Inferring evoked brain connectivity through adaptive perturbation

Functional control of electrophysiological network architecture using direct neurostimulation in humans

Chronically implantable neurostimulation devices are becoming a clinically viable option for treating patients with neurological disease and psychiatric disorders. Neurostimulation offers the ability to probe and manipulate distributed networks of interacting brain areas in dysfunctional circuits. Here, we use tools from network control theory to examine the dynamic reconfiguration of functionally interacting neuronal ensembles during targeted neurostimulation of cortical and subcortical brain structures. By integrating multimodal intracranial recordings and diffusion-weighted imaging from patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, we test hypothesized structural and functional rules that predict altered patterns of synchronized local field potentials. We demonstrate the ability to predictably reconfigure functional interactions depending on stimulation strength and location. Stimulation of areas with structurally weak connections largely modulates the functional hubness of downstream areas and concurrently propels the brain towards more difficult-to-reach dynamical states. By using focal perturbations to bridge large-scale structure, function, and markers of behavior, our findings suggest that stimulation may be tuned to influence different scales of network interactions driving cognition.

Brain stimulation devices capable of perturbing the physiological state of neural systems are rapidly gaining popularity for their potential to treat neurological and psychiatric disease. A root problem is that underlying dysfunction spans a large-scale network of brain regions, requiring the ability to control the complex interactions between multiple brain areas. Here, we use tools from network control theory to examine the dynamic reconfiguration of functionally interacting neuronal ensembles during targeted neurostimulation of cortical and subcortical brain structures. We demonstrate the ability to predictably reconfigure patterns of interactions between functional brain areas by modulating the strength and location of stimulation. Our findings have high significance for designing stimulation protocols capable of modulating distributed neural circuits in the human brain.

Designing Patient-Specific Optimal Neurostimulation Patterns for Seizure Suppression

Neurostimulation is a promising therapy for abating epileptic seizures. However, it is extremely difficult to identify optimal stimulation patterns experimentally. In this study, human recordings are used to develop a functional 24 neuron network statistical model of hippocampal connectivity and dynamics. Spontaneous seizure-like activity is induced in silico in this reconstructed neuronal network. The network is then used as a testbed to design and validate a wide range of neurostimulation patterns. Commonly used periodic trains were not able to permanently abate seizures at any frequency. A simulated annealing global optimization algorithm was then used to identify an optimal stimulation pattern, which successfully abated 92% of seizures. Finally, in a fully responsive, or closed-loop, neurostimulation paradigm, the optimal stimulation successfully prevented the network from entering the seizure state. We propose that the framework presented here for algorithmically identifying patient-specific neurostimulation patterns can greatly increase the efficacy of neurostimulation devices for seizures.

Emerging Frontiers of Neuroengineering: A Network Science of Brain Connectivity

Neuroengineering is faced with unique challenges in repairing or replacing complex neural systems that are composed of many interacting parts. These interactions form intricate patterns over large spatiotemporal scales and produce emergent behaviors that are difficult to predict from individual elements. Network science provides a particularly appropriate framework in which to study and intervene in such systems by treating neural elements (cells, volumes) as nodes in a graph and neural interactions (synapses, white matter tracts) as edges in that graph. Here, we review the emerging discipline of network neuroscience, which uses and develops tools from graph theory to better understand and manipulate neural systems from micro- to macroscales. We present examples of how human brain imaging data are being modeled with network analysis and underscore potential pitfalls. We then highlight current computational and theoretical frontiers and emphasize their utility in informing diagnosis and monitoring, brain-machine interfaces, and brain stimulation. A flexible and rapidly evolving enterprise, network neuroscience provides a set of powerful approaches and fundamental insights that are critical for the neuroengineer's tool kit.

A network engineering perspective on probing and perturbing cognition with neurofeedback

Network science and engineering provide a flexible and generalizable tool set to describe and manipulate complex systems characterized by heterogeneous interaction patterns among component parts. While classically applied to social systems, these tools have recently proven to be particularly useful in the study of the brain. In this review, we describe the nascent use of these tools to understand human cognition, and we discuss their utility in informing the meaningful and predictable perturbation of cognition in combination with the emerging capabilities of neurofeedback. To blend these disparate strands of research, we build on emerging conceptualizations of how the brain functions (as a complex network) and how we can develop and target interventions or modulations (as a form of network control). We close with an outline of current frontiers that bridge neurofeedback, connectomics, and network control theory to better understand human cognition.

Optimal stimulus scheduling for active estimation of evoked brain networks

OBJECTIVE

We consider the problem of optimal probing to learn connections in an evoked dynamic network. Such a network, in which each edge measures an input-output relationship between sites in sensor/actuator-space, is relevant to emerging applications in neural mapping and neural connectivity estimation.

APPROACH

We show that the problem of scheduling nodes to a probe (i.e., stimulate) amounts to a problem of optimal sensor scheduling.

MAIN RESULTS

By formulating the evoked network in state-space, we show that the solution to the greedy probing strategy has a convenient form and, under certain conditions, is optimal over a finite horizon. We adopt an expectation maximization technique to update the state-space parameters in an online fashion and demonstrate the efficacy of the overall approach in a series of detailed numerical examples.

SIGNIFICANCE

The proposed method provides a principled means to actively probe time-varying connections in neuronal networks. The overall method can be implemented in real time and is particularly well-suited to applications in stimulation-based cortical mapping in which the underlying network dynamics are changing over time.

An active method for tracking connectivity in temporally changing brain networks

The inference of connectivity in brain networks has typically been performed using passive measurements of ongoing activity across recording sites. Passive measures of connectivity are harder to interpret, however, in terms of causality - how evoked activity in one region might induce activity in another. To obviate this issue, recent work has proposed the use of active stimulation in conjunction with network estimation. By actively stimulating the network, more accurate information can be gleaned regarding evoked connectivity. The assumption in these previous works, however, was that the underlying networks were static and do not change in time. Such an assumption may be limiting in situations of clinical relevance, where the introduction of a drug or of brain pathology, might change the underlying networks structure. Here, an extension of the evoked connectivity paradigm is introduced that enables tracking networks that change in time.

Spike-timing computation properties of a feed-forward neural network model

Brain function is characterized by dynamical interactions among networks of neurons. These interactions are mediated by network topology at many scales ranging from microcircuits to brain areas. Understanding how networks operate can be aided by understanding how the transformation of inputs depends upon network connectivity patterns, e.g., serial and parallel pathways. To tractably determine how single synapses or groups of synapses in such pathways shape these transformations, we modeled feed-forward networks of 7–22 neurons in which synaptic strength changed according to a spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) rule. We investigated how activity varied when dynamics were perturbed by an activity-dependent electrical stimulation protocol (spike-triggered stimulation; STS) in networks of different topologies and background input correlations. STS can successfully reorganize functional brain networks in vivo, but with a variability in effectiveness that may derive partially from the underlying network topology. In a simulated network with a single disynaptic pathway driven by uncorrelated background activity, structured spike-timing relationships between polysynaptically connected neurons were not observed. When background activity was correlated or parallel disynaptic pathways were added, however, robust polysynaptic spike timing relationships were observed, and application of STS yielded predictable changes in synaptic strengths and spike-timing relationships. These observations suggest that precise input-related or topologically induced temporal relationships in network activity are necessary for polysynaptic signal propagation. Such constraints for polysynaptic computation suggest potential roles for higher-order topological structure in network organization, such as maintaining polysynaptic correlation in the face of relatively weak synapses.