Hubert Preissl

YNIMG Journal 2025 Journal Article

Influence of insulin sensitivity on food cue evoked functional brain connectivity in children

• Lorenzo Semeia
• Ralf Veit
• Sixiu Zhao
• Shan Luo
• Brendan Angelo
• Andreas L. Birkenfeld
• Hubert Preissl
• Anny H. Xiang

OBJECTIVE: Insulin resistance during childhood is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes and other health problems later in life. Studies in adults have shown that insulin resistance affects regional and network activity in the brain which are vital for behavior, including ingestion and metabolic control. To date, no study has investigated how brain connections during exposure to food cues are association with peripheral insulin sensitivity in children. METHODS: We included 53 children (36 girls) between the age of 7-11 years, who underwent an oral Glucose Tolerance Test (oGTT) to estimate peripheral insulin sensitivity (ISI). Brain responses were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after glucose ingestion. We compared food-cue task-based activity and functional connectivity (FC) between children with lower and higher ISI, adjusted for age and BMIz. RESULTS: Independent of prandial state (i.e., glucose ingestion), children with lower ISI showed higher FC between the anterior insula and caudate and lower FC between the posterior insula and mid temporal cortex than children with higher ISI. Sex differences were found based on prandial state and peripheral insulin sensitivity in the insular FC. No differences were found on mean brain responses to food cues. CONCLUSIONS: In response to food cues, children with lower peripheral insulin sensitivity exhibited distinctive patterns of neural connectivity, notably in the insula's functional connections, when contrasted with their counterparts with higher peripheral insulin sensitivity. These differences might influence eating behavior and future risk of developing diabetes.

YNIMG Journal 2023 Journal Article

Not with a “zap” but with a “beep”: Measuring the origins of perinatal experience

• Joel Frohlich
• Tim Bayne
• Julia S. Crone
• Alessandra DallaVecchia
• Asger Kirkeby-Hinrup
• Pedro A.M. Mediano
• Julia Moser
• Karolina Talar

When does the mind begin? Infant psychology is mysterious in part because we cannot remember our first months of life, nor can we directly communicate with infants. Even more speculative is the possibility of mental life prior to birth. The question of when consciousness, or subjective experience, begins in human development thus remains incompletely answered, though boundaries can be set using current knowledge from developmental neurobiology and recent investigations of the perinatal brain. Here, we offer our perspective on how the development of a sensory perturbational complexity index (sPCI) based on auditory ("beep-and-zip"), visual ("flash-and-zip"), or even olfactory ("sniff-and-zip") cortical perturbations in place of electromagnetic perturbations ("zap-and-zip") might be used to address this question. First, we discuss recent studies of perinatal cognition and consciousness using techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and, in particular, magnetoencephalography (MEG). While newborn infants are the archetypal subjects for studying early human development, researchers may also benefit from fetal studies, as the womb is, in many respects, a more controlled environment than the cradle. The earliest possible timepoint when subjective experience might begin is likely the establishment of thalamocortical connectivity at 26 weeks gestation, as the thalamocortical system is necessary for consciousness according to most theoretical frameworks. To infer at what age and in which behavioral states consciousness might emerge following the initiation of thalamocortical pathways, we advocate for the development of the sPCI and similar techniques, based on EEG, MEG, and fMRI, to estimate the perinatal brain's state of consciousness.

YNICL Journal 2021 Journal Article

Diminished prefrontal cortex activation in patients with binge eating disorder associates with trait impulsivity and improves after impulsivity-focused treatment based on a randomized controlled IMPULS trial

• Ralf Veit
• Kathrin Schag
• Eric Schopf
• Maike Borutta
• Jann Kreutzer
• Ann-Christine Ehlis
• Stephan Zipfel
• Katrin E. Giel

BACKGROUND: Behavioral and cognitive control are vital for healthy eating behavior. Patients with binge eating disorder (BED) suffer under recurrent binge eating episodes accompanied by subjective loss of control that results, among other factors, from increased impulsivity. METHODS: ). Patients with BED were invited to undergo fNIRS measurements before an impulsivity-focused cognitive behavioral group treatment, directly after this treatment and 3 months afterwards. As this was a planned subgroup analysis of the randomized controlled IMPULS trial, patients with BED were randomized either to the treatment group (n = 14) or to a control group (n = 10). The treatment group received 8 weekly sessions of the IMPULS treatment. RESULTS: We found a significant response inhibition effect (nogo minus go), in terms of an increased oxygenated hemoglobin response in the bilateral prefrontal cortex in both groups. The greatest response was observed when participants were instructed to go for healthy and withhold their response to unhealthy high caloric food cues. The healthy nogo condition failed to show a significant prefrontal inhibitory response, which was probably related to the task design, as the condition was considered more demanding. BED patients, especially those with higher trait impulsivity, showed a weaker activation of the prefrontal cortex during response inhibition, predominantly in the right hemisphere. Interestingly, three months after the treatment, patients of the treatment group increased their right prefrontal cortex activity during response inhibition. Likewise, increased prefrontal cortex activation correlated with decreased trait impulsivity after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that patients with BED have limited resources to activate the prefrontal cortex when asked to inhibit a reaction onto food-specific stimuli. However, this effect could be partly driven by differences in BMI between the HC and BED group. Cognitive-behavioral therapy targeting impulsive eating behavior may improve prefrontal cortex recruitment during response inhibition.

YNIMG Journal 2021 Journal Article

Dynamics of nonlinguistic statistical learning: From neural entrainment to the emergence of explicit knowledge

• Julia Moser
• Laura Batterink
• Yiwen Li Hegner
• Franziska Schleger
• Christoph Braun
• Ken A. Paller
• Hubert Preissl

Humans are highly attuned to patterns in the environment. This ability to detect environmental patterns, referred to as statistical learning, plays a key role in many diverse aspects of cognition. However, the spatiotemporal neural mechanisms underlying implicit statistical learning, and how these mechanisms may relate or give rise to explicit learning, remain poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated these different aspects of statistical learning by using an auditory nonlinguistic statistical learning paradigm combined with magnetoencephalography. Twenty-four healthy volunteers were exposed to structured and random tone sequences, and statistical learning was quantified by neural entrainment. Already early during exposure, participants showed strong entrainment to the embedded tone patterns. A significant increase in entrainment over exposure was detected only in the structured condition, reflecting the trajectory of learning. While source reconstruction revealed a wide range of brain areas involved in this process, entrainment in areas around the left pre-central gyrus as well as right temporo-frontal areas significantly predicted behavioral performance. Sensor level results confirmed this relationship between neural entrainment and subsequent explicit knowledge. These results give insights into the dynamic relation between neural entrainment and explicit learning of triplet structures, suggesting that these two aspects are systematically related yet dissociable. Neural entrainment reflects robust, implicit learning of underlying patterns, whereas the emergence of explicit knowledge, likely built on the implicit encoding of structure, varies across individuals and may depend on factors such as sufficient exposure time and attention.

YNIMG Journal 2019 Journal Article

Real-time fMRI neurofeedback training to improve eating behavior by self-regulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A randomized controlled trial in overweight and obese subjects

• Simon H. Kohl
• Ralf Veit
• Maartje S. Spetter
• Astrid Günther
• Andriani Rina
• Michael Lührs
• Niels Birbaumer
• Hubert Preissl

Obesity is associated with altered responses to food stimuli in prefrontal brain networks that mediate inhibitory control of ingestive behavior. In particular, activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is reduced in obese compared to normal-weight subjects and has been linked to the success of weight-loss dietary interventions. In a randomized controlled trial in overweight/obese subjects, we investigated the effect on eating behavior of volitional up-regulation of dlPFC activity via real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback training. Thirty-eight overweight or obese subjects (BMI 25–40 kg/m2) took part in fMRI neurofeedback training with the aim of increasing activity of the left dlPFC (dlPFC group; n = 17) or of the visual cortex (VC/control group; n = 21). Participants were blinded to group assignment. The training session took place on a single day and included three training runs of six trials of up-regulation and passive viewing. Food appraisal and snack intake were assessed at screening, after training, and in a follow-up session four weeks later. Participants of both groups succeeded in up-regulating activity of the targeted brain area. However, participants of the control group also showed increased left dlPFC activity during up-regulation. Functional connectivity between dlPFC and ventromedial PFC, an area that processes food value, was generally increased during up-regulation compared to passive viewing. At follow-up compared to baseline, both groups rated pictures of high-, but not low-calorie foods as less palatable and chose them less frequently. Actual snack intake remained unchanged but palatability and choice ratings for chocolate cookies decreased after training. We demonstrate that one session of fMRI neurofeedback training enables individuals with increased body weight to up-regulate activity of the left dlPFC. Behavioral effects were observed in both groups, which might have been due to dlPFC co-activation in the control group and, in addition, unspecific training effects. Improved dlPFC-vmPFC functional connectivity furthermore suggested enhanced food intake-related control mechanisms. Neurofeedback training might support therapeutic strategies aiming at improved self-control in obesity, although the respective contributions of area-specific mechanisms and general regulation effects are in need of further investigation.

YNIMG Journal 2016 Journal Article

Specific white matter tissue microstructure changes associated with obesity

• Stephanie Kullmann
• Martina F. Callaghan
• Martin Heni
• Nikolaus Weiskopf
• Klaus Scheffler
• Hans-Ulrich Häring
• Andreas Fritsche
• Ralf Veit

Obesity-related structural brain alterations point to a consistent reduction in gray matter with increasing body mass index (BMI) but changes in white matter have proven to be more complex and less conclusive. Hence, more recently diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been employed to investigate microstructural changes in white matter structure. Altogether, these studies have mostly shown a loss of white matter integrity with obesity-related factors in several brain regions. However, the variety of these obesity-related factors, including inflammation and dyslipidemia, resulted in competing influences on the DTI indices. To increase the specificity of DTI results, we explored specific brain tissue properties by combining DTI with quantitative multi-parameter mapping in lean, overweight and obese young adults. By means of multi-parameter mapping, white matter structures showed differences in MRI parameters consistent with reduced myelin, increased water and altered iron content with increasing BMI in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, anterior thalamic radiation, internal capsule and corpus callosum. BMI-related changes in DTI parameters revealed mainly alterations in mean and axial diffusivity with increasing BMI in the corticospinal tract, anterior thalamic radiation and superior longitudinal fasciculus. These alterations, including mainly fiber tracts linking limbic structures with prefrontal regions, could potentially promote accelerated aging in obese individuals leading to an increased risk for cognitive decline.

YNICL Journal 2014 Journal Article

Aberrant network integrity of the inferior frontal cortex in women with anorexia nervosa

• Stephanie Kullmann
• Katrin E. Giel
• Martin Teufel
• Ansgar Thiel
• Stephan Zipfel
• Hubert Preissl

Neuroimaging studies investigating the neural profile of anorexia nervosa (AN) have revealed a predominant imbalance between the reward and inhibition systems of the brain, which are also hallmark characteristics of the disorder. However, little is known whether these changes can also be determined independent of task condition, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, in currently ill AN patients. Therefore the aim of our study was to investigate resting-state connectivity in AN patients (n = 12) compared to healthy athlete (n = 12) and non-athlete (n = 14) controls. For this purpose, we used degree centrality to investigate functional connectivity of the whole-brain network and then Granger causality to analyze effective connectivity (EC), to understand directional aspects of potential alterations. We were able to show that the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) is a region of special functional importance within the whole-brain network, in AN patients, revealing reduced functional connectivity compared to both healthy control groups. Furthermore, we found decreased EC from the right IFG to the midcingulum and increased EC from the bilateral orbitofrontal gyrus to the right IFG. For the left IFG, we only observed increased EC from the bilateral insula to the left IFG. These results suggest that AN patients have reduced connectivity within the cognitive control system of the brain and increased connectivity within regions important for salience processing. Due to its fundamental role in inhibitory behavior, including motor response, altered integrity of the inferior frontal cortex could contribute to hyperactivity in AN.

YNICL Journal 2014 Journal Article

Reduced cortical thickness associated with visceral fat and BMI

• Ralf Veit
• Stephanie Kullmann
• Martin Heni
• Jürgen Machann
• Hans-Ulrich Häring
• Andreas Fritsche
• Hubert Preissl

Structural brain imaging studies have shown that obesity is associated with widespread reductions in gray matter (GM) volume. Although the body mass index (BMI) is an easily accessible anthropometric measure, substantial health problems are more related to specific body fat compartments, like visceral adipose tissue (VAT). We investigated cortical thickness measures in a group of 72 healthy subjects (BMI range 20-35 kg/m(2), age range 19-50 years). Multiple regression analyses were performed using VAT and BMI as predictors and age, gender, total surface area and education as confounds. BMI and VAT were independently associated with reductions in cortical thickness in clusters comprising the left lateral occipital area, the left inferior temporal cortex, and the left precentral and inferior parietal area, while the right insula, the left fusiform gyrus and the right inferior temporal area showed a negative correlation with VAT only. In addition, we could show significant reductions in cortical thickness with increasing VAT adjusted for BMI in the left temporal cortex. We were able to detect widespread cortical thinning in a young to middle-aged population related to BMI and VAT; these findings show close resemblance to studies focusing on GM volume differences in diabetic patients. This may point to the influence of VAT related adverse effects, like low-grade inflammation, as a potentially harmful factor on brain integrity already in individuals at risk of developing diabetes, metabolic syndromes and arteriosclerosis.

YNIMG Journal 2012 Journal Article

Grouping of MEG gamma oscillations by EEG sleep spindles

• Amr Ayoub
• Matthias Mölle
• Hubert Preissl
• Jan Born

Studies have revealed an association between EEG sleep spindles and processing of memories during sleep. Here we investigated whether there is a temporal relation between sleep spindles and MEG oscillatory activity in the gamma frequency band (>30Hz) which is considered to reflect local cortical processing of memory representations. MEG and simultaneous EEG (at Cz) were obtained in subjects during sleep together with standard polysomnography. As expected EEG spindles were correlated with power increases in MEG spindle (12. 5–15. 5Hz) power mainly over prefrontal and occipital cortical areas. During EEG spindles we revealed both transient significant increases and decreases in MEG power, with decreases occurring significantly more often than increases. The modulations in gamma power occurred mainly at sites of increased MEG spindle power, and more often during peaks than troughs within the EEG spindle cycle. Cross-frequency coherence analyses confirmed a strong phase-coupling of gamma band activity with the spindle rhythm. The findings are consistent with the idea that spindles provide a fine-tuned temporal frame for integrated cortical memory processing during sleep.

YNIMG Journal 2012 Journal Article

Neuronal correlates of reduced memory performance in overweight subjects

• Krunoslav T. Stingl
• Stephanie Kullmann
• Caroline Ketterer
• Martin Heni
• Hans-Ulrich Häring
• Andreas Fritsche
• Hubert Preissl

There is growing evidence that excessive body weight correlates with impaired cognitive performance like executive function, attention and memory. In our study, we applied a visual working memory task to quantify associations between body weight and executive function. In total, 34 lean (BMI 22±2. 1kg/m2) and 34 obese (BMI 30. 4±3. 2kg/m2) subjects were included. Magnetic brain activity and behavioral responses were recorded during a one-back visual memory task with food and non-food pictures, which were matched for color, size and complexity. Behavioral responses (reaction time and accuracy) were reduced in obese subjects independent of the stimulus category. Neuronal activity at the source level showed a positive correlation between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity and BMI only for the food category. In addition, a negative correlation between BMI and neuronal activity was observed in the occipital area for both categories. Therefore we conclude that increased body weight is associated with reduced task performance and specific neuronal changes. This altered activity is probably related to executive function as well as encoding and retrieval of information.

YNIMG Journal 2012 Journal Article

Steady-state responses in MEG demonstrate information integration within but not across the auditory and visual senses

• Anette S. Giani
• Erick Ortiz
• Paolo Belardinelli
• Mario Kleiner
• Hubert Preissl
• Uta Noppeney

To form a unified percept of our environment, the human brain integrates information within and across the senses. This MEG study investigated interactions within and between sensory modalities using a frequency analysis of steady-state responses that are elicited time-locked to periodically modulated stimuli. Critically, in the frequency domain, interactions between sensory signals are indexed by crossmodulation terms (i. e. the sums and differences of the fundamental frequencies). The 3×2 factorial design, manipulated (1) modality: auditory, visual or audiovisual (2) steady-state modulation: the auditory and visual signals were modulated only in one sensory feature (e. g. visual gratings modulated in luminance at 6Hz) or in two features (e. g. tones modulated in frequency at 40Hz & amplitude at 0. 2Hz). This design enabled us to investigate crossmodulation frequencies that are elicited when two stimulus features are modulated concurrently (i) in one sensory modality or (ii) in auditory and visual modalities. In support of within-modality integration, we reliably identified crossmodulation frequencies when two stimulus features in one sensory modality were modulated at different frequencies. In contrast, no crossmodulation frequencies were identified when information needed to be combined from auditory and visual modalities. The absence of audiovisual crossmodulation frequencies suggests that the previously reported audiovisual interactions in primary sensory areas may mediate low level spatiotemporal coincidence detection that is prominent for stimulus transients but less relevant for sustained SSR responses. In conclusion, our results indicate that information in SSRs is integrated over multiple time scales within but not across sensory modalities at the primary cortical level.

YNIMG Journal 2010 Journal Article

The temporal sequence of magnetic brain activity for food categorization and memorization — an exploratory study

• Krunoslav T. Stingl
• Maja Rogić
• Katarína Stingl
• Carlos Canova
• Otto Tschritter
• Christoph Braun
• Andreas Fritsche
• Hubert Preissl

The importance of food stimuli for all living organisms is defined by their relevance for survival. Therefore, visual processing of food stimuli is influenced by many factors, such as cultural and societal background. In this magnetoencephalography (MEG) study, we examined the categorization and memorization of visual food and non-food stimuli in lean subjects, using a one-back working memory task. We found an increase in neural activity in several different regions of the brain elicited by food stimuli in comparison to non-food stimuli. The first observed significant difference was found in low-level visual areas as early as 120ms after stimulus onset. The stimulus category of the previous picture did not influence this effect. However, preceding stimuli modulated behavioral measures (reaction time and accuracy of responses) and later components of the evoked responses around 350ms. The evoked magnetic field of this late component showed a significant increase inactivity in the temporal cortex for food versus non-food objects. This late component exhibited a significant correlation with the reaction time. The difference of category-specific effects in the early components and the behavioral modulation of late components could be useful for further investigations of the cortical activity in response to food stimuli, e. g. in subjects with eating disorders or obesity.

YNIMG Journal 2007 Journal Article

An MEG-based brain–computer interface (BCI)

• Jürgen Mellinger
• Gerwin Schalk
• Christoph Braun
• Hubert Preissl
• Wolfgang Rosenstiel
• Niels Birbaumer
• Andrea Kübler

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) allow for communicating intentions by mere brain activity, not involving muscles. Thus, BCIs may offer patients who have lost all voluntary muscle control the only possible way to communicate. Many recent studies have demonstrated that BCIs based on electroencephalography (EEG) can allow healthy and severely paralyzed individuals to communicate. While this approach is safe and inexpensive, communication is slow. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides signals with higher spatiotemporal resolution than EEG and could thus be used to explore whether these improved signal properties translate into increased BCI communication speed. In this study, we investigated the utility of an MEG-based BCI that uses voluntary amplitude modulation of sensorimotor μ and β rhythms. To increase the signal-to-noise ratio, we present a simple spatial filtering method that takes the geometric properties of signal propagation in MEG into account, and we present methods that can process artifacts specifically encountered in an MEG-based BCI. Exemplarily, six participants were successfully trained to communicate binary decisions by imagery of limb movements using a feedback paradigm. Participants achieved significant μ rhythm self control within 32 min of feedback training. For a subgroup of three participants, we localized the origin of the amplitude modulated signal to the motor cortex. Our results suggest that an MEG-based BCI is feasible and efficient in terms of user training.

YNIMG Journal 2007 Journal Article

Erratum to “An MEG-based brain–computer interface (BCI)” [NeuroImage 36 (2007) 581–593]

• Jürgen Mellinger
• Gerwin Schalk
• Christoph Braun
• Hubert Preissl
• Wolfgang Rosenstiel
• Niels Birbaumer
• Andrea Kübler

YNIMG Journal 2006 Journal Article

Subjective feeling of appetite modulates brain activity

• Katarína Porubská
• Ralf Veit
• Hubert Preissl
• Andreas Fritsche
• Niels Birbaumer

Obesity and overweight are important risk factors for the development of diabetes mellitus type 2 and associated chronic diseases, and therefore, they have become serious global problems in the western and developed countries. But little is known about the neuroanatomical correlates of eating behavior and its influences on the central nervous processing in humans. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the cortical activation in 12 lean healthy humans during visual stimulation with food-related and nonfood pictures after a fasting period of at least 5 h. Compared to the nonfood pictures, the food stimuli elicited a significantly greater activity in the left orbitofrontal cortex and the insular/opercular cortex bilaterally with a stronger focus on the left side. Subjective ratings of appetite during the presentation of food-related stimuli modulated the activity in the insula bilaterally, the left operculum and the right putamen. These results provide further insights in the central nervous processing of food relevant stimuli in humans, specifically with respect to the subjective experience of appetite.

YNIMG Journal 2005 Journal Article

Sound frequency change detection in fetuses and newborns, a magnetoencephalographic study

• Rossitza Draganova
• Hari Eswaran
• Pamela Murphy
• Minna Huotilainen
• Curtis Lowery
• Hubert Preissl

The mismatch negativity (MMN) response to auditory stimuli has been successfully recorded in newborns thus demonstrating the discriminative cognitive ability. The aim of our study was to determine whether and when such an MMN response could be detected in the human fetus. The recordings of weak magnetic fields from the fetal brain were performed with the 151 channel MEG system called SARA (SQUID Array for Reproductive Assessment). Two tone bursts were presented in a sequence of a standard complex tone of 500 Hz intermixed with a deviant complex tone of 750 Hz in 12% of the stimuli. Sound intensity delivered over the maternal abdomen was 110 dB. The interstimulus interval (ISI) varied between 500 ms and 1100 ms. Fetal response, corresponding to sound frequency change detection, was calculated from the records where responses to standard and deviant tones were observed. A successful response was found in 60% of 25 fetal recordings. The MMN response with an average latency of 321 ms was observed in 48% of the fetal data. In 12% of the fetal data, a late component, referred to as the late discriminative negativity (LDN) response, was detected with an average latency of 458 ms. The same paradigm was applied in 5 newborns after birth. The capability for sound discrimination is a prerequisite for normal speech development. The investigation of sound discrimination and related cortical activity of the fetus can help to identify and determine the nature of deficits caused by central processes in the auditory system at very early stages.

YNIMG Journal 2001 Journal Article

Conscious perception of somatosensory stimulation: A magnetoencephalographic study with tumor patients

• Hubert Preissl
• Herta Flor
• Werner Lutzenberger
• Frank Duffner
• Dirk Freudenstein
• Ernst Grote
• Niels Birbaumer

YNIMG Journal 2001 Journal Article

Recording of fetal brain activity by a new biomagnetic recording device: Acquisition and analysis of temporal-spatial recordings over the whole maternal abdominal wall

• Hubert Preissl
• Hari Eswaran
• Pamela Murphy
• James D. Wilson
• Stephen E. Robinson
• Jiri Vrba
• Alistair A. Fife
• Mark Tilotson