title: Resting state glutamate predicts elevated pre-stimulus alpha during self-relatedness: A combined EEG-MRS study on "rest-self overlap".
abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated neural overlap between resting state activity and self-referential processing. This "rest-self" overlap occurs especially in anterior cortical midline structures like the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (PACC). However, the exact neurotemporal and biochemical mechanisms remain to be identified. Therefore, we conducted a combined electroencephalography (EEG)-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) study. EEG focused on pre-stimulus (e.g., prior to stimulus presentation or perception) power changes to assess the degree to which those changes can predict subjects' perception (and judgment) of subsequent stimuli as high or low self-related. MRS measured resting state concentration of glutamate, focusing on PACC. High pre-stimulus (e.g., prior to stimulus presentation or perception) alpha power significantly correlated with both perception of stimuli judged to be highly self-related and with resting state glutamate concentrations in the PACC. In sum, our results show (i) pre-stimulus (e.g., prior to stimulus presentation or perception) alpha power and resting state glutamate concentration to mediate rest-self overlap that (ii) dispose or incline subjects to assign high degrees of self-relatedness to perceptual stimuli.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Nagoya University , Nagoya , Japan.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University , Higashi-Hiroshima , Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakao
authors.affiliation: c Institute of Mental Health Research , University of Ottawa , Ottawa , Canada.|d Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology , Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital , New Taipei City , Taiwan.|e Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.|f Department of Psychology , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jiameng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: c Institute of Mental Health Research , University of Ottawa , Ottawa , Canada.|d Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology , Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital , New Taipei City , Taiwan.|g Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine , Taipei Medical University , Taipei , Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pengmin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: c Institute of Mental Health Research , University of Ottawa , Ottawa , Canada.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.affiliation: h Department of Nuclear Medicine , RWTH Aachen , Aachen , Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinzel
authors.affiliation: c Institute of Mental Health Research , University of Ottawa , Ottawa , Canada.|i Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders (CBBD) , Normal University Hangzhou , Hangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Niall
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: d Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology , Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital , New Taipei City , Taiwan.|e Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.|g Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine , Taipei Medical University , Taipei , Taiwan.|j Institute of European and American Studies , Academia Sinica , Taipei , Taiwan.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.affiliation: e Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.|f Department of Psychology , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.
authors.forename: Nai-Shing
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.affiliation: e Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.|k Graduate Institute of Applied Physics , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shang-Yueh
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: c Institute of Mental Health Research , University of Ottawa , Ottawa , Canada.|d Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology , Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital , New Taipei City , Taiwan.|e Research Center for Mind, Brain and Learning , National Chengchi University , Taipei , Taiwan.|g Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine , Taipei Medical University , Taipei , Taiwan.|i Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders (CBBD) , Normal University Hangzhou , Hangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Northoff
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012146:Rest; D012649:Self Concept; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D018698:Glutamic Acid
keywords: EEG; Glutamine; MRS; Perigenual anterior cingulate cortex; Self-referential processing