scholarly journals Generative models of rich clubs in Hebbian neuronal networks and large-scale human brain networks

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1653) ◽  
pp. 20130531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra E. Vértes ◽  
Aaron Alexander-Bloch ◽  
Edward T. Bullmore
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Hebbian Learning ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Topological Term

Rich clubs arise when nodes that are ‘rich’ in connections also form an elite, densely connected ‘club’. In brain networks, rich clubs incur high physical connection costs but also appear to be especially valuable to brain function. However, little is known about the selection pressures that drive their formation. Here, we take two complementary approaches to this question: firstly we show, using generative modelling, that the emergence of rich clubs in large-scale human brain networks can be driven by an economic trade-off between connection costs and a second, competing topological term. Secondly we show, using simulated neural networks, that Hebbian learning rules also drive the emergence of rich clubs at the microscopic level, and that the prominence of these features increases with learning time. These results suggest that Hebbian learning may provide a neuronal mechanism for the selection of complex features such as rich clubs. The neural networks that we investigate are explicitly Hebbian, and we argue that the topological term in our model of large-scale brain connectivity may represent an analogous connection rule. This putative link between learning and rich clubs is also consistent with predictions that integrative aspects of brain network organization are especially important for adaptive behaviour.

scholarly journals Functional Connectivity Network Analysis with Discriminative Hub Detection for Brain Disease Identification

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 1198-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingliang Wang ◽  
Jiashuang Huang ◽  
Mingxia Liu ◽  
Daoqiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Disease Diagnosis ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Brain Disease ◽  
Brain Diseases ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Connectivity Patterns

Brain network analysis can help reveal the pathological basis of neurological disorders and facilitate automated diagnosis of brain diseases, by exploring connectivity patterns in the human brain. Effectively representing the brain network has always been the fundamental task of computeraided brain network analysis. Previous studies typically utilize human-engineered features to represent brain connectivity networks, but these features may not be well coordinated with subsequent classifiers. Besides, brain networks are often equipped with multiple hubs (i.e., nodes occupying a central position in the overall organization of a network), providing essential clues to describe connectivity patterns. However, existing studies often fail to explore such hubs from brain connectivity networks. To address these two issues, we propose a Connectivity Network analysis method with discriminative Hub Detection (CNHD) for brain disease diagnosis using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Specifically, we incorporate both feature extraction of brain networks and network-based classification into a unified model, while discriminative hubs can be automatically identified from data via ℓ1-norm and ℓ2,1-norm regularizers. The proposed CNHD method is evaluated on three real-world schizophrenia datasets with fMRI scans. Experimental results demonstrate that our method not only outperforms several state-of-the-art approaches in disease diagnosis, but also is effective in automatically identifying disease-related network hubs in the human brain.

scholarly journals Brain network constraints and recurrent neural networks reproduce unique trajectories and state transitions seen over the span of minutes in resting-state fMRI

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 448-466
Author(s):  
Amrit Kashyap ◽  
Shella Keilholz
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Recurrent Neural Networks ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Whole Brain

Large-scale patterns of spontaneous whole-brain activity seen in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) are in part believed to arise from neural populations interacting through the structural network (Honey, Kötter, Breakspear, & Sporns, 2007 ). Generative models that simulate this network activity, called brain network models (BNM), are able to reproduce global averaged properties of empirical rs-fMRI activity such as functional connectivity (FC) but perform poorly in reproducing unique trajectories and state transitions that are observed over the span of minutes in whole-brain data (Cabral, Kringelbach, & Deco, 2017 ; Kashyap & Keilholz, 2019 ). The manuscript demonstrates that by using recurrent neural networks, it can fit the BNM in a novel way to the rs-fMRI data and predict large amounts of variance between subsequent measures of rs-fMRI data. Simulated data also contain unique repeating trajectories observed in rs-fMRI, called quasiperiodic patterns (QPP), that span 20 s and complex state transitions observed using k-means analysis on windowed FC matrices (Allen et al., 2012 ; Majeed et al., 2011 ). Our approach is able to estimate the manifold of rs-fMRI dynamics by training on generating subsequent time points, and it can simulate complex resting-state trajectories better than the traditional generative approaches.

scholarly journals Detecting large-scale networks in the human brain using high-density electroencephalography

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanying Liu ◽  
Seyedehrezvan Farahibozorg ◽  
Camillo Porcaro ◽  
Nicole Wenderoth ◽  
Dante Mantini
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Frequency Band ◽  
Source Localization ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
High Density ◽  
Robust Detection ◽  
Realistic Information

AbstractHigh-density electroencephalography (hdEEG) is an emerging brain imaging technique that can permit investigating fast dynamics of cortical electrical activity in the healthy and the diseased human brain. Its applications are however currently limited by a number of methodological issues, among which the difficulty in obtaining accurate source localizations. In particular, these issues have so far prevented EEG studies from showing brain networks similar to those previously detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Here, we report for the first time a robust detection of brain networks from resting state (256-channel) hdEEG recordings. Specifically, we obtained 14 networks previously described in fMRI studies by means of realistic 12-layer head models and eLORETA source localization, together with ICA for functional connectivity analysis. Our analyses revealed three important methodological aspects. First, brain network reconstruction can be improved by performing source localization using the cortex as source space, instead of the whole brain. Second, conducting EEG connectivity analyses in individual space rather than on concatenated datasets may be preferable, as it permits to incorporate realistic information on head modeling and electrode positioning. Third, the use of a wide frequency band leads to an unbiased and generally accurate reconstruction of several network maps, whereas filtering data in a narrow frequency band may enhance the detection of specific networks and penalize that of others. We hope that our methodological work will contribute to rise of hdEEG as a powerful tool for brain research.

scholarly journals Brain Network Constraints and Recurrent Neural Networks reproduce unique Trajectories and State Transitions seen over the span of minutes in resting state fMRI

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrit Kashyap ◽  
Shella Keilholz
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Recurrent Neural Networks ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Whole Brain

AbstractLarge scale patterns of spontaneous whole brain activity seen in resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rsfMRI), are in part believed to arise from neural populations interacting through the structural fiber network [18]. Generative models that simulate this network activity, called Brain Network Models (BNM), are able to reproduce global averaged properties of empirical rsfMRI activity such as functional connectivity (FC) [7, 27]. However, they perform poorly in reproducing unique trajectories and state transitions that are observed over the span of minutes in whole brain data [20]. At very short timescales between measurements, it is not known how much of the variance these BNM can explain because they are not currently synchronized with the measured rsfMRI. We demonstrate that by solving for the initial conditions of BNM from an observed data point using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and integrating it to predict the next time step, the trained network can explain large amounts of variance for the 5 subsequent time points of unseen future trajectory. The RNN and BNM combined system essentially models the network component of rsfMRI, and where future activity is solely based on previous neural activity propagated through the structural network. Longer instantiations of this generative model simulated over the span of minutes can reproduce average FC and the 1/f power spectrum from 0.01 to 0.3 Hz seen in fMRI. Simulated data also contain interesting resting state dynamics, such as unique repeating trajectories, called QPPs [22] that are highly correlated to the empirical trajectory which spans over 20 seconds. Moreover, it exhibits complex states and transitions as seen using k-Means analysis on windowed FC matrices [1]. This suggests that by combining BNMs with RNN to accurately predict future resting state activity at short timescales, it is learning the manifold of the network dynamics, allowing it to simulate complex resting state trajectories at longer time scales. We believe that our technique will be useful in understanding the large-scale functional organization of the brain and how different BNMs recapitulate different aspects of the system dynamics.

scholarly journals Reconfiguration of human evolving large-scale epileptic brain networks prior to seizures: an evaluation with node centralities

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rieke Fruengel ◽  
Timo Bröhl ◽  
Thorsten Rings ◽  
Klaus Lehnertz
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Node Centrality ◽  
Network Mechanism

AbstractPrevious research has indicated that temporal changes of centrality of specific nodes in human evolving large-scale epileptic brain networks carry information predictive of impending seizures. Centrality is a fundamental network-theoretical concept that allows one to assess the role a node plays in a network. This concept allows for various interpretations, which is reflected in a number of centrality indices. Here we aim to achieve a more general understanding of local and global network reconfigurations during the pre-seizure period as indicated by changes of different node centrality indices. To this end, we investigate—in a time-resolved manner—evolving large-scale epileptic brain networks that we derived from multi-day, multi-electrode intracranial electroencephalograpic recordings from a large but inhomogeneous group of subjects with pharmacoresistant epilepsies with different anatomical origins. We estimate multiple centrality indices to assess the various roles the nodes play while the networks transit from the seizure-free to the pre-seizure period. Our findings allow us to formulate several major scenarios for the reconfiguration of an evolving epileptic brain network prior to seizures, which indicate that there is likely not a single network mechanism underlying seizure generation. Rather, local and global aspects of the pre-seizure network reconfiguration affect virtually all network constituents, from the various brain regions to the functional connections between them.

scholarly journals Network dynamics with BrainX3: a large-scale simulation of the human brain network with real-time interaction

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xerxes D. Arsiwalla ◽  
Riccardo Zucca ◽  
Alberto Betella ◽  
Enrique Martinez ◽  
David Dalmazzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Network Dynamics ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Large Scale Simulation ◽  
Time Interaction

scholarly journals Amplification and Suppression of Distinct Brain-wide Activity Patterns by Catecholamines

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
RL van den Brink ◽  
S Nieuwenhuis ◽  
TH Donner
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Network Dynamics ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Heterogeneous Distribution ◽  
Neurotransmitter Systems ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Catecholamine Levels

ABSTRACTThe widely projecting catecholaminergic (norepinephrine and dopamine) neurotransmitter systems profoundly shape the state of neuronal networks in the forebrain. Current models posit that the effects of catecholaminergic modulation on network dynamics are homogenous across the brain. However, the brain is equipped with a variety of catecholamine receptors with distinct functional effects and heterogeneous density across brain regions. Consequently, catecholaminergic effects on brain-wide network dynamics might be more spatially specific than assumed. We tested this idea through the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements performed in humans (19 females, 5 males) at ‘rest’ under pharmacological (atomoxetine-induced) elevation of catecholamine levels. We used a linear decomposition technique to identify spatial patterns of correlated fMRI signal fluctuations that were either increased or decreased by atomoxetine. This yielded two distinct spatial patterns, each expressing reliable and specific drug effects. The spatial structure of both fluctuation patterns resembled the spatial distribution of the expression of catecholamine receptor genes: α1 norepinephrine receptors (for the fluctuation pattern: placebo > atomoxetine), ‘D2-like’ dopamine receptors (pattern: atomoxetine > placebo), and β norepinephrine receptors (for both patterns, with correlations of opposite sign). We conclude that catecholaminergic effects on the forebrain are spatially more structured than traditionally assumed and at least in part explained by the heterogeneous distribution of various catecholamine receptors. Our findings link catecholaminergic effects on large-scale brain networks to low-level characteristics of the underlying neurotransmitter systems. They also provide key constraints for the development of realistic models of neuromodulatory effects on large-scale brain network dynamics.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe catecholamines norepinephrine and dopamine are an important class of modulatory neurotransmitters. Because of the widespread and diffuse release of these neuromodulators, it has commonly been assumed that their effects on neural interactions are homogenous across the brain. Here, we present results from the human brain that challenge this view. We pharmacologically increased catecholamine levels and imaged the effects on the spontaneous covariations between brain-wide fMRI signals at ‘rest’. We identified two distinct spatial patterns of covariations: one that was amplified and another that was suppressed by catecholamines. Each pattern was associated with the heterogeneous spatial distribution of the expression of distinct catecholamine receptor genes. Our results provide novel insights into the catecholaminergic modulation of large-scale human brain dynamics.

scholarly journals Percolation Analysis of Brain Structural Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Guo ◽  
Xiaoqi Chen ◽  
Yimeng Liu ◽  
Rui Kang ◽  
Tao Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Failure Modes ◽  
Critical Infrastructure ◽  
Network Reliability ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Structure Design ◽  
Reliability Design ◽  
The Brain

The brain network is one specific type of critical infrastructure networks, which supports the cognitive function of biological systems. With the importance of network reliability in system design, evaluation, operation, and maintenance, we use the percolation methods of network reliability on brain networks and study the network resistance to disturbances and relevant failure modes. In this paper, we compare the brain networks of different species, including cat, fly, human, mouse, and macaque. The differences in structural features reflect the requirements for varying levels of functional specialization and integration, which determine the reliability of brain networks. In the percolation process, we apply different forms of disturbances to the brain networks based on metrics that characterize the network structure. Our findings suggest that the brain networks are mostly reliable against random or k-core-based percolation with their structure design, yet becomes vulnerable under betweenness or degree-based percolation. Our results might be useful to identify and distinguish brain connectivity failures that have been shown to be related to brain disorders, as well as the reliability design of other technological networks.

scholarly journals Brain connectivity during Alzheimer’s disease progression and its cognitive impact in a transgenic rat model

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Muñoz-Moreno ◽  
Raúl Tudela ◽  
Xavier López-Gil ◽  
Guadalupe Soria
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Transgenic Animals ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Cognitive Outcome ◽  
Structural Network ◽  
New Treatments

ABSTRACTThe research of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in their early stages and its progression till symptomatic onset is essential to understand the pathology and investigate new treatments. Animal models provide a helpful approach to this research, since they allow for controlled follow-up during the disease evolution. In this work, transgenic TgF344-AD rats were longitudinally evaluated starting at 6 months of age. Every 3 months, cognitive abilities were assessed by a memory-related task and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was acquired. Structural and functional brain networks were estimated and characterized by graph metrics to identify differences between the groups in connectivity, its evolution with age, and its influence on cognition. Structural networks of transgenic animals were altered since the earliest stage. Likewise, aging significantly affected network metrics in TgF344-AD, but not in the control group. In addition, while the structural brain network influenced cognitive outcome in transgenic animals, functional network impacted how control subjects performed. TgF344-AD brain network alterations were present from very early stages, difficult to identify in clinical research. Likewise, the characterization of aging in these animals, involving structural network reorganization and its effects on cognition, opens a window to evaluate new treatments for the disease.AUTHOR SUMMARYWe have applied magnetic resonance image based connectomics to characterize TgF344-AD rats, a transgenic model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This represents a highly translational approach, what is essential to investigate potential treatments. TgF344-AD animals were evaluated from early to advanced ages to describe alterations in brain connectivity and how brain networks are affected by age. Results showed that aging had a bigger impact in the structural connectivity of the TgF344-AD than in control animals, and that changes in the structural network, already observed at early ages, significantly influenced cognitive outcome of transgenic animals. Alterations in connectivity were similar to the described in AD human studies, and complement them providing insights into earlier stages and a plot of AD effects throughout the whole life span.

scholarly journals Comparing the temporal relationship of structural and functional connectivity changes in different adult human brain networks: a single-case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takamitsu Watanabe ◽  
Geraint Rees
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Single Case Study ◽  
Adult Human

Background: Despite accumulated evidence for adult brain plasticity, the temporal relationships between large-scale functional and structural connectivity changes in human brain networks remain unclear. Methods: By analysing a unique richly detailed 19-week longitudinal neuroimaging dataset, we tested whether macroscopic functional connectivity changes lead to the corresponding structural alterations in the adult human brain, and examined whether such time lags between functional and structural connectivity changes are affected by functional differences between different large-scale brain networks. Results: In this single-case study, we report that, compared to attention-related networks, functional connectivity changes in default-mode, fronto-parietal, and sensory-related networks occurred in advance of modulations of the corresponding structural connectivity with significantly longer time lags. In particular, the longest time lags were observed in sensory-related networks. In contrast, such significant temporal differences in connectivity change were not seen in comparisons between anatomically categorised different brain areas, such as frontal and occipital lobes. These observations survived even after multiple validation analyses using different connectivity definitions or using parts of the datasets. Conclusions: Although the current findings should be examined in independent datasets with different demographic background and by experimental manipulation, this single-case study indicates the possibility that plasticity of macroscopic brain networks could be affected by cognitive and perceptual functions implemented in the networks, and implies a hierarchy in the plasticity of functionally different brain systems.

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