Differences in the default mode network are among the most replicated brain-level findings in autistic individuals. Furthermore, subregions within the default mode network are associated with cognitive functions such as mentalising that are immediately relevant to cognitive theories of autism. Recent evidence suggests that the default mode network…

Brain connectivity of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is heterogenous, as are the behavioral manifestations. The current study investigated brain-behavior relationships in the context of social skills and executive function profiles with data from the Autism Brain Imaging Database Exchange II. We calculated connectivity measures…

Insofar as the autistic-like phenotype presents in the general population, it consists of partially dissociable traits, such as social and sensory issues. Here, we investigate individual differences in cortical organisation related to autistic-like traits. Connectome gradient decomposition based on resting state fMRI data reliably reveals a…

Transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) has been used for cognitive enhancement in healthy people. However, its effect on creativity has not been investigated. The default mode network (DMN) is associated with divergent thinking (DT; but not convergent thinking, CT), and also with anxiety, which in turn has been negatively related to creativity. We…

English Learners (ELs), students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, are a fast-growing, understudied, group of students in the U.S. with unique learning challenges. Cognitive flexibility--the ability to switch between task demands with ease--may be an important factor in learning for ELs as they have to manage learning in their non-dominant…

Although a growing literature highlights sex differences in autism spectrum disorder clinical presentation, less is known about female variants at the neural level. We investigated sex-related patterns of functional connectivity within and between functional networks in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, compared to typically…

Fostering creative minds has always been a premise to ensure adaptation to new challenges of human civilization. While some alternative educational settings (i.e., Montessori) were shown to nurture creative skills, it is unknown how they impact underlying brain mechanisms across the school years. This study assessed creative thinking and…

Associative thinking plays a major role in creativity, as it involves the ability to link distant concepts. Yet, the neural mechanisms allowing to combine distant associates in creative thinking tasks remain poorly understood. We investigated the whole-brain functional connectivity patterns related to combining remote associations for creative…

There is growing evidence of altered connectivity in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) between the cerebellum and cortex. Three intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) are especially important to cognitive processing in ASD: the default mode network (DMN), executive control network (ECN), and salience networks (SNs). The goal of this study was to…

Adolescence and emerging adulthood is likely a sensitive period for the neural effects of stress due to increasing life stress, onset of stress-related disorders, and continued gray matter (GM) development. In adults, stress is associated with GM differences in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus, and amygdala, but little is known…

Previous research on participants with aphasia has mainly been based on standard functional neuroimaging analysis. Recent studies have shown that functional connectivity analysis can detect compensatory activity, not revealed by standard analysis. Little is known, however, about the default-mode network in aphasia. In the current study, we studied…

Evidence on neurophysiological correlates of coexisting autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and overweight/obesity may elucidate mechanisms leading to the observed greater risk of obesity in children with ASD. An exploratory secondary data analysis was performed on resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data of children…

Evidence from fMRI research indicates that individual creative thinking ability -- defined as performance on divergent thinking tasks, subjectively assessed by human raters -- can be predicted based on the strength of functional connectivity (FC) between the brain's default mode network (DMN) and frontoparietal control network (FPCN). Here, we…

Anecdotal reports as well as behavioral studies have suggested that creative performance benefits from unconscious processes. So far, however, little is known about how creative ideas arise from the brain. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the neural correlates of creativity by means of structural MRI research. Given that unconscious…

What scientific evidence can music educators share with their community stakeholders concerning how and why music moves us so powerfully? Five key points derived from recent psychological and neuroscientific findings are (1) Network Science is a new technique that allows researchers to examine the brain's interconnectivity as people listen to…