Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity

Modern imaging methods allow a non-invasive assessment of both structural and functional brain connectivity. This has lead to the identification of disease-related alterations affecting functional connectivity. The mechanism of how such alterations in functional connectivity arise in a structured...

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Main Authors: Hlinka, Jaroslav, Coombes, Stephen
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2012
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2512/
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author Hlinka, Jaroslav
Coombes, Stephen
author_facet Hlinka, Jaroslav
Coombes, Stephen
author_sort Hlinka, Jaroslav
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Modern imaging methods allow a non-invasive assessment of both structural and functional brain connectivity. This has lead to the identification of disease-related alterations affecting functional connectivity. The mechanism of how such alterations in functional connectivity arise in a structured network of interacting neural populations is as yet poorly understood. Here we use a modeling approach to explore the way in which this can arise and to highlight the important role that local population dynamics can have in shaping emergent spatial functional connectivity patterns. The local dynamics for a neural population is taken to be of the Wilson–Cowan type, whilst the structural connectivity patterns used, describing long-range anatomical connections, cover both realistic scenarios (from the CoComac database) and idealized ones that allow for more detailed theoretical study. We have calculated graph–theoretic measures of functional network topology from numerical simulations of model networks. The effect of the form of local dynamics on the observed network state is quantified by examining the correlation between structural and functional connectivity. We document a profound and systematic dependence of the simulated functional connectivity patterns on the parameters controlling the dynamics. Importantly, we show that a weakly coupled oscillator theory explaining these correlations and their variation across parameter space can be developed. This theoretical development provides a novel way to characterize the mechanisms for the breakdown of functional connectivity in diseases through changes in local dynamics.
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spelling nottingham-25122020-05-04T20:21:33Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2512/ Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity Hlinka, Jaroslav Coombes, Stephen Modern imaging methods allow a non-invasive assessment of both structural and functional brain connectivity. This has lead to the identification of disease-related alterations affecting functional connectivity. The mechanism of how such alterations in functional connectivity arise in a structured network of interacting neural populations is as yet poorly understood. Here we use a modeling approach to explore the way in which this can arise and to highlight the important role that local population dynamics can have in shaping emergent spatial functional connectivity patterns. The local dynamics for a neural population is taken to be of the Wilson–Cowan type, whilst the structural connectivity patterns used, describing long-range anatomical connections, cover both realistic scenarios (from the CoComac database) and idealized ones that allow for more detailed theoretical study. We have calculated graph–theoretic measures of functional network topology from numerical simulations of model networks. The effect of the form of local dynamics on the observed network state is quantified by examining the correlation between structural and functional connectivity. We document a profound and systematic dependence of the simulated functional connectivity patterns on the parameters controlling the dynamics. Importantly, we show that a weakly coupled oscillator theory explaining these correlations and their variation across parameter space can be developed. This theoretical development provides a novel way to characterize the mechanisms for the breakdown of functional connectivity in diseases through changes in local dynamics. Wiley 2012-07 Article PeerReviewed Hlinka, Jaroslav and Coombes, Stephen (2012) Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity. European Journal of Neuroscience, 36 (2). pp. 2137-2145. ISSN 0953-816X http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.08081.x/pdf doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.08081.x doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.08081.x
spellingShingle Hlinka, Jaroslav
Coombes, Stephen
Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
title Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
title_full Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
title_fullStr Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
title_full_unstemmed Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
title_short Using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
title_sort using computational models to relate structural and functional brain connectivity
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2512/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2512/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2512/