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Papo D, Bucolo M, Dimitriadis SI, Onton JA, Philippu A, Shannahoff-Khalsa D. Editorial: Advances in brain dynamics in the healthy and psychiatric disorders. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1284670. [PMID: 37779613 PMCID: PMC10539585 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1284670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- David Papo
- Center for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Ferrara, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Section of Physiology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Maide Bucolo
- Department of Electrical, Electronic and Informatics, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Stavros I. Dimitriadis
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Julie A. Onton
- Institute of Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Athineos Philippu
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - David Shannahoff-Khalsa
- BioCircuits Institute, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
- Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
- The Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science, Del Mar, CA, United States
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Bernardi D, Shannahoff-Khalsa D, Sale J, Wright JA, Fadiga L, Papo D. The time scales of irreversibility in spontaneous brain activity are altered in obsessive compulsive disorder. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1158404. [PMID: 37234212 PMCID: PMC10208430 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1158404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
We study how obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects the complexity and time-reversal symmetry-breaking (irreversibility) of the brain resting-state activity as measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG). Comparing MEG recordings from OCD patients and age/sex matched control subjects, we find that irreversibility is more concentrated at faster time scales and more uniformly distributed across different channels of the same hemisphere in OCD patients than in control subjects. Furthermore, the interhemispheric asymmetry between homologous areas of OCD patients and controls is also markedly different. Some of these differences were reduced by 1-year of Kundalini Yoga meditation treatment. Taken together, these results suggest that OCD alters the dynamic attractor of the brain's resting state and hint at a possible novel neurophysiological characterization of this psychiatric disorder and how this therapy can possibly modulate brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Bernardi
- Center for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Ferrara, Italy
| | - David Shannahoff-Khalsa
- BioCircuits Institute, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
- Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
- The Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science, Del Mar, CA, United States
| | - Jeff Sale
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Jon A. Wright
- BioCircuits Institute, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Luciano Fadiga
- Center for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Ferrara, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Section of Physiology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
| | - David Papo
- Center for Translational Neurophysiology of Speech and Communication, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Ferrara, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Section of Physiology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
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Gros C. Emotions as Abstract Evaluation Criteria in Biological and Artificial Intelligences. Front Comput Neurosci 2022; 15:726247. [PMID: 34970130 PMCID: PMC8712665 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2021.726247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Biological as well as advanced artificial intelligences (AIs) need to decide which goals to pursue. We review nature's solution to the time allocation problem, which is based on a continuously readjusted categorical weighting mechanism we experience introspectively as emotions. One observes phylogenetically that the available number of emotional states increases hand in hand with the cognitive capabilities of animals and that raising levels of intelligence entail ever larger sets of behavioral options. Our ability to experience a multitude of potentially conflicting feelings is in this view not a leftover of a more primitive heritage, but a generic mechanism for attributing values to behavioral options that can not be specified at birth. In this view, emotions are essential for understanding the mind. For concreteness, we propose and discuss a framework which mimics emotions on a functional level. Based on time allocation via emotional stationarity (TAES), emotions are implemented as abstract criteria, such as satisfaction, challenge and boredom, which serve to evaluate activities that have been carried out. The resulting timeline of experienced emotions is compared with the “character” of the agent, which is defined in terms of a preferred distribution of emotional states. The long-term goal of the agent, to align experience with character, is achieved by optimizing the frequency for selecting individual tasks. Upon optimization, the statistics of emotion experience becomes stationary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudius Gros
- Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany
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Attaining the recesses of the cognitive space. Cogn Neurodyn 2021; 16:767-778. [PMID: 35847536 PMCID: PMC9279523 DOI: 10.1007/s11571-021-09755-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Revised: 10/31/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Existing neuropsychological tests of executive function often manifest a difficulty pinpointing cognitive deficits when these are intermittent and come in the form of omissions. We discuss the hypothesis that two partially interrelated reasons for this failure stem from relative inability of neuropsychological tests to explore the cognitive space and to explicitly take into account strategic and opportunistic resource allocation decisions, and to address the temporal aspects of both behaviour and task-related brain function in data analysis. Criteria for tasks suitable for neuropsychological assessment of executive function, as well as appropriate ways to analyse and interpret observed behavioural data are suggested. It is proposed that experimental tasks should be devised which emphasize typical rather than optimal performance, and that analyses should quantify path-dependent fluctuations in performance levels rather than averaged behaviour. Some implications for experimental neuropsychology are illustrated for the case of planning and problem-solving abilities and with particular reference to cognitive impairment in closed-head injury.
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Korhonen O, Zanin M, Papo D. Principles and open questions in functional brain network reconstruction. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:3680-3711. [PMID: 34013636 PMCID: PMC8249902 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2020] [Revised: 03/11/2021] [Accepted: 04/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Graph theory is now becoming a standard tool in system-level neuroscience. However, endowing observed brain anatomy and dynamics with a complex network representation involves often covert theoretical assumptions and methodological choices which affect the way networks are reconstructed from experimental data, and ultimately the resulting network properties and their interpretation. Here, we review some fundamental conceptual underpinnings and technical issues associated with brain network reconstruction, and discuss how their mutual influence concurs in clarifying the organization of brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Onerva Korhonen
- Department of Computer ScienceAalto University, School of ScienceHelsinki
- Centre for Biomedical TechnologyUniversidad Politécnica de MadridPozuelo de Alarcón
| | - Massimiliano Zanin
- Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC‐UIB), Campus UIBPalma de MallorcaSpain
| | - David Papo
- Fondazione Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaFerrara
- Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Section of PhysiologyUniversity of FerraraFerrara
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Papo D. Gauging Functional Brain Activity: From Distinguishability to Accessibility. Front Physiol 2019; 10:509. [PMID: 31139089 PMCID: PMC6517676 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2019] [Accepted: 04/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Standard neuroimaging techniques provide non-invasive access not only to human brain anatomy but also to its physiology. The activity recorded with these techniques is generally called functional imaging, but what is observed per se is an instance of dynamics, from which functional brain activity should be extracted. Distinguishing between bare dynamics and genuine function is a highly non-trivial task, but a crucially important one when comparing experimental observations and interpreting their significance. Here we illustrate how neuroimaging's ability to extract genuine functional brain activity is bounded by functional representations' structure. To do so, we first provide a simple definition of functional brain activity from a system-level brain imaging perspective. We then review how the properties of the space on which brain activity is represented induce relations on observed imaging data which allow determining the extent to which two observations are functionally distinguishable and quantifying how far apart they are. It is also proposed that genuine functional distances would require defining accessibility, i.e., how a given observed condition can be accessed from another given one, under the dynamics of some neurophysiological process. We show how these properties result from the structure defined on dynamical data and dynamics-to-function projections, and consider some implications that the way and extent to which these are defined have for the interpretation of experimental data from standard system-level brain recording techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Papo
- SCALab, UMR CNRS 9193, Université de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
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Tozzi A, Peters JF, Chafin C, De Falco D, Torday JS. A timeless biology. PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2017; 134:38-43. [PMID: 29233623 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2017.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2017] [Revised: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 12/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Contrary to claims that physics is timeless while biology is time-dependent, we take the opposite standpoint: physical systems' dynamics are constrained by the arrow of time, while living assemblies are time-independent. Indeed, the concepts of "constraints" and "displacements" shed new light on the role of continuous time flow in life evolution, allowing us to sketch a physical gauge theory for biological systems in long timescales. In the very short timescales of biological systems' individual lives, time looks like "frozen" and "fixed", so that the second law of thermodynamics is momentarily wrecked. The global symmetries (standing for biological constrained trajectories, i.e. the energetic gradient flows dictated by the second law of thermodynamics in long timescales) are broken by local "displacements" where time is held constant, i.e., modifications occurring in living systems. Such displacements stand for brief local forces, able to temporarily "break" the cosmic increase in entropy. The force able to restore the symmetries (called "gauge field") stands for the very long timescales of biological evolution. Therefore, at the very low speeds of life evolution, time is no longer one of the four phase space coordinates of a spacetime Universe: it becomes just a gauge field superimposed to three-dimensional biological systems. We discuss the implications in biology: when assessing living beings, the underrated role of isolated "spatial" modifications needs to be emphasized, living apart the evolutionary role of time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arturo Tozzi
- Center for Nonlinear Science, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA.
| | - James F Peters
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, 75A Chancellor's Circle, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada.
| | | | - Domenico De Falco
- Second University of Naples, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione, Aversa, Caserta, Italy.
| | - John S Torday
- Department of Pediatrics, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, 1124 W.Carson Street, Torrance, CA 90502, USA.
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Tozzi A, Flå T, Peters JF. Building a minimum frustration framework for brain functions over long time scales. J Neurosci Res 2016; 94:702-16. [PMID: 27114266 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.23748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2016] [Revised: 03/14/2016] [Accepted: 03/28/2016] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
The minimum frustration principle (MFP) is a computational approach stating that, over the long time scales of evolution, proteins' free energy decreases more than expected by thermodynamical constraints as their amino acids assume conformations progressively closer to the lowest energetic state. This Review shows that this general principle, borrowed from protein folding dynamics, can also be fruitfully applied to nervous function. Highlighting the foremost role of energetic requirements, macromolecular dynamics, and above all intertwined time scales in brain activity, the MFP elucidates a wide range of mental processes from sensations to memory retrieval. Brain functions are compared with trajectories that, over long nervous time scales, are attracted toward the low-energy bottom of funnel-like structures characterized by both robustness and plasticity. We discuss how the principle, derived explicitly from evolution and selection of a funneling structure from microdynamics of contacts, is unlike other brain models equipped with energy landscapes, such as the Bayesian and free energy principles and the Hopfield networks. In summary, we make available a novel approach to brain function cast in a biologically informed fashion, with the potential to be operationalized and assessed empirically. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arturo Tozzi
- Center for Nonlinear Science, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
| | - Tor Flå
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Centre for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - James F Peters
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.,Department of Mathematics, Adıyaman University, Adıyaman, Turkey
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Wu JH, Jia Q. A universal mechanism of extreme events and critical phenomena. Sci Rep 2016; 6:21612. [PMID: 26880219 PMCID: PMC4754907 DOI: 10.1038/srep21612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2015] [Accepted: 01/27/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The occurrence of extreme events and critical phenomena is of importance because they can have inquisitive scientific impact and profound socio-economic consequences. Here we show a universal mechanism describing extreme events along with critical phenomena and derive a general expression of the probability distribution without concerning the physical details of individual events or critical properties. The general probability distribution unifies most important distributions in the field and demonstrates improved performance. The shape and symmetry of the general distribution is determined by the parameters of the fluctuations. Our work sheds judicious insights into the dynamical processes of complex systems with practical significance and provides a general approach of studying extreme and critical episodes in a combined and multidisciplinary scheme.
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Affiliation(s)
- J. H. Wu
- Peter Grünberg Research Center, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications of China, Nanjing 210003, China
- Pioneer Research Center for Biomedical Nanocrystals, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, South Korea
| | - Q. Jia
- Department of Management, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
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