Dataset Information

Brain dynamics: the temporal variability of connectivity, and differences in schizophrenia and ADHD.

ABSTRACT: We describe advances in the understanding of brain dynamics that are important for understanding the operation of the cerebral cortex in health and disease. In data from 1017 participants from the Human Connectome Project, we show that early visual and connected areas have low temporal variability of their functional connectivity. We show that a low temporal variability of the connectivity of cortical areas is related to high mean functional connectivity between those areas, and provide an account of how these dynamics arise. We then investigate how these concepts help to understand brain dynamics in mental disorders. We find that in both first episode and long-term schizophrenia, reduced functional connectivity of early visual and related temporal cortex areas is associated with increased temporal variability of the functional connectivity, consistent with decreased stability of attractor networks related to sensory processing. In ADHD, we find these functional connectivities are increased and their temporal variability is decreased, and relate this to increased engagement with visual sensory input as manifest in high screen time usage in ADHD. We further show that these differences in the dynamics of the cortex in schizophrenia, and ADHD can be related to differences in the functional connectivity of the specific sensory vs. association thalamic nuclei. These discoveries help to advance our understanding of cortical operation in health, and in some mental disorders.

SUBMITTER: Rolls ET

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7820440 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brain dynamics: the temporal variability of connectivity, and differences in schizophrenia and ADHD.

Rolls Edmund T ET Cheng Wei W Feng Jianfeng J

Translational psychiatry 20210121 1

We describe advances in the understanding of brain dynamics that are important for understanding the operation of the cerebral cortex in health and disease. In data from 1017 participants from the Human Connectome Project, we show that early visual and connected areas have low temporal variability of their functional connectivity. We show that a low temporal variability of the connectivity of cortical areas is related to high mean functional connectivity between those areas, and provide an accou ...[more]

PMID: 33479201

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Project description:Spatial variation in connectivity is an integral aspect of the brain's architecture. In the absence of this variability, the brain may act as a single homogenous entity without regional specialization. In this study, we investigate the variability in functional links categorized on the basis of the presence of direct structural paths (primary) or indirect paths mediated by one (secondary) or more (tertiary) brain regions ascertained by diffusion tensor imaging. We quantified the variability in functional connectivity using an unbiased estimate of unpredictability (functional connectivity entropy) in a neuropsychiatric disorder where structure-function relationship is considered to be abnormal; 34 patients with schizophrenia and 32 healthy controls underwent DTI and resting state functional MRI scans. Less than one-third (27.4% in patients, 27.85% in controls) of functional links between brain regions were regarded as direct primary links on the basis of DTI tractography, while the rest were secondary or tertiary. The most significant changes in the distribution of functional connectivity in schizophrenia occur in indirect tertiary paths with no direct axonal linkage in both early (P=0.0002, d=1.46) and late (P=1×10(-17), d=4.66) stages of schizophrenia, and are not altered by the severity of symptoms, suggesting that this is an invariant feature of this illness. Unlike those with early stage illness, patients with chronic illness show some additional reduction in the distribution of connectivity among functional links that have direct structural paths (P=0.08, d=0.44). Our findings address a critical gap in the literature linking structure and function in schizophrenia, and demonstrate for the first time that the abnormal state of functional connectivity preferentially affects structurally unconstrained links in schizophrenia. It also raises the question of a continuum of dysconnectivity ranging from less direct (structurally unconstrained) to more direct (structurally constrained) brain pathways underlying the progressive clinical staging and persistence of schizophrenia.

Dataset Information

Brain dynamics: the temporal variability of connectivity, and differences in schizophrenia and ADHD.

Publications

Brain dynamics: the temporal variability of connectivity, and differences in schizophrenia and ADHD.

Similar Datasets

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