Scientific article
OA Policy
English

The connectome spectrum as a canonical basis for a sparse representation of fast brain activity

Published inNeuroImage, vol. 244, 118611
Publication date2021-12
First online date2021-09-23
Abstract

The functional organization of neural processes is constrained by the brain's intrinsic structural connectivity, i.e., the connectome. Here, we explore how structural connectivity can improve the representation of brain activity signals and their dynamics. Using a multi-modal imaging dataset (electroencephalography, structural MRI, and diffusion MRI), we represent electrical brain activity at the cortical surface as a time-varying composition of harmonic modes of structural connectivity. These harmonic modes are known as connectome harmonics. Here we describe brain activity signal as a time-varying combination of connectome harmonics. We term this description as the connectome spectrum of the signal. We found that: first, the brain activity signal is represented more compactly by the connectome spectrum than by the traditional area-based representation; second, the connectome spectrum characterizes fast brain dynamics in terms of signal broadcasting profile, revealing different temporal regimes of integration and segregation that are consistent across participants. And last, the connectome spectrum characterizes fast brain dynamics with fewer degrees of freedom than area-based signal representations. Specifically, we show that a smaller number of dimensions capture the differences between low-level and high-level visual processing in the connectome spectrum. Also, we demonstrate that connectome harmonics capture more sensitively the topological properties of brain activity. In summary, this work provides statistical, functional, and topological evidence indicating that the description of brain activity in terms of structural connectivity fosters a more comprehensive understanding of large-scale dynamic neural functioning.

Citation (ISO format)
RUÉ-QUERALT, Joan et al. The connectome spectrum as a canonical basis for a sparse representation of fast brain activity. In: NeuroImage, 2021, vol. 244, p. 118611. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118611
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Secondary files (1)
Identifiers
ISSN of the journal1053-8119
121views
79downloads

Technical informations

Creation10/05/2021 2:09:00 PM
First validation10/05/2021 2:09:00 PM
Update time03/16/2023 2:46:41 AM
Status update03/16/2023 2:46:40 AM
Last indexation11/01/2024 1:02:01 AM
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack