Newsletter
November 2013
Neuropsychophysiology Lab
IN THIS ISSUE
Message from lab
director
Lab Presentations
Recently in Press
Traveling around
Interview
Telling their stories
Reading Suggestions
Message
from lab
director
It’s Christmas, with people full of
kindness and a giving spirit, but is it also
true for people in Science?
Christmas is all around us, songs are
everywhere, streets are starting to fill
up with lights… and most of all, there
is an increasing sense of joy, altruism
and genuine giving. Kindheartedness is
found even in science. Helping, assisting
and collaborating are all part of making
successful developments in science
worldwide.
As Professor Adam Grant, mentions
in the Monitor on Psychology, October
2012, it is important to recognize natural
givers and reward them, but even more
important to screen out the ones that are
merely takers.
On that note, it is with great pleasure
that I am addressing to our selfless and
giving lab members with this editorial.
Our solid teamwork has helped our lab in
initiating as well as completing number
of exciting and important projects.
Keeping the tradition of sharing and
collaborating with other institutions has
been most fruitful for our lab and we
hope for this to continue for a long time.
Given the successful collaborations
with our extended scientific family
members worldwide, the contribution
and dedication of our team oriented lab
members is worthy of a special praise.
Working together as a team, we are
bound to reach new heights, as well as
help our lab in growing and expanding
to all quarters of the world. I would like
to congratulate our lab for the wonderful
work being done this past year. I truly
appreciate all the efforts of our lab
members and collaborators, all of whom
have worked day and night to make it a
successful, friendly, and happy place to
work. I hope this will remain to be our
benchmark for all the upcoming years.
I wish you all Happy Holidays, Merry
Christmas and a Very Happy new 2014!
2
Lab Presentations
Marcelo Dias, MSc student
Based on his master’s thesis entitled “The role of attention in the
processing of emotional vocalizations: ERP insights”, Marcelo
presented electrophysiological results on the processing of emotional
and neutral non-verbal vocalizations. Data showed that emotional
vocalizations elicit more positive P300 amplitudes as compared to
neutral vocalizations.
Luciana Gomes, PhD Student
Luciana’s presentation main aim was to summarize key aspects
of the current thinking on fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The
pathogenesis of the fatigue experienced by MS patients is not fully
understood. The most recent theories on the pathophysiology of
fatigue in MS were analyzed as well as the pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches to its treatment.
Sónia Sousa, PhD Student
Based on her PhD project, Sónia presented a review of DTI studies about
the microstructural developmental trajectory of the prefrontal cortex
(PFC), frontal lobe connections and linkage between behavioral measures
on executive functioning and PFC development. The results point to a
protracted developmental trajectory within the PFC (namely dorsolateral
+ orbitofrontal) and subcortical areas (striatum, thalamus) translated in
higher values of fractional anisotropy and lower values of mean, radial
and axial diffusivity with increasing age. In this line, studies that correlate
behavioral with structural measures add evidence for a progressive
efficiency achievement on executing functioning performance paralleled by
white matter development from childhood up to early adulthood.
Catarina Fernandes, PhD Student
Based on her PhD project, Catarina presented some data about
sentence norms used by Brazilian children and adolescents, using the
“Cloze Procedure”. The cloze procedure is a method of analysis used
for the categorization of a sentence context according to their relative
degree of constraint and to quantify the responses elicited by that
sentence context. Cloze probabilities depend on various factors such
as age and culture. Thus, it becomes very important to define sentence
norms for the local population.
Recently in Press
3
In Press
Recently accepted for publication an article by Jorge Leite (first
author) and colleagues. In this article the authors hypothesize that
transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) therapy can contribute
to the cognitive symptoms amelioration in PD patients, differently of
levodopa therapy and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) that have yield
controversial results. Specifically, they argue that the simultaneous
deliver of cathodal tDCS (or ctDCS), over
the right prefrontal cortex with anodal tDCS
(or atDCS) to left prefrontal cortex could
be potentially beneficial for PD patients, either by mechanisms
of homeostatic plasticity and by increases in the extracellular
dopamine levels over the striatum.
Leite, J., Gonçalves, O.F., & Carvalho, S. (In press). Facilitative effects of bihemispheric tDCS in cognitive deficits of Parkinson Disease patients. Medical
Hypotheses. Doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2013.11.021
Another accepted article for publication by Ana Osório (first author)
and colleagues. In this study the authors related two Genetic
syndromes –Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) and Williams syndrome
(WS) because these syndromes offer unique opportunities to
explore the links between specific genes and neurodevelopment
disorders. The results showed that both syndromes present, albeit
in distinct degrees, behavioral signs of the autistic spectrum. These
results contribute to a better definition of
the neurobehavioral profiles of SMS and WS
that may, in turn, prove beneficial for early
diagnosis and intervention.
Osório, A., Sampaio, A., Regueiro, R.M., Garayzábal-Heinze, E., Carracedo,
A., Prieto, M.F. (in press). Autism Spectrum Symptoms in SmithMagenis Syndrome and Williams Syndrome: Comparisons and Contrasts.
International Journal of Developmental Disabilities.
4
Recently in Press
Published Articles
Recently published an article by Jorge Alves (first author) and
colleagues. In this study they present the first systematic review
and meta-analysis of neuropsychological and brain morphometry
studies comparing posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) to typical
amnestic Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This work
contributes to the development of cognitive
and cerebral quantitative phenotypes of
Alzheimer’s disease variants, which could
assist AD diagnosis and future therapies.
Alves, J., Soares, J. M., Sampaio, A. & Gonçalves, O. F. (2013). Posterior
cortical atrophy and Alzheimer’s disease: A meta-analytic review of
neuropsychological and brain morphometry studies. Brain Imaging and
Behavior, 7(3), 353-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11682-013-9236-1
Recently published an article by Joana Coutinho (first author) and
colleagues. In this study the authors tested whether a pro-social
orientation, as expressed in terms of Extraversion and Agreeableness,
is associated with a specific grey matter phenotype. Voxel-based
morphometry (VBM) was used to investigate the correlation between
brain structure and the personality traits of Agreeableness and
Extraversion. We found that Extraversion was negatively correlated
with grey matter density in the middle frontal and orbitofrontal
gyri while Agreeableness was negatively correlated with grey
matter density in the inferior parietal, middle occipital and posterior
cingulate gyri. These results suggest that prosocial personality traits seem to be associated with decreases in grey
matter density in more frontal regions for Extraversion, and more
posterior regions for Agreeableness.
Coutinho J., Sampaio A., Ferreira, M., Soares J. M, Gonçalves O.F. (2013) “Brain
Correlates of Pro-Social Personality Traits: A Voxel-Based Morphometry
Study”. Brain Imaging and Behavior. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11682-013-9227-2
Recently in Press
5
Published Articles
Another published article by Jorge Alves (first author) being
amongst the top 3 high impact papers. In this article the authors
provide a balanced perspective on the current evidence of cognitive
intervention for healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment and
several types of dementia. Future directions for the advancement of
the field are also provided.
Alves, J., Magalhães, R., Machado, A., Gonçalves, O.F., Sampaio, A., & Petrosyan, A. (2013). Nonpharmacological cognitive intervention for aging and dementia: Current perspectives. World Journal of
Clinical Cases, 1(8), 233-241. http://dx.doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v1.i8.233
6
Traveling around
November 3rd to 9th 2013, Maastricht, Netherlands
Course on BrainVoyager QX software
Ana Ganho Ávila was at Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience
in Maastricht with Brain Innovation B.V., taking a Brain Voyager course in collaboration
with Professor Jorge Almeida’s PROACTION Lab, from Coimbra University. Brain Innovation
experts in brain imaging and masters of the BrainVoyager QX software package
conducted the course. After a 3 days basic course covering important aspects of MRI/
fMRI data analysis and hands-on exercises, the remaining lectures were completely
customized focussing on questions generated by the research team. More advanced
topics where Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis (MVPA), Classification and Retinotopy (namely
the most recent technique of population receptive field analysis).
November 29th 2013, Harvard Medical School
Basic principles of neuroimaging
Sandra Carvalho, PhD and Jorge Leite, PhD, gave a lecture about “Basic principles of
neuroimaging“ on the Neurorehabilitation course at Neuromodulation Lab, Harvard
Medical School.
Interview
7
This month with Paula Castiajo, new PhD Student
What prompt your decision to apply
for a PhD grant at our lab?
Since my father was diagnosed with a dementia
about 30 years ago, I developed a strong interest
for the issues regarding clinical neuroscience. My
first contact with neuroscience was during my
Internship at NPL. This experience allowed me to
know not only the work of clinical neuropsychology,
and to acquire important skills of assessment and
rehabilitation in different clinical conditions, but
also to set my preferred area of research. Most
importantly, NPL has a strong international
reputation in the neuropsychology field and high
quality standards in their research, making it the
right place to pursue a PhD in this domain.
Can you let us know a little about
your academic background?
I graduated in Psychology from the University
of Minho, and I hold a Master’s Degree in
Clinical Psychology. I started to do research as an
undergraduate by collaborating in several research
projects, and these collaborations continued after
graduating. These experiences ignited a strong
desire to pursue a scientific research career. For
three years I have been working as a research
fellow in a project funded by the FCT, studying
school readiness in a typically developing sample
of pre-school children. Over the last few years I
have also had the opportunity to investigate the
social cognitive development and neurocognitive
functioning, as well as to collaborate with
experienced researchers in these fields.
Can you do a brief resume about
your PhD project?
In my PhD I intend to better understand the neural
bases of a complex neuropsychiatric disorder such
as schizophrenia (SZ), with the crucial aim of
developing more effective intervention strategies
for this mental illness. I am particularly interested
in exploring the emotional prosody processing
(EPP) in three groups (chronic SZ, early stage SZ
patients and clinical high risk individuals), by using
the event-related potentials (ERP) methodology.
This project will help clarify the dynamic effects
of a higher-order cognitive process (attention) on
EPP in SZ, and to characterize EPP abnormalities
in distinct stages of the illness course – pre-onset,
early and chronic. Notably, we hope that the results
will serve as a valuable tool in the development
of prevention and remediation programs for
schizophrenia.
Which are your expectations for
the future?
My expectations for the near future are to
deepen my knowledge and skills in the clinical
neuroscience field, hopping to become a highly
qualified researcher by the end of my PhD. I also
wish to provide a valuable contribution to the high
publishing standards of this lab, by publishing
several articles resulting both from my PhD
research, and other collaborative experiences that
may materialize in the future. I am looking forward
to start this journey.
8
Telling their stories
by Joana Coutinho, PhD
in this lab I did such different things as doing a
DTI mask, learning new segmentation methods
or learn how to do the quality control of my
neuroimaging data.
Can you let us know the nature
of your collaboration with the
Psychiatry Neuroimaging lab at
Harvard Medical School?
The PNL lab directed by Dr. Martha Shenton
works primarily with neuroimaging data, with
a specific focus in structural neuroimaging.
The lab is very strong in DTI analysis and
related measures such as free water measures
indicative of possible neuro-inflammation or
cortical atrophy. Thus the work that is being
developed by Dr. Martha´s team is very closely
related with studies we do in our lab. In the
case of my research projects, in which I use
DTI and volumetric measures in a sample of
OCD personality disordered patients as well as
in the study of normal personality traits, the
communalities regarding the methods that are
used are also evident.
Actually the collaboration between the PNL
and ours started several years ago with the work
that Dr. Adriana did back there and this is still
an active collaboration in the present. The PNL
is a very rich and stimulating environment,
with an big team of researchers working on the
processing of different types of brain images, so
it´s a wonderful learning opportunity to be able
to work in this PNL. Actually during my stay
Can you do a brief summary on your
training at Martinos Center for
Biomedical Imaging?
In Martinos Center I did a very different
training, much more structured in that I was
attending specific courses, lasting for 2 entire
weeks from 8 am to 6 pm… sometimes we
also had night sessions for designing our
experiments or present the results! Moreover
here my training was focused on functional
neuroimaging. So in a way my stay in these two
contexts was complementary.
Both courses that I did in Martinos Center
(fellowship in fMRI and connectivity course)
were very complete, giving me the chance
to improve my knowledge about the physics
of MRI, to program fMRI experiments and
running data collection. This is a huge research
center with 7 scanners and one of these
scanners: the Human Connectome Scanner has
a magnetic field of 7T, 4 to 8 times as powerful
as conventional scanners!
I also had the chance to get in touch with the
experts in the field. In my case it was particularly
interesting to get to know Susan Gabriele and
to discuss with her my current research projects
on the Default Mode Network.
Telling their stories
9
by Joana Coutinho, PhD
What can you tell us about
your work at the Northeastern
University?
As you know NEU is the institution in which
Prof. Oscar is working at the moment. This
is a very dynamic and alive university with a
very multicultural environment, as the city
of Boston itself... I participated in meetings
with prof. Oscar, Jorge, Sandra and Helga
regarding the institution´s future projects
both at the teaching and research level. I also
attended several workshops on grant writing,
specifics of the process of grant submission for
different funding agencies and grant´s financial
management. All these workshops were very
useful for my future as a researcher, namely in
terms of the preparation of future grants.
Which are the main differences
between those labs you visited and
ours?
If I may start by pointing out the similarities…
these labs have the same friendly environment
of our lab. In the PNL, for example, everyone
was very welcoming and open to help me. This
is a very international lab so people are also
very used to receive and work with researchers
from other countries.
In terms of the differences the most obvious one
has to do with the resources, both physical and
human resources: there´s a very large number of
research assistants performing specific research
tasks, very large samples and MRI databases
and several laptops used to process the images.
This is probably why most of the analyses are
done using linux and specific scripts created for
each study in close collaboration with computer
engineers. In my first day in the lab I was given
a word document with the basics of linux.
Which positive aspects you may
refer from this training?
I would stress the opportunity to know
different people working in the research field
I´m currently working in and to know different
ways of working and solving specific problems
that we face when using neuroimaging data. To
give you an example, we were able to figure out
a technical problem we had in the conversion
of our DTI dicom images in collaboration
with Sylvan Bouix, the co-director of the PNL.
Everyone that works in this research area, knows
that technical problems are present in our daily
lives! We just need to have the persistence and
constant update of knowledge to be able to solve
them.
I would also stress the opportunity to know
young researchers working in similar projects
while I was participating in Martinos Center´s
courses... The experience of interacting with
people from different countries and spend
an entire week discussing similar studies and
relevant aspects for neuroimaging was very
enriching!
10
Reading Suggestions
The Neuroscience
of Human
Relationships
by Louis Cozolino
I came across this book while I was working on
a review about the neuroscience of empathy
and I found it very useful both for social
neuroscientists and for psychotherapists.
The author elaborates on the social brain
hypothesis and describes mental disorders
associated with dysfunctions of social
processes such as social phobia, autism and
anti-social personality disorder.
”Just as neurons communicate through
mutual stimulation, brains strive to connect
with one another. Louis Cozolino shows us how brains are highly
social organisms. Balancing cogent explanation with instructive
brain diagrams, he presents an atlas of sorts, illustrating how the
architecture and development of brain systems from before birth
through adulthood determine how we interact with others.”
By Joana Coutinho
Lab Team
Adriana Sampaio, PhD (Lab Director)
Luciana Gomes, MSc (PhD Student)
Alberto Crego, PhD (Post-Doc)
Marcelo Dias, Collaborator
Ana Ganho, MSc (PhD Student)
Margarida Vasconcelos, Collaborator
Ana Mesquita, PhD (Researcher)
Miguel Soares, MSc (Collaborator)
Agavni Petrosyan, PhD (Researcher)
Óscar Gonçalves, PhD (Co-Director)
Ana Pinheiro, PhD (Researcher)
Patrícia Oliveira-Silva, MSc (PhD Student)
Catarina Fernandes, MSc (PhD Student)
Raquel Rocha, Collaborator
Fernando Macedo (Lab Technician)
Rosana Magalhães, MSc (PhD Student)
Helga Miguel, MSc (PhD Student)
Sandra Carvalho, PhD (Post-Doc)
Jason Ridge, MSc (Collaborator)
Sónia Sousa, MSc (PhD Student)
Joana Coutinho, PhD (Post-Doc)
Sara Cruz, MSc (PhD Student)
Jorge Alves, MSc (PhD Student)
Tatiana Magro, MSc (PhD Student)
Jorge Leite, PhD (Post-Doc)
Teresa Silva, MSc (Collaborator)
Liliana Maia, MSc (Collaborator)
NEUROPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY LAB,
School of Psychology, University of Minho
Campus de Gualtar, Braga – Portugal
Phone: + 351 253 601 398
http://escola.psi.uminho.pt/unidades/lnp/
Click on the facebook
icon to follow our lab and
help us reach 1000 likes :)