Browsing by Author "Legaz, Agustina"

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    Multimodal mechanisms of human sociallyreinforced learning across neurodegenerative diseases
    (2022) Legaz, Agustina; Abrevaya, Sofía; Dottori, Martín; González, Cecilia; Birba, Agustina; Martorell, Miguel; Aguirre, Julieta; Slachevsky Chonchol, Andrea; Aranguiz, Rafael; Serrano, Cecilia; Gillan, Claire; Leroi, Iracema; García, Adolfo; Fittipaldi, Sol; Ibañez, Agustín
    Social feedback can selectively enhance learning in diverse domains. Relevant neurocognitive mechanisms have been studied mainly in healthy persons, yielding correlational findings. Neurodegenerative lesion models, coupled with multimodal brain measures, can complement standard approaches by revealing direct multidimensional correlates of the phenomenon. To this end, we assessed socially reinforced and non-socially reinforced learning in 40 healthy participants as well as persons with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (n = 21), Parkinson's disease (n = 31) and Alzheimer's disease (n = 20). These conditions are typified by predominant deficits in social cognition, feedback-based learning and associative learning, respectively, although all three domains may be partly compromised in the other conditions. We combined a validated behavioural task with ongoing EEG signatures of implicit learning (medial frontal negativity) and offline MRI measures (voxel-based morphometry). In healthy participants, learning was facilitated by social feedback relative to non-social feedback. In comparison with controls, this effect was specifically impaired in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson's disease, while unspecific learning deficits (across social and non-social conditions) were observed in Alzheimer's disease. EEG results showed increased medial frontal negativity in healthy controls during social feedback and learning. Such a modulation was selectively disrupted in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. Neuroanatomical results revealed extended temporo-parietal and fronto-limbic correlates of socially reinforced learning, with specific temporo-parietal associations in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and predominantly fronto-limbic regions in Alzheimer's disease. In contrast, non-socially reinforced learning was consistently linked to medial temporal/hippocampal regions. No associations with cortical volume were found in Parkinson's disease. Results are consistent with core social deficits in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, subtle disruptions in ongoing feedback-mechanisms and social processes in Parkinson's disease and generalized learning alterations in Alzheimer's disease. This multimodal approach highlights the impact of different neurodegenerative profiles on learning and social feedback. Our findings inform a promising theoretical and clinical agenda in the fields of social learning, socially reinforced learning and neurodegeneration.
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    Multimodal Neurocognitive Markers of Naturalistic Discourse Typify Diverse Neurodegenerative Diseases
    (2022) Birba, Agustina; Fittipaldi, Sol; Cediel Escobar, Judith C.; Gonzalez Campo, Cecilia; Legaz, Agustina; Galiani, Agostina; Díaz Rivera, Mariano N.; Martorell Caro, Miquel; Alifano, Florencia; Piña-Escudero, Stefanie D.; Cardona, Juan Felipe; Neely, Alejandra; Forno, Gonzalo; Carpinella , Mariela; Slachevsky Chonchol, Andrea; Serrano, Cecilia; Sedeño, Lucas; Ibáñez, Agustín; García, Adolfo M.
    Neurodegeneration has multiscalar impacts, including behavioral, neuroanatomical, and neurofunctional disruptions. Can disease-differential alterations be captured across such dimensions using naturalistic stimuli? To address this question, we assessed comprehension of four naturalistic stories, highlighting action, nonaction, social, and nonsocial events, in Parkinson's disease (PD) and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) relative to Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy controls. Text-specific correlates were evaluated via voxel-based morphometry, spatial (fMRI), and temporal (hd-EEG) functional connectivity. PD patients presented action-text deficits related to the volume of action-observation regions, connectivity across motor-related and multimodal-semantic hubs, and frontal hd-EEG hypoconnectivity. BvFTD patients exhibited social-text deficits, associated with atrophy and spatial connectivity patterns along social-network hubs, alongside right frontotemporal hd-EEG hypoconnectivity. Alzheimer's disease patients showed impairments in all stories, widespread atrophy and spatial connectivity patterns, and heightened occipitotemporal hd-EEG connectivity. Our framework revealed disease-specific signatures across behavioral, neuroanatomical, and neurofunctional dimensions, highlighting the sensitivity and specificity of a single naturalistic task. This investigation opens a translational agenda combining ecological approaches and multimodal cognitive neuroscience for the study of neurodegeneration.
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    The BrainLat project, a multimodal neuroimaging dataset of neurodegeneration from underrepresented backgrounds
    (2023) Prado, Pavel; Medel, Vicente; Gonzalez, Raul; Sainz, Agustín; Vidal , Victor; Santamaría, Hernando; Moguilner, Sebastian; Mejia, Jhony; Slachevsky Chonchol, Andrea; Behrens, Maria; Aguillon, David; Lopera, Francisco; Parra, Mario; Matallana,Diana; Maito, Marcelo; Garcia, Adolfo; Custodio, Nilton; Ávila, Alberto; Piña, Stefanie; Birba, Agustina; Fittipaldi, Sol; Legaz, Agustina; Ibañez, Agustín
    The Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat) has released a unique multimodal neuroimaging dataset of 780 participants from Latin American. The dataset includes 530 patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease (PD), and 250 healthy controls (HCs). This dataset (62.7 ± 9.5 years, age range 21-89 years) was collected through a multicentric effort across five Latin American countries to address the need for affordable, scalable, and available biomarkers in regions with larger inequities. The BrainLat is the first regional collection of clinical and cognitive assessments, anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), and high density resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) in dementia patients. In addition, it includes demographic information about harmonized recruitment and assessment protocols. The dataset is publicly available to encourage further research and development of tools and health applications for neurodegeneration based on multimodal neuroimaging, promoting the assessment of regional variability and inclusion of underrepresented participants in research.

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