1
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Luppi AI, Rosas FE, Mediano PAM, Demertzi A, Menon DK, Stamatakis EA. Unravelling consciousness and brain function through the lens of time, space, and information. Trends Neurosci 2024:S0166-2236(24)00087-0. [PMID: 38824075 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2024.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 04/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 06/03/2024]
Abstract
Disentangling how cognitive functions emerge from the interplay of brain dynamics and network architecture is among the major challenges that neuroscientists face. Pharmacological and pathological perturbations of consciousness provide a lens to investigate these complex challenges. Here, we review how recent advances about consciousness and the brain's functional organisation have been driven by a common denominator: decomposing brain function into fundamental constituents of time, space, and information. Whereas unconsciousness increases structure-function coupling across scales, psychedelics may decouple brain function from structure. Convergent effects also emerge: anaesthetics, psychedelics, and disorders of consciousness can exhibit similar reconfigurations of the brain's unimodal-transmodal functional axis. Decomposition approaches reveal the potential to translate discoveries across species, with computational modelling providing a path towards mechanistic integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea I Luppi
- Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; St John's College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Fernando E Rosas
- Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; Center for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | | | - Athena Demertzi
- Physiology of Cognition Lab, GIGA-Cyclotron Research Center In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium; Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium; National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), Brussels 1000, Belgium
| | - David K Menon
- Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Emmanuel A Stamatakis
- Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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2
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Mandino F, Horien C, Shen X, Desrosiers-Gregoire G, Luo W, Markicevic M, Constable RT, Papademetris X, Chakravarty MM, Betzel RF, Lake EMR. Multimodal identification of the mouse brain using simultaneous Ca 2+ imaging and fMRI. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.24.594620. [PMID: 38826324 PMCID: PMC11142213 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.24.594620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2024]
Abstract
Individual differences in neuroimaging are of interest to clinical and cognitive neuroscientists based on their potential for guiding the personalized treatment of various heterogeneous neurological conditions and diseases. Despite many advantages, the workhorse in this arena, BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suffers from low spatiotemporal resolution and specificity as well as a propensity for noise and spurious signal corruption. To better understand individual differences in BOLD-fMRI data, we can use animal models where fMRI, alongside complementary but more invasive contrasts, can be accessed. Here, we apply simultaneous wide-field fluorescence calcium imaging and BOLD-fMRI in mice to interrogate individual differences using a connectome-based identification framework adopted from the human fMRI literature. This approach yields high spatiotemporal resolution cell-type specific signals (here, from glia, excitatory, as well as inhibitory interneurons) from the whole cortex. We found mouse multimodal connectome-based identification to be successful and explored various features of these data.
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3
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Uddin LQ, Castellanos FX, Menon V. Resting state functional brain connectivity in child and adolescent psychiatry: where are we now? Neuropsychopharmacology 2024:10.1038/s41386-024-01888-1. [PMID: 38778158 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-024-01888-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2024] [Revised: 04/10/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Approaching the 30th anniversary of the discovery of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) functional connectivity, we reflect on the impact of this neuroimaging breakthrough on the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. The study of intrinsic functional brain architecture that rsfMRI affords across a wide range of ages and abilities has yielded numerous key insights. For example, we now know that many neurodevelopmental conditions are associated with more widespread circuit alterations across multiple large-scale brain networks than previously suspected. The emergence of population neuroscience and effective data-sharing initiatives have made large rsfMRI datasets publicly available, providing sufficient power to begin to identify brain-based subtypes within heterogeneous clinical conditions. Nevertheless, several methodological and theoretical challenges must still be addressed to fulfill the promises of personalized child and adolescent psychiatry. In particular, incomplete understanding of the physiological mechanisms driving developmental changes in intrinsic functional connectivity remains an obstacle to further progress. Future directions include cross-species and multimodal neuroimaging investigations to illuminate such mechanisms. Data collection and harmonization efforts that span multiple countries and diverse cohorts are urgently needed. Finally, incorporating naturalistic fMRI paradigms such as movie watching should be a priority for future research efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucina Q Uddin
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| | - F Xavier Castellanos
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Vinod Menon
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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4
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Nieuwenhuis S. Arousal and performance: revisiting the famous inverted-U-shaped curve. Trends Cogn Sci 2024; 28:394-396. [PMID: 38570252 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
Arousal level is thought to be a key determinant of variability in cognitive performance. In a recent study, Beerendonk, Mejías et al. show that peak performance in decision-making tasks is reached at moderate levels of arousal. They also propose a neurobiologically informed computational model that can explain the inverted-U-shaped relationship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sander Nieuwenhuis
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, the Netherlands.
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5
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Misra J, Pessoa L. Brain dynamics and spatiotemporal trajectories during threat processing. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.06.588389. [PMID: 38617278 PMCID: PMC11014591 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.06.588389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
In the past decades, functional MRI research has investigated mental states and their brain bases in largely static fashion based on evoked responses during blocked and event-related designs. Despite some progress in naturalistic designs, our understanding of threat processing remains largely limited to those obtained with standard paradigms. In the present paper, we applied Switching Linear Dynamical Systems to uncover the dynamics of threat processing during a continuous threat-of-shock paradigm. Importantly, unlike studies in systems neuroscience that frequently assume that systems are decoupled from external inputs, we characterized both endogenous and exogenous contributions to dynamics. First, we demonstrated that the SLDS model learned the regularities of the experimental paradigm, such that states and state transitions estimated from fMRI time series data from 85 ROIs reflected both the proximity of the circles and their direction (approach vs. retreat). After establishing that the model captured key properties of threat-related processing, we characterized the dynamics of the states and their transitions. The results revealed that threat processing can profitably be viewed in terms of dynamic multivariate patterns whose trajectories are a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that jointly determine how the brain temporally evolves during dynamic threat. We propose that viewing threat processing through the lens of dynamical systems offers important avenues to uncover properties of the dynamics of threat that are not unveiled with standard experimental designs and analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joyneel Misra
- Departmentof Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Luiz Pessoa
- Departmentof Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
- Department of Psychology and Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
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6
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Foster M, Scheinost D. Brain states as wave-like motifs. Trends Cogn Sci 2024:S1364-6613(24)00057-3. [PMID: 38582654 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2023] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/08/2024]
Abstract
There is ample evidence of wave-like activity in the brain at multiple scales and levels. This emerging literature supports the broader adoption of a wave perspective of brain activity. Specifically, a brain state can be described as a set of recurring, sequential patterns of propagating brain activity, namely a wave. We examine a collective body of experimental work investigating wave-like properties. Based on these works, we consider brain states as waves using a scale-agnostic framework across time and space. Emphasis is placed on the sequentiality and periodicity associated with brain activity. We conclude by discussing the implications, prospects, and experimental opportunities of this framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maya Foster
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Dustin Scheinost
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
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7
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Abuwarda H, Trainer A, Horien C, Shen X, Ju S, Constable RT, Fredericks C. Whole-brain functional connectivity predicts groupwise and sex-specific tau PET in preclincal Alzheimer's disease. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.02.587791. [PMID: 38617320 PMCID: PMC11014551 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.02.587791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Preclinical Alzheimer's disease, characterized by the initial accumulation of amyloid and tau pathologies without symptoms, presents a critical opportunity for early intervention. Yet, the interplay between these pathological markers and the functional connectome during this window remains understudied. We therefore set out to elucidate the relationship between the functional connectome and amyloid and tau, as assessed by PET imaging, in individuals with preclinical AD using connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM). We found that functional connectivity predicts tau PET, outperforming amyloid PET models. These models were predominantly governed by linear relationships between functional connectivity and tau. Tau models demonstrated a stronger correlation to global connectivity than underlying tau PET. Furthermore, we identify sex-based differences in the ability to predict regional tau, without any underlying differences in tau PET or global connectivity. Taken together, these results suggest tau is more closely coupled to functional connectivity than amyloid in preclinical disease, and that multimodal predictive modeling approaches stand to identify unique relationships that any one modality may be insufficient to discern.
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8
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Camassa A, Barbero-Castillo A, Bosch M, Dasilva M, Masvidal-Codina E, Villa R, Guimerà-Brunet A, Sanchez-Vives MV. Chronic full-band recordings with graphene microtransistors as neural interfaces for discrimination of brain states. NANOSCALE HORIZONS 2024; 9:589-597. [PMID: 38329118 DOI: 10.1039/d3nh00440f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
Brain states such as sleep, anesthesia, wakefulness, or coma are characterized by specific patterns of cortical activity dynamics, from local circuits to full-brain emergent properties. We previously demonstrated that full-spectrum signals, including the infraslow component (DC, direct current-coupled), can be recorded acutely in multiple sites using flexible arrays of graphene solution-gated field-effect transistors (gSGFETs). Here, we performed chronic implantation of 16-channel gSGFET arrays over the rat cerebral cortex and recorded full-band neuronal activity with two objectives: (1) to test the long-term stability of implanted devices; and (2) to investigate full-band activity during the transition across different levels of anesthesia. First, we demonstrate it is possible to record full-band signals with stability, fidelity, and spatiotemporal resolution for up to 5.5 months using chronic epicortical gSGFET implants. Second, brain states generated by progressive variation of levels of anesthesia could be identified as traditionally using the high-pass filtered (AC, alternating current-coupled) spectrogram: from synchronous slow oscillations in deep anesthesia through to asynchronous activity in the awake state. However, the DC signal introduced a highly significant improvement for brain-state discrimination: the DC band provided an almost linear information prediction of the depth of anesthesia, with about 85% precision, using a trained algorithm. This prediction rose to about 95% precision when the full-band (AC + DC) spectrogram was taken into account. We conclude that recording infraslow activity using gSGFET interfaces is superior for the identification of brain states, and further supports the preclinical and clinical use of graphene neural interfaces for long-term recordings of cortical activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Camassa
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - A Barbero-Castillo
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - M Bosch
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - M Dasilva
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - E Masvidal-Codina
- Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC), Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
| | - R Villa
- Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC), Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
| | - A Guimerà-Brunet
- Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC), Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
| | - M V Sanchez-Vives
- Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
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9
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Betzel R, Puxeddu MG, Seguin C, Bazinet V, Luppi A, Podschun A, Singleton SP, Faskowitz J, Parakkattu V, Misic B, Markett S, Kuceyeski A, Parkes L. Controlling the human connectome with spatially diffuse input signals. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.27.581006. [PMID: 38463980 PMCID: PMC10925126 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.27.581006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2024]
Abstract
The human brain is never at "rest"; its activity is constantly fluctuating over time, transitioning from one brain state-a whole-brain pattern of activity-to another. Network control theory offers a framework for understanding the effort - energy - associated with these transitions. One branch of control theory that is especially useful in this context is "optimal control", in which input signals are used to selectively drive the brain into a target state. Typically, these inputs are introduced independently to the nodes of the network (each input signal is associated with exactly one node). Though convenient, this input strategy ignores the continuity of cerebral cortex - geometrically, each region is connected to its spatial neighbors, allowing control signals, both exogenous and endogenous, to spread from their foci to nearby regions. Additionally, the spatial specificity of brain stimulation techniques is limited, such that the effects of a perturbation are measurable in tissue surrounding the stimulation site. Here, we adapt the network control model so that input signals have a spatial extent that decays exponentially from the input site. We show that this more realistic strategy takes advantage of spatial dependencies in structural connectivity and activity to reduce the energy (effort) associated with brain state transitions. We further leverage these dependencies to explore near-optimal control strategies such that, on a per-transition basis, the number of input signals required for a given control task is reduced, in some cases by two orders of magnitude. This approximation yields network-wide maps of input site density, which we compare to an existing database of functional, metabolic, genetic, and neurochemical maps, finding a close correspondence. Ultimately, not only do we propose a more efficient framework that is also more adherent to well-established brain organizational principles, but we also posit neurobiologically grounded bases for optimal control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Betzel
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
- Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
| | - Maria Grazia Puxeddu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
| | - Caio Seguin
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
| | - Vincent Bazinet
- Montréal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Andrea Luppi
- Montréal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | | | | | - Joshua Faskowitz
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
| | - Vibin Parakkattu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47401
| | - Bratislav Misic
- Montréal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | | | - Amy Kuceyeski
- Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY
- Department of Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
| | - Linden Parkes
- Department of Psychiatry, Brain Health Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
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10
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Wamsley EJ, Collins M. Effect of cognitive load on time spent offline during wakefulness. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae022. [PMID: 38300213 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Humans continuously alternate between online attention to the current environment and offline attention to internally generated thought and imagery. This may be a fundamental feature of the waking brain, but remains poorly understood. Here, we took a data-driven approach to defining online and offline states of wakefulness, using machine learning methods applied to measures of sensory responsiveness, subjective report, electroencephalogram (EEG), and pupil diameter. We tested the effect of cognitive load on the structure and prevalence of online and offline states, hypothesizing that time spent offline would increase as cognitive load of an ongoing task decreased. We also expected that alternation between online and offline states would persist even in the absence of a cognitive task. As in prior studies, we arrived at a three-state model comprised of one online state and two offline states. As predicted, when cognitive load was high, more time was spent online. Also as predicted, the same three states were present even when participants were not performing a task. These observations confirm our method is successful at isolating seconds-long periods of offline time. Varying cognitive load may be a useful way to manipulate time spent in at least one of these offline states in future experimental studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin J Wamsley
- Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Johns Hall 206K, Greenville, SC 29613, United States
| | - Megan Collins
- Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Johns Hall 206K, Greenville, SC 29613, United States
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11
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Beerendonk L, Mejías JF, Nuiten SA, de Gee JW, Fahrenfort JJ, van Gaal S. A disinhibitory circuit mechanism explains a general principle of peak performance during mid-level arousal. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2312898121. [PMID: 38277436 PMCID: PMC10835062 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2312898121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decision-making is highly dependent on the momentary arousal state of the brain, which fluctuates over time on a scale of hours, minutes, and even seconds. The textbook relationship between momentary arousal and task performance is captured by an inverted U-shape, as put forward in the Yerkes-Dodson law. This law suggests optimal performance at moderate levels of arousal and impaired performance at low or high arousal levels. However, despite its popularity, the evidence for this relationship in humans is mixed at best. Here, we use pupil-indexed arousal and performance data from various perceptual decision-making tasks to provide converging evidence for the inverted U-shaped relationship between spontaneous arousal fluctuations and performance across different decision types (discrimination, detection) and sensory modalities (visual, auditory). To further understand this relationship, we built a neurobiologically plausible mechanistic model and show that it is possible to reproduce our findings by incorporating two types of interneurons that are both modulated by an arousal signal. The model architecture produces two dynamical regimes under the influence of arousal: one regime in which performance increases with arousal and another regime in which performance decreases with arousal, together forming an inverted U-shaped arousal-performance relationship. We conclude that the inverted U-shaped arousal-performance relationship is a general and robust property of sensory processing. It might be brought about by the influence of arousal on two types of interneurons that together act as a disinhibitory pathway for the neural populations that encode the available sensory evidence used for the decision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lola Beerendonk
- Research Priority Area Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
| | - Jorge F. Mejías
- Research Priority Area Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
- Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1098XH, The Netherlands
| | - Stijn A. Nuiten
- Research Priority Area Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
- Universitäre Psychiatrische Kliniken Basel, Wilhelm Klein-Strasse 27, Basel4002, Switzerland
| | - Jan Willem de Gee
- Research Priority Area Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
- Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1098XH, The Netherlands
| | - Johannes J. Fahrenfort
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam1081HV, The Netherlands
- Department of Applied and Experimental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam1081HV, The Netherlands
| | - Simon van Gaal
- Research Priority Area Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam1001NK, The Netherlands
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12
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Raut RV, Rosenthal ZP, Wang X, Miao H, Zhang Z, Lee JM, Raichle ME, Bauer AQ, Brunton SL, Brunton BW, Kutz JN. Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.06.565918. [PMID: 38187528 PMCID: PMC10769245 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.06.565918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
Neural activity in awake organisms shows widespread and spatiotemporally diverse correlations with behavioral and physiological measurements. We propose that this covariation reflects in part the dynamics of a unified, arousal-related process that regulates brain-wide physiology on the timescale of seconds. Taken together with theoretical foundations in dynamical systems, this interpretation leads us to a surprising prediction: that a single, scalar measurement of arousal (e.g., pupil diameter) should suffice to reconstruct the continuous evolution of multimodal, spatiotemporal measurements of large-scale brain physiology. To test this hypothesis, we perform multimodal, cortex-wide optical imaging and behavioral monitoring in awake mice. We demonstrate that spatiotemporal measurements of neuronal calcium, metabolism, and blood-oxygen can be accurately and parsimoniously modeled from a low-dimensional state-space reconstructed from the time history of pupil diameter. Extending this framework to behavioral and electrophysiological measurements from the Allen Brain Observatory, we demonstrate the ability to integrate diverse experimental data into a unified generative model via mappings from an intrinsic arousal manifold. Our results support the hypothesis that spontaneous, spatially structured fluctuations in brain-wide physiology-widely interpreted to reflect regionally-specific neural communication-are in large part reflections of an arousal-related process. This enriched view of arousal dynamics has broad implications for interpreting observations of brain, body, and behavior as measured across modalities, contexts, and scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan V. Raut
- Allen Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Zachary P. Rosenthal
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Xiaodan Wang
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Hanyang Miao
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Zhanqi Zhang
- Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Jin-Moo Lee
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Marcus E. Raichle
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Adam Q. Bauer
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Steven L. Brunton
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | | | - J. Nathan Kutz
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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13
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Dearnley B, Jones M, Dervinis M, Okun M. Brain state transitions primarily impact the spontaneous rate of slow-firing neurons. Cell Rep 2023; 42:113185. [PMID: 37773749 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Revised: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 10/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The spontaneous firing of neurons is modulated by brain state. Here, we examine how such modulation impacts the overall distribution of firing rates in neuronal populations of neocortical, hippocampal, and thalamic areas across natural and pharmacologically driven brain state transitions. We report that across all the examined combinations of brain area and state transition category, the structure of rate modulation is similar, with almost all fast-firing neurons experiencing proportionally weak modulation, while slow-firing neurons exhibit high inter-neuron variability in the modulation magnitude, leading to a stronger modulation on average. We further demonstrate that this modulation structure is linked to the left-skewed distribution of firing rates on the logarithmic scale and is recapitulated by bivariate log-gamma, but not Gaussian, distributions. Our findings indicate that a preconfigured log-rate distribution with rigid fast-firing neurons and a long left tail of malleable slow-firing neurons is a generic property of forebrain neuronal circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bradley Dearnley
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - Melissa Jones
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - Martynas Dervinis
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
| | - Michael Okun
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK; School of Life Sciences, Queen's Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
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Baracchini G, Zhou Y, da Silva Castanheira J, Hansen JY, Rieck J, Turner GR, Grady CL, Misic B, Nomi J, Uddin LQ, Spreng RN. The biological role of local and global fMRI BOLD signal variability in human brain organization. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.10.22.563476. [PMID: 37961684 PMCID: PMC10634715 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.22.563476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Variability drives the organization and behavior of complex systems, including the human brain. Understanding the variability of brain signals is thus necessary to broaden our window into brain function and behavior. Few empirical investigations of macroscale brain signal variability have yet been undertaken, given the difficulty in separating biological sources of variance from artefactual noise. Here, we characterize the temporal variability of the most predominant macroscale brain signal, the fMRI BOLD signal, and systematically investigate its statistical, topographical and neurobiological properties. We contrast fMRI acquisition protocols, and integrate across histology, microstructure, transcriptomics, neurotransmitter receptor and metabolic data, fMRI static connectivity, and empirical and simulated magnetoencephalography data. We show that BOLD signal variability represents a spatially heterogeneous, central property of multi-scale multi-modal brain organization, distinct from noise. Our work establishes the biological relevance of BOLD signal variability and provides a lens on brain stochasticity across spatial and temporal scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Baracchini
- Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Yigu Zhou
- Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Jason da Silva Castanheira
- Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Justine Y. Hansen
- Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | | | - Gary R. Turner
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Cheryl L. Grady
- Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, and Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Bratislav Misic
- Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Jason Nomi
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Lucina Q. Uddin
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
| | - R. Nathan Spreng
- Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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15
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Yang B, Zhang H, Jiang T, Yu S. Natural brain state change with E/I balance shifting toward inhibition is associated with vigilance impairment. iScience 2023; 26:107963. [PMID: 37822500 PMCID: PMC10562778 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The delicate balance between cortical excitation and inhibition (E/I) plays a pivotal role in brain state changes. While previous studies have associated cortical hyperexcitability with brain state changes induced by sleep deprivation, whether cortical hypoexcitability is also linked to brain state changes and, if so, how it could affect cognitive performance remain unknown. Here, we address these questions by examining the brain state change occurring after meals, i.e., postprandial somnolence, and comparing it with that induced by sleep deprivation. By analyzing features representing network excitability based on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, we confirmed cortical hyperexcitability under sleep deprivation but revealed hypoexcitability under postprandial somnolence. In addition, we found that both sleep deprivation and postprandial somnolence adversely affected the level of vigilance. These results indicate that cortical E/I balance toward inhibition is associated with brain state changes, and deviation from the balanced state, regardless of its direction, could impair cognitive performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binghao Yang
- Brainnetome Center, Laboratory of Brain Atlas and Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
| | - Haoran Zhang
- Brainnetome Center, Laboratory of Brain Atlas and Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
| | - Tianzi Jiang
- Brainnetome Center, Laboratory of Brain Atlas and Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
- Research Center for Augmented Intelligence, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou 311121, China
| | - Shan Yu
- Brainnetome Center, Laboratory of Brain Atlas and Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
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16
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Liu Y, Ye S, Li XN, Li WG. Memory Trace for Fear Extinction: Fragile yet Reinforceable. Neurosci Bull 2023:10.1007/s12264-023-01129-3. [PMID: 37812300 DOI: 10.1007/s12264-023-01129-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Fear extinction is a biological process in which learned fear behavior diminishes without anticipated reinforcement, allowing the organism to re-adapt to ever-changing situations. Based on the behavioral hypothesis that extinction is new learning and forms an extinction memory, this new memory is more readily forgettable than the original fear memory. The brain's cellular and synaptic traces underpinning this inherently fragile yet reinforceable extinction memory remain unclear. Intriguing questions are about the whereabouts of the engram neurons that emerged during extinction learning and how they constitute a dynamically evolving functional construct that works in concert to store and express the extinction memory. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the engram circuits and their neural connectivity plasticity for fear extinction, aiming to establish a conceptual framework for understanding the dynamic competition between fear and extinction memories in adaptive control of conditioned fear responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Liu
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Ministry of Education Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Huashan Hospital, Institute for Translational Brain Research, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Shuai Ye
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Ministry of Education Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Huashan Hospital, Institute for Translational Brain Research, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Xin-Ni Li
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Ministry of Education Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Huashan Hospital, Institute for Translational Brain Research, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Wei-Guang Li
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and Ministry of Education Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Huashan Hospital, Institute for Translational Brain Research, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
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17
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Uselman TW, Jacobs RE, Bearer EL. Reconfiguration of brain-wide neural activity after early life adversity. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.10.557058. [PMID: 38328213 PMCID: PMC10849645 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.10.557058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
Early life adversity (ELA) predisposes individuals to both physical and mental disorders lifelong. How ELA affects brain function leading to this vulnerability is under intense investigation. Research has begun to shed light on ELA effects on localized brain regions within defined circuits. However, investigations into brain-wide neural activity that includes multiple localized regions, determines relationships of activity between regions and identifies shifts of activity in response to experiential conditions is necessary. Here, we performed longitudinal manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) to image the brain in normally reared or ELA-exposed adults. Images were captured in the freely moving home cage condition, and short- and long-term after naturalistic threat. Images were analyzed with new computational methods, including automated segmentation and fractional activation or difference volumes. We found that neural activity was increased after ELA compared to normal rearing in multiple brain regions, some of which are involved in defensive and/or reward circuitry. Widely distributed patterns of neural activity, "brain states", and their dynamics after threat were altered with ELA. Upon acute threat, ELA-mice retained heightened neural activity within many of these regions, and new hyperactive responses emerged in monoaminergic centers of the mid- and hindbrain. Nine days after acute threat, heightened neural activity remained within locus coeruleus and increased within posterior amygdala, ventral hippocampus, and dorso- and ventromedial hypothalamus, while reduced activity emerged within medial prefrontal cortical regions (prelimbic, infralimbic, anterior cingulate). These results reveal that functional imbalances arise between multiple brain-systems which are dependent upon context and cumulative experiences after ELA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taylor W Uselman
- University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131
| | - Russell E Jacobs
- Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
| | - Elaine L Bearer
- University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
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