In recent years, specific cortical networks have been proposed to be crucial for sustaining consciousness, including the posterior hot zone and frontoparietal resting state networks (RSN). Here, we computationally evaluate the relative contributions of three RSNs - the default mode network (DMN), the salience network (SAL), and the central executive network (CEN) - to consciousness and its loss...
We introduce a mean-field model for analysing the dynamics of human consciousness. In particular, inspired by the Giulio Tononi's Integrated Information Theory and by the Max Tegmark's representation of consciousness, we study order-disorder phase transitions on Curie-Weiss models generated by processing EEG signals. The latter have been recorded on healthy individuals undergoing deep sedation....
Functional imaging research has already contributed with several results to the study of neural correlates of consciousness. Apart from task-related activation derived in fMRI, PET based glucose metabolism rate or cerebral blood flow account for a considerable proportion of the study of brain activity under different levels of consciousness. Resting state functional connectivity MRI is playing...
Dynamic causal modelling (DCM) for resting state fMRI - namely spectral DCM - is a recently developed and widely adopted method for inferring effective connectivity in intrinsic brain networks. Most applications of spectral DCM have focused on group-averaged connectivity within large-scale intrinsic brain networks; however, the consistency of subject- and session-specific estimates of effective...
Examining task-free functional connectivity (FC) in the human brain offers insights on how spontaneous integration and segregation of information relate to human cognition, and how this organization may be altered in different conditions, and neurological disorders. This is particularly relevant for patients in disorders of consciousness (DOC) following severe acquired brain damage and coma,...
BACKGROUND: Recent studies have been shown that functional connectivity of cerebral areas is not a static phenomenon, but exhibits spontaneous fluctuations over time. There is evidence that fluctuating connectivity is an intrinsic phenomenon of brain dynamics that persists during anesthesia. Lately, point process analysis applied on functional data has revealed that much of the information...
Abstract: Dynamic causal modelling (DCM) for resting state fMRI – namely spectral DCM – is a recently developed and widely adopted method for inferring effective connectivity in intrinsic brain networks. Most research applying spectral DCM has focused on group-averaged connectivity within large-scale intrinsic brain networks; however, the consistency of subject- and session-specific estimates...