scholarly journals Sensorimotor adaptation changes the neural coding of somatosensory stimuli

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (8) ◽  
pp. 2077-2085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sazzad M. Nasir ◽  
Mohammad Darainy ◽  
David J. Ostry
Keyword(s):  
Motor Learning ◽  
Somatosensory Evoked Potentials ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Sensory Systems ◽  
Sensorimotor Adaptation ◽  
Robotic Device ◽  
Somatosensory Stimuli ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Somatosensory Areas

Motor learning is reflected in changes to the brain's functional organization as a result of experience. We show here that these changes are not limited to motor areas of the brain and indeed that motor learning also changes sensory systems. We test for plasticity in sensory systems using somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). A robotic device is used to elicit somatosensory inputs by displacing the arm in the direction of applied force during learning. We observe that following learning there are short latency changes to the response in somatosensory areas of the brain that are reliably correlated with the magnitude of motor learning: subjects who learn more show greater changes in SEP magnitude. The effects we observe are tied to motor learning. When the limb is displaced passively, such that subjects experience similar movements but without experiencing learning, no changes in the evoked response are observed. Sensorimotor adaptation thus alters the neural coding of somatosensory stimuli.

scholarly journals The unbalanced reorganization of weaker functional connections induces the altered brain network topology in schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossana Mastrandrea ◽  
Fabrizio Piras ◽  
Andrea Gabrielli ◽  
Nerisa Banaj ◽  
Guido Caldarelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Functional Integration ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Node Degree ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Brain Disorder ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
The Brain

AbstractNetwork neuroscience shed some light on the functional and structural modifications occurring to the brain associated with the phenomenology of schizophrenia. In particular, resting-state functional networks have helped our understanding of the illness by highlighting the global and local alterations within the cerebral organization. We investigated the robustness of the brain functional architecture in 44 medicated schizophrenic patients and 40 healthy comparators through an advanced network analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. The networks in patients showed more resistance to disconnection than in healthy controls, with an evident discrepancy between the two groups in the node degree distribution computed along a percolation process. Despite a substantial similarity of the basal functional organization between the two groups, the expected hierarchy of healthy brains' modular organization is crumbled in schizophrenia, showing a peculiar arrangement of the functional connections, characterized by several topologically equivalent backbones. Thus, the manifold nature of the functional organization’s basal scheme, together with its altered hierarchical modularity, may be crucial in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This result fits the disconnection hypothesis that describes schizophrenia as a brain disorder characterized by an abnormal functional integration among brain regions.

scholarly journals The Modular Organization of Pain Brain Networks: An fMRI Graph Analysis Informed by Intracranial EEG

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Fauchon ◽  
David Meunier ◽  
Isabelle Faillenot ◽  
Florence B Pomares ◽  
Hélène Bastuji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Noxious Heat ◽  
Intracranial Eeg ◽  
Brain Connectome ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Intracranial EEG (iEEG) studies have suggested that the conscious perception of pain builds up from successive contributions of brain networks in less than 1 s. However, the functional organization of cortico-subcortical connections at the multisecond time scale, and its accordance with iEEG models, remains unknown. Here, we used graph theory with modular analysis of fMRI data from 60 healthy participants experiencing noxious heat stimuli, of whom 36 also received audio stimulation. Brain connectivity during pain was organized in four modules matching those identified through iEEG, namely: 1) sensorimotor (SM), 2) medial fronto-cingulo-parietal (default mode-like), 3) posterior parietal-latero-frontal (central executive-like), and 4) amygdalo-hippocampal (limbic). Intrinsic overlaps existed between the pain and audio conditions in high-order areas, but also pain-specific higher small-worldness and connectivity within the sensorimotor module. Neocortical modules were interrelated via “connector hubs” in dorsolateral frontal, posterior parietal, and anterior insular cortices, the antero-insular connector being most predominant during pain. These findings provide a mechanistic picture of the brain networks architecture and support fractal-like similarities between the micro-and macrotemporal dynamics associated with pain. The anterior insula appears to play an essential role in information integration, possibly by determining priorities for the processing of information and subsequent entrance into other points of the brain connectome.

scholarly journals The restless brain: how intrinsic activity organizes brain function

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1668) ◽  
pp. 20140172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus E. Raichle
Keyword(s):  
Brain Function ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Intrinsic Activity ◽  
Systems Neuroscience ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Molecular Neuroscience ◽  
Constant State ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
The Brain

Traditionally studies of brain function have focused on task-evoked responses. By their very nature such experiments tacitly encourage a reflexive view of brain function. While such an approach has been remarkably productive at all levels of neuroscience, it ignores the alternative possibility that brain functions are mainly intrinsic and ongoing, involving information processing for interpreting, responding to and predicting environmental demands. I suggest that the latter view best captures the essence of brain function, a position that accords well with the allocation of the brain's energy resources, its limited access to sensory information and a dynamic, intrinsic functional organization. The nature of this intrinsic activity, which exhibits a surprising level of organization with dimensions of both space and time, is revealed in the ongoing activity of the brain and its metabolism. As we look to the future, understanding the nature of this intrinsic activity will require integrating knowledge from cognitive and systems neuroscience with cellular and molecular neuroscience where ion channels, receptors, components of signal transduction and metabolic pathways are all in a constant state of flux. The reward for doing so will be a much better understanding of human behaviour in health and disease.

scholarly journals The Geometry of Information Coding in Correlated Neural Populations

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rava Azeredo da Silveira ◽  
Fred Rieke
Keyword(s):  
Neural Coding ◽  
Neural Population ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Information Coding ◽  
Population Code ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Neural Populations ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Theoretical Developments

Neurons in the brain represent information in their collective activity. The fidelity of this neural population code depends on whether and how variability in the response of one neuron is shared with other neurons. Two decades of studies have investigated the influence of these noise correlations on the properties of neural coding. We provide an overview of the theoretical developments on the topic. Using simple, qualitative, and general arguments, we discuss, categorize, and relate the various published results. We emphasize the relevance of the fine structure of noise correlation, and we present a new approach to the issue. Throughout this review, we emphasize a geometrical picture of how noise correlations impact the neural code. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Neuroscience, Volume 44 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals The Retina: A Window into the Brain

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3269
Author(s):  
Maurice Ptito ◽  
Maxime Bleau ◽  
Joseph Bouskila
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Systems ◽  
The Brain

In the course of evolution, animals have obtained the capacity to perceive and encode their environment via the development of sensory systems such as touch, olfaction, audition, and vision [...]

A Few More Thoughts About Feelings

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. (Bud) Craig
Keyword(s):  
Brain Structures ◽  
Sensory Systems ◽  
The Brain

This concluding chapter addresses some of the larger issues relevant to the ideas presented in this book. These issues include the purpose of feelings, the brain structures required in order to experience feelings and which species have them, the kinds of feelings that other species might experience, why feelings seem to propel behavior, and whether Watson—the computer that won the Jeopardy game—might ever experience feelings. The chapter then examines the concept of graded sentience. This concept seems to provide the basis for graded feelings of interoceptive conditions, depending on the level of refinement of the homeostatic motor and sensory systems.

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