RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Critical-like bistable dynamics in the resting-state human brain
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.01.09.475554
DO 10.1101/2022.01.09.475554
A1 Sheng H. Wang
A1 Gabriele Arnulfo
A1 Vladislav Myrov
A1 Felix Siebenhühner
A1 Lino Nobili
A1 Michael Breakspear
A1 Satu Palva
A1 J. Matias Palva
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/10/2022.01.09.475554.abstract
AB Brain activity exhibits scale-free avalanche dynamics and power-law long-range temporal correlations (LRTCs) across the nervous system. This has been thought to reflect “brain criticality”, i.e., brains operating near a critical phase transition between disorder and excessive order. Neuronal activity is, however, metabolically costly and may be constrained by activity-limiting mechanisms and resource depletion, which could make the phase transition discontinuous and bistable. Observations of bistability in awake human brain activity have nonetheless remained scarce and its functional significance unclear. First, using computational modelling where bistable synchronization dynamics emerged through local positive feedback, we found bistability to occur exclusively in a regime of critical-like dynamics. We then assessed bistability in vivo with resting-state magnetoencephalography and stereo-encephalography. Bistability was a robust characteristic of cortical oscillations throughout frequency bands from δ (3-7 Hz) to high-γ (100-225 Hz). As predicted by modelling, bistability and LRTCs were positively correlated. Importantly, while moderate levels of bistability were positively correlated with executive functioning, excessive bistability was associated with epileptic pathophysiology and predictive of local epileptogenicity. Critical bistability is thus a salient feature of spontaneous human brain dynamics in awake resting-state and is both functionally and clinically significant. These findings expand the framework of brain criticality and show that critical-like neuronal dynamics in vivo involves both continuous and discontinuous phase transitions in a frequency-, neuroanatomy-, and state-dependent manner.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.BiSbistability indexDFAthe scaling exponent obtained with detrended fluctuation analysis is an estimate of LTRCsEZepileptogenic zonenEZnon-EZ, areas outside of the epileptogenic zoneκcoupling strength between oscillators in the Kuramoto modelLRTCslong-range temporal correlationsMEGmagnetoencephalographyρthe strength of the state-dependent noise in the Kuramoto modelRthe order parameter of the Kuramoto modelSEEGstereo-EEG