes de primer curso de Universidad en relacion con los beneficios que el uso de screencast aporta a la mejora del aprendizaje de la fisica, con el uso que los estudiantes hacen del screencast, y tambien por que deciden usarlo o no. Se han preparado y subido a la plataforma, varios screencasts en los que se tratan aspectos clave de la fisica en los que es sabido que los estudiantes encuentran dificultades. Sakai/PoliformaT es una plataforma de aprendizaje desarrollada en la Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV, www.upv.es/index-en.htm), a traves del proyecto Sakai (https://sakaiproject.org). En promedio, cada screencast fue visionado mas de 100 veces, por estudiantes de un grupo de fisica de 117 alumnos. Trabajos previos sugieren que screencast es percibido por los alumnos como beneficioso y concluyen que se obtienen mejoras en el aprendizaje. Para verificar esta percepcion, se realizo una encuesta anonima que constaba de 10 preguntas de respuesta multiple y una pregunta abierta. Se analizo la relacion entre el uso de los screencast y la percepcion de los estudiantes de haber obtenido beneficios en cuanto a una mejor comprension de la materia tratada. Tambien se analizo la relacion entre el uso de screencast y la nota en preguntas relacionadas de un examen. Los resultados indican que la mayoria de los estudiantes opinan que los screencast son utiles para su aprendizaje ayudandoles a comprender conceptos relevantes y mejorando asi sus resultados.