Dataset Information

Dynamic Brain Network Correlates of Spontaneous Fluctuations in Attention.

ABSTRACT: Human attention is intrinsically dynamic, with focus continuously shifting between elements of the external world and internal, self-generated thoughts. Communication within and between large-scale brain networks also fluctuates spontaneously from moment to moment. However, the behavioral relevance of dynamic functional connectivity and possible link with attentional state shifts is unknown. We used a unique approach to examine whether brain network dynamics reflect spontaneous fluctuations in moment-to-moment behavioral variability, a sensitive marker of attentional state. Nineteen healthy adults were instructed to tap their finger every 600 ms while undergoing fMRI. This novel, but simple, approach allowed us to isolate moment-to-moment fluctuations in behavioral variability related to attention, independent of common confounds in cognitive tasks (e.g., stimulus changes, response inhibition). Spontaneously increasing tap variance ("out-of-the-zone" attention) was associated with increasing activation in dorsal-attention and salience network regions, whereas decreasing tap variance ("in-the-zone" attention) was marked by increasing activation of default mode network (DMN) regions. Independent of activation, tap variance representing out-of-the-zone attention was also time-locked to connectivity both within DMN and between DMN and salience network regions. These results provide novel mechanistic data on the understudied neural dynamics of everyday, moment-to-moment attentional fluctuations, elucidating the behavioral importance of spontaneous, transient coupling within and between attention-relevant networks.

SUBMITTER: Kucyi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6317462 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Dynamic Brain Network Correlates of Spontaneous Fluctuations in Attention.

Kucyi Aaron A Hove Michael J MJ Esterman Michael M Hutchison R Matthew RM Valera Eve M EM

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20170301 3

Human attention is intrinsically dynamic, with focus continuously shifting between elements of the external world and internal, self-generated thoughts. Communication within and between large-scale brain networks also fluctuates spontaneously from moment to moment. However, the behavioral relevance of dynamic functional connectivity and possible link with attentional state shifts is unknown. We used a unique approach to examine whether brain network dynamics reflect spontaneous fluctuations in m ...[more]

PMID: 26874182

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Project description:Cognitive fluctuations are a characteristic and distressing disturbance of attention and consciousness seen in patients with Dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease dementia. It has been proposed that fluctuations result from disruption of key neuromodulatory systems supporting states of attention and wakefulness which are normally characterised by temporally variable and highly integrated functional network architectures. In this study, patients with DLB (n = 25) and age-matched controls (n = 49) were assessed using dynamic resting state fMRI. A dynamic network signature of reduced temporal variability and integration was identified in DLB patients compared to controls. Reduced temporal variability correlated significantly with fluctuation-related measures using a sustained attention task. A less integrated (more segregated) functional network architecture was seen in DLB patients compared to the control group, with regions of reduced integration observed across dorsal and ventral attention, sensorimotor, visual, cingulo-opercular and cingulo-parietal networks. Reduced network integration correlated positively with subjective and objective measures of fluctuations. Regions of reduced integration and unstable regional assignments significantly matched areas of expression of specific classes of noradrenergic and cholinergic receptors across the cerebral cortex. Correlating topological measures with maps of neurotransmitter/neuromodulator receptor gene expression, we found that regions of reduced integration and unstable modular assignments correlated significantly with the pattern of expression of subclasses of noradrenergic and cholinergic receptors across the cerebral cortex. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that cognitive fluctuations are associated with an imaging signature of dynamic network impairment linked to specific neurotransmitters/neuromodulators within the ascending arousal system, highlighting novel potential diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for this troubling symptom.

Dataset Information

Dynamic Brain Network Correlates of Spontaneous Fluctuations in Attention.

Publications

Dynamic Brain Network Correlates of Spontaneous Fluctuations in Attention.

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