2,157 research outputs found
Tracking dynamic interactions between structural and functional connectivity : a TMS/EEG-dMRI study
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in combination with neuroimaging techniques allows to measure the effects of a direct perturbation of the brain. When coupled with high-density electroencephalography (TMS/hd-EEG), TMS pulses revealed electrophysiological signatures of different cortical modules in health and disease. However, the neural underpinnings of these signatures remain unclear. Here, by applying multimodal analyses of cortical response to TMS recordings and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) tractography, we investigated the relationship between functional and structural features of different cortical modules in a cohort of awake healthy volunteers. For each subject, we computed directed functional connectivity interactions between cortical areas from the source-reconstructed TMS/hd-EEG recordings and correlated them with the correspondent structural connectivity matrix extracted from dMRI tractography, in three different frequency bands (alpha, beta, gamma) and two sites of stimulation (left precuneus and left premotor). Each stimulated area appeared to mainly respond to TMS by being functionally elicited in specific frequency bands, that is, beta for precuneus and gamma for premotor. We also observed a temporary decrease in the whole-brain correlation between directed functional connectivity and structural connectivity after TMS in all frequency bands. Notably, when focusing on the stimulated areas only, we found that the structure-function correlation significantly increases over time in the premotor area controlateral to TMS. Our study points out the importance of taking into account the major role played by different cortical oscillations when investigating the mechanisms for integration and segregation of information in the human brain
Bounded Influence Approaches to Constrained Mixed Vector Autoregressive Models
The proliferation of many clinical studies obtaining multiple biophysical signals from several individuals repeatedly in time is increasingly recognized, a recognition generating growth in statistical models that analyze cross-sectional time series data. In general, these statistical models try to answer two questions: (i) intra-individual dynamics of the response and its relation to some covariates; and, (ii) how this dynamics can be aggregated consistently in a group. In response to the first question, we propose a covariate-adjusted constrained Vector Autoregressive model, a technique similar to the STARMAX model (Stoffer, JASA 81, 762-772), to describe serial dependence of observations. In this way, the number of parameters to be estimated is kept minimal while offering flexibility for the model to explore higher order dependence. In response to (ii), we use mixed effects analysis that accommodates modelling of heterogeneity among cross-sections arising from covariate effects that vary from one cross-section to another. Although estimation of the model can proceed using standard maximum likelihood techniques, we believed it is advantageous to use bounded influence procedures in the modelling (such as choosing constraints) and parameter estimation so that the effects of outliers can be controlled. In particular, we use M-estimation with a redescending bounding function because its influence function is always bounded. Furthermore, assuming consistency, this influence function is useful to obtain the limiting distribution of the estimates. However, this distribution may not necessarily yield accurate inference in the presence of contamination as the actual asymptotic distribution might have wider tails. This led us to investigate bootstrap approximation techniques. A sampling scheme based on IID innovations is modified to accommodate the cross-sectional structure of the data. Then the M-estimation is applied to each bootstrap sample naively to obtain the asymptotic distribution of the estimates.We apply these strategies to the extracted BOLD activation from several regions of the brain from a group of individuals to describe joint dynamic behavior between these locations. We used simulated data with both innovation and additive outliers to test whether the estimation procedure is accurate despite contamination
Long-range coupling of prefrontal cortex and visual (MT) or polysensory (STP) cortical areas in motion perception
To investigate how, where and when moving
auditory cues interact with the perception of object-motion
during self-motion, we conducted psychophysical, MEG, and
fMRI experiments in which the subjects viewed nine textured
objects during simulated forward self-motion. On each trial,
one object was randomly assigned its own looming motion
within the scene. Subjects reported which of four labeled objects
had independent motion within the scene in two conditions:
(1) visual information only and (2) with additional moving-
auditory cue.
In MEG, comparison of the two conditions showed: (i) MT
activity is similar across conditions, (ii) late after the stimulus
presentation there is additional activity in the auditory cue
condition ventral to MT, (iii) with the auditory cue, the right
auditory cortex (AC) shows early activity together with STS,
(iv) these two activities have different time courses and the
STS signals occur later in the epoch together with frontal
activity in the right hemisphere, (v) for the visual-only condition
activity in PPC (posterior parietal cortex) is stronger than
in the auditory-cue condition. fMRI conducted for visual-only
condition reveals activations in a network of parietal and frontal
areas and in MT.
In addition, Dynamic Granger Causality analysis showed
for auditory cues a strong connection of the AC with STP but
not with MT suggesting binding of visual and auditory information
at STP. Also, while in the visual-only condition PFC is
connected with MT, in the auditory-cue condition PFC is connected
to STP (superior temporal polysensory) area.
These results indicate that PFC allocates attention to the
“object” as a whole, in STP to a moving visual-auditory object,
and in MT to a moving visual object.Accepted manuscrip
A nonstationary nonparametric Bayesian approach to dynamically modeling effective connectivity in functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments
Effective connectivity analysis provides an understanding of the functional
organization of the brain by studying how activated regions influence one
other. We propose a nonparametric Bayesian approach to model effective
connectivity assuming a dynamic nonstationary neuronal system. Our approach
uses the Dirichlet process to specify an appropriate (most plausible according
to our prior beliefs) dynamic model as the "expectation" of a set of plausible
models upon which we assign a probability distribution. This addresses model
uncertainty associated with dynamic effective connectivity. We derive a Gibbs
sampling approach to sample from the joint (and marginal) posterior
distributions of the unknowns. Results on simulation experiments demonstrate
our model to be flexible and a better candidate in many situations. We also
used our approach to analyzing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
data on a Stroop task: our analysis provided new insight into the mechanism by
which an individual brain distinguishes and learns about shapes of objects.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOAS470 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Tensor Analysis and Fusion of Multimodal Brain Images
Current high-throughput data acquisition technologies probe dynamical systems
with different imaging modalities, generating massive data sets at different
spatial and temporal resolutions posing challenging problems in multimodal data
fusion. A case in point is the attempt to parse out the brain structures and
networks that underpin human cognitive processes by analysis of different
neuroimaging modalities (functional MRI, EEG, NIRS etc.). We emphasize that the
multimodal, multi-scale nature of neuroimaging data is well reflected by a
multi-way (tensor) structure where the underlying processes can be summarized
by a relatively small number of components or "atoms". We introduce
Markov-Penrose diagrams - an integration of Bayesian DAG and tensor network
notation in order to analyze these models. These diagrams not only clarify
matrix and tensor EEG and fMRI time/frequency analysis and inverse problems,
but also help understand multimodal fusion via Multiway Partial Least Squares
and Coupled Matrix-Tensor Factorization. We show here, for the first time, that
Granger causal analysis of brain networks is a tensor regression problem, thus
allowing the atomic decomposition of brain networks. Analysis of EEG and fMRI
recordings shows the potential of the methods and suggests their use in other
scientific domains.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Proceedings of the IEE
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