PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christina Lubinus
AU  - Helene Gudi-Mindermann
AU  - Anne Keitel
AU  - Andreas K. Engel
AU  - Brigitte Röder
AU  - Johanna M. Rimmele
TI  - Data-driven classification of spectral profiles reveals brain region-specific plasticity
AID  - 10.1101/782979
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 782979
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/27/782979.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/27/782979.full
AB  - The human brain exhibits rhythms that are characteristic for anatomical areas and presumably involved in diverse perceptual and cognitive processes. Visual deprivation results in behavioral adaptation and cortical reorganization, particularly affecting sensory cortices. Whether these plasticity-related changes are accompanied by altered spectral properties of neural signals and whether certain brain areas are particularly targeted by these changes is unknown. With a recently introduced approach, we analyzed MEG resting state data of a group of congenitally blind and matched sighted individuals. First, using clustering procedures (k-means and Gaussian Mixture Models) we identified brain region-specific spectral clusters. Second, a classifier was employed to test the specificity of the spectral profiles within and the differences between groups. We replicated the previously reported finding of area-specific spectral profiles, indicated by high classification performance in the sighted. Additionally, we found high classification performance in the blind, suggesting that after deprivation-related restructuring, area-specific spectral profiles can be consistently identified. Crucially, in the cross-group classification (sighted vs. blind), several sensory (visual and auditory) and right frontal brain areas were classified significantly worse compared to the control condition. Overall the spectral profiles of those brain areas showed increased neuronal power in higher frequency-bands, possibly reflecting acceleration of the regionally prevalent brain rhythms in the blind compared to the sighted. We provide evidence that visual deprivation-related plasticity selectively alters the spectral profiles of right frontal and sensory brain areas, possibly reflecting increased temporal processing capabilities (auditory, frontal cortices) and changes in the visual inhibitory-excitatory circuits in the blind.