Investigating the dynamic role of fluctuations in ongoing activity in the human brain

Investigating the dynamic role of fluctuations in ongoing activity in the human brain PDF Author: Maren Urner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656963681
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2013 in the subject Medicine - Neurology, Psychiatry, Addiction, grade: pass (in GB keine Benotung), University College London (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience), course: Neurowissenschaften, language: English, abstract: Traditionally, the focus in cognitive neuroscience has been on so-called evoked neural activity in response to certain stimuli or experiences. However, most of the brain’s activity is actually spontaneous and therefore not ascribed to the processing of a certain task or stimulus – or in other words, uncoupled to overt stimuli or motor outputs. In this thesis I investigated the functional role of spontaneous activity with a focus on its role in contextual changes ranging from recent experiences of individuals to trial-by-trial variability in a certain task. I studied the nature of ongoing activity from two perspectives: One looking at changes in the ongoing activity due to learning, and the other one looking at the predictive role of prestimulus activity using different methodologies, i.e. EEG and fMRI. Finally, I ventured into the realm of inter-individual differences and mind-wandering to investigate the relationship between ongoing activity, certain behavioural traits and neuronal connectivity.

Investigating the dynamic role of fluctuations in ongoing activity in the human brain

Investigating the dynamic role of fluctuations in ongoing activity in the human brain PDF Author: Maren Urner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656963681
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2013 in the subject Medicine - Neurology, Psychiatry, Addiction, grade: pass (in GB keine Benotung), University College London (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience), course: Neurowissenschaften, language: English, abstract: Traditionally, the focus in cognitive neuroscience has been on so-called evoked neural activity in response to certain stimuli or experiences. However, most of the brain’s activity is actually spontaneous and therefore not ascribed to the processing of a certain task or stimulus – or in other words, uncoupled to overt stimuli or motor outputs. In this thesis I investigated the functional role of spontaneous activity with a focus on its role in contextual changes ranging from recent experiences of individuals to trial-by-trial variability in a certain task. I studied the nature of ongoing activity from two perspectives: One looking at changes in the ongoing activity due to learning, and the other one looking at the predictive role of prestimulus activity using different methodologies, i.e. EEG and fMRI. Finally, I ventured into the realm of inter-individual differences and mind-wandering to investigate the relationship between ongoing activity, certain behavioural traits and neuronal connectivity.

The Brain at Criticality

The Brain at Criticality PDF Author: Mianxin Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Brain
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
The brain activities are characterized by spontaneous and persistent irregular fluctuations in space and time. Criticality theory from statistical physics has been proposed as a principle to explain the variability in normal brain spontaneous activity and has suggested the functional benefits of variability, such as maximized dynamic range of response to stimuli and information capacity. In parallel, the brains show variability in other aspects, such as the structural heterogeneity across brain regions, the intra-individual variability across experimental trials, and the behavior difference across groups and individuals. The associations between the variability of spontaneous activities and these different types of structural, intra and inter-individual variabilities remain elusive. My doctoral study thus aimed to bridge the brain variability and the above-mentioned variations based on criticality theory and analysis of empirical data. As a preparatory analysis, we first collected evidence to prove criticality in human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The advanced statistical criteria were used to exclude potential artefacts that can induce power-law scaling without the mechanism of criticality. In the first part of the study, we addressed methodological issue and tested whether several measures of either spatial or temporal complexity due to experimental limitations could be reliable proxy of spatiotemporal variability (related to criticality) in vivo. The high spatiotemporal resolutions of whole-cortex optical voltage imaging in mice brain during the waking up from anesthesia enabled simultaneous investigation of functional connectivity (FC), Multi-Scale Entropy (MSE, measure of temporal variability), Regional Entropy (RE, quantity of spatiotemporal variability) and the interdependency among them under different brain states. The results suggested that MSE and FC could be effective measures to capture spatiotemporal variability under limitation of imaging modalities applicable to human subjects. This study also lays methodological basis for the third study in this thesis. In the second study, we explored the interaction between spontaneous activity and evoked activity from mice brain imaging under whisker stimulus. The whisker stimulus will first evoke the local activation in sensory cortex and then trigger whole-cortex activity with variable patterns in different experimental trials. This trial-to-trial variability in the cortical evoked component was then attributed to the changes of ongoing activity state at stimulus onset. The study links ongoing activity variability and evoked activity variability, which further consolidates the association between ongoing activity and brain functions. In the third study, we measured the signal variability of the whole brain from resting state fMRI, and developed the multivariate pattern of cortical entropy, called entropy profile, as reliable and interpretable biomarker of individual difference in cognitive ability. We showed that the whole cortical entropy profile from resting- state fMRI is a robust personalized measure. We tested the predictive power for general and specific cognitive abilities based on cortical entropy profiles with out- of-sample prediction. Furthermore, we revealed the anatomical features underlying cross-region and cross-individual variations in cortical entropy profiles. This study provides new potential biomarker based on brain spontaneous variability which could benefit the applications in psychology and psychiatry studies. The whole study laid a foundation for brain criticality-/variability-based studies and applications and broadened our understanding of the associations between neural structures, functional dynamics and cognitive ability

Harmonies of the Mind

Harmonies of the Mind PDF Author: Stanislav Tregub
Publisher: STANISLAV TREGUB
ISBN: 5604473960
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
The brain is an orchestra playing a harmonious symphony of the Mind that we experience as the unity of our picture of the world and ourselves in this world. Violations of this process, which we call mental pathologies, lead to dissonances and even complete disintegration of the picture. How do billions of neurons perform this symphony? In other words, how does the brain create a coherent and integral model of reality while maintaining the identity of each encoded signal? In neuroscience, this question is called the binding problem. The harmony of the Mind is a physical phenomenon, and it must be explained physically. The author solves this riddle, based on the Theory of Energy Harmony and the Teleological Transduction Theory developed in the previous volumes of the series. The book describes the physical binding mechanism that makes the symphony of the Mind harmonious and reveals the subtle nuances of its physiological implementation in the brain.

Manipulative approaches to human brain dynamics

Manipulative approaches to human brain dynamics PDF Author: Keiichi Kitajo
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889194795
Category : Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In this EBook, we highlight how newly emerging techniques for non-invasive manipulation of the human brain, combined with simultaneous recordings of neural activity, contribute to the understanding of brain functions and neural dynamics in humans. A growing body of evidence indicates that the neural dynamics (e.g., oscillations, synchrony) are important in mediating information processing and networking for various functions in the human brain. Most of previous studies on human brain dynamics, however, show correlative relationships between brain functions and patterns of neural dynamics measured by imaging methods such as electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In contrast, manipulative approaches by non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) have been developed and extensively used. These approaches include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electric stimulation (tES) such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), alternating current stimulation (tACS), and random noise stimulation (tRNS), which can directly manipulate neural dynamics in the intact human brain. Although the neural-correlate approach is a strong tool, we think that manipulative approaches have far greater potential to show causal roles of neural dynamics in human brain functions. There have been technical challenges with using manipulative methods together with imaging methods. However, thanks to recent technical developments, it has become possible to use combined methods such as TMS–EEG coregistration. We can now directly measure and manipulate neural dynamics and analyze functional consequences to show causal roles of neural dynamics in various brain functions. Moreover, these combined methods can probe brain excitability, plasticity and cortical networking associated with information processing in the intact human brain. The contributors to this EBook have succeeded in showcasing cutting-edge studies and demonstrate the huge impact of their approaches on many areas in human neuroscience and clinical applications.

Intrinsic Organization and Function of Human Brain Networks Supporting the Spontaneous Dynamics of Attention and Pain

Intrinsic Organization and Function of Human Brain Networks Supporting the Spontaneous Dynamics of Attention and Pain PDF Author: Aaron Kucyi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Dynamic Functional Connectivity in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Methods and Applications

Dynamic Functional Connectivity in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Methods and Applications PDF Author: Wenbin Guo
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889661954
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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Book Description
This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

The Neocortex

The Neocortex PDF Author: Wolf Singer
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262356155
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
Experts review the latest research on the neocortex and consider potential directions for future research. Over the past decade, technological advances have dramatically increased information on the structural and functional organization of the brain, especially the cerebral cortex. This explosion of data has radically expanded our ability to characterize neural circuits and intervene at increasingly higher resolutions, but it is unclear how this has informed our understanding of underlying mechanisms and processes. In search of a conceptual framework to guide future research, leading researchers address in this volume the evolution and ontogenetic development of cortical structures, the cortical connectome, and functional properties of neuronal circuits and populations. They explore what constitutes “uniquely human” mental capacities and whether neural solutions and computations can be shared across species or repurposed for potentially uniquely human capacities. Contributors Danielle S. Bassett, Randy M. Bruno, Elizabeth A. Buffalo, Michael E. Coulter, Hermann Cuntz, Stanislas Dehaene, James J. DiCarlo, Pascal Fries, Karl J. Friston, Asif A. Ghazanfar, Anne-Lise Giraud, Joshua I. Gold, Scott T. Grafton, Jennifer M. Groh, Elizabeth A. Grove, Saskia Haegens, Kenneth D. Harris, Kristen M. Harris, Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos, Tarik F. Haydar, Takao K. Hensch, Wieland B. Huttner, Matthias Kaschube, Gilles Laurent, David A. Leopold, Johannes Leugering, Belen Lorente-Galdos, Jason N. MacLean, David A. McCormick, Lucia Melloni, Anish Mitra, Zoltán Molnár, Sydney K. Muchnik, Pascal Nieters, Marcel Oberlaender, Bijan Pesaran, Christopher I. Petkov, Gordon Pipa, David Poeppel, Marcus E. Raichle, Pasko Rakic, John H. Reynolds, Ryan V. Raut, John L. Rubenstein, Andrew B. Schwartz, Terrence J. Sejnowski, Nenad Sestan, Debra L. Silver, Wolf Singer, Peter L. Strick, Michael P. Stryker, Mriganka Sur, Mary Elizabeth Sutherland, Maria Antonietta Tosches, William A. Tyler, Martin Vinck, Christopher A. Walsh, Perry Zurn

Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensation, Perception, and Attention

Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensation, Perception, and Attention PDF Author:
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119170044
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 992

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Book Description
II. Sensation, Perception & Attention: John Serences (Volume Editor) (Topics covered include taste; visual object recognition; touch; depth perception; motor control; perceptual learning; the interface theory of perception; vestibular, proprioceptive, and haptic contributions to spatial orientation; olfaction; audition; time perception; attention; perception and interactive technology; music perception; multisensory integration; motion perception; vision; perceptual rhythms; perceptual organization; color vision; perception for action; visual search; visual cognition/working memory.)

Brain Mapping

Brain Mapping PDF Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0123973163
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2668

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Book Description
Brain Mapping: A Comprehensive Reference, Three Volume Set offers foundational information for students and researchers across neuroscience. With over 300 articles and a media rich environment, this resource provides exhaustive coverage of the methods and systems involved in brain mapping, fully links the data to disease (presenting side by side maps of healthy and diseased brains for direct comparisons), and offers data sets and fully annotated color images. Each entry is built on a layered approach of the content – basic information for those new to the area and more detailed material for experienced readers. Edited and authored by the leading experts in the field, this work offers the most reputable, easily searchable content with cross referencing across articles, a one-stop reference for students, researchers and teaching faculty. Broad overview of neuroimaging concepts with applications across the neurosciences and biomedical research Fully annotated color images and videos for best comprehension of concepts Layered content for readers of different levels of expertise Easily searchable entries for quick access of reputable information Live reference links to ScienceDirect, Scopus and PubMed

From Brain Dynamics to the Mind

From Brain Dynamics to the Mind PDF Author: Georg Northoff
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128227397
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 692

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Book Description
From Brain Dynamics to the Mind: Spatiotemporal Neuroscience explores how the self and consciousness is related to neural events. Sections in the book cover existing models used to describe the mind/brain problem, recent research on brain mechanisms and processes and what they tell us about the self, consciousness and psychiatric disorders. The book presents a spatiotemporal approach to understanding the brain and the implications for artificial intelligence, novel therapies for psychiatric disorders, and for ethical, societal and philosophical issues. Pulling concepts from neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, the book presents a modern and complete look at what we know, what we can surmise, and what we may never know about the distinction between brain and mind. - Reviews models of understanding the mind/brain problem - Identifies neural processes involved in consciousness, sense of self and brain function - Includes concepts and research from neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science and philosophy - Discusses implications for AI, novel therapies for psychiatric disorders and issues of ethics - Suggests experimental designs and data analyses for future research on the mind/brain issue