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Betzel RF, Cutts SA, Tanner J, Greenwell SA, Varley T, Faskowitz J, Sporns O. Hierarchical organization of spontaneous co-fluctuations in densely sampled individuals using fMRI. Netw Neurosci 2023; 7:926-949. [PMID: 37781150 PMCID: PMC10473297 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Edge time series decompose functional connectivity into its framewise contributions. Previous studies have focused on characterizing the properties of high-amplitude frames (time points when the global co-fluctuation amplitude takes on its largest value), including their cluster structure. Less is known about middle- and low-amplitude co-fluctuations (peaks in co-fluctuation time series but of lower amplitude). Here, we directly address those questions, using data from two dense-sampling studies: the MyConnectome project and Midnight Scan Club. We develop a hierarchical clustering algorithm to group peak co-fluctuations of all magnitudes into nested and multiscale clusters based on their pairwise concordance. At a coarse scale, we find evidence of three large clusters that, collectively, engage virtually all canonical brain systems. At finer scales, however, each cluster is dissolved, giving way to increasingly refined patterns of co-fluctuations involving specific sets of brain systems. We also find an increase in global co-fluctuation magnitude with hierarchical scale. Finally, we comment on the amount of data needed to estimate co-fluctuation pattern clusters and implications for brain-behavior studies. Collectively, the findings reported here fill several gaps in current knowledge concerning the heterogeneity and richness of co-fluctuation patterns as estimated with edge time series while providing some practical guidance for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard F. Betzel
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Network Science Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Sarah A. Cutts
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Jacob Tanner
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Sarah A. Greenwell
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Thomas Varley
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Joshua Faskowitz
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Olaf Sporns
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Network Science Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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2
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Di X, Xu T, Uddin LQ, Biswal BB. Individual differences in time-varying and stationary brain connectivity during movie watching from childhood to early adulthood: Age, sex, and behavioral associations. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 63:101280. [PMID: 37480715 PMCID: PMC10393546 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Revised: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatially remote brain regions exhibit dynamic functional interactions across various task conditions. While time-varying functional connectivity during movie watching shows sensitivity to movie content, stationary functional connectivity remains relatively stable across videos. These findings suggest that dynamic and stationary functional interactions may represent different aspects of brain function. However, the relationship between individual differences in time-varying and stationary connectivity and behavioral phenotypes remains elusive. To address this gap, we analyzed an open-access functional MRI dataset comprising participants aged 5-22 years, who watched two cartoon movie clips. We calculated regional brain activity, time-varying connectivity, and stationary connectivity, examining associations with age, sex, and behavioral assessments. Model comparison revealed that time-varying connectivity was more sensitive to age and sex effects compared with stationary connectivity. The preferred age models exhibited quadratic log age or quadratic age effects, indicative of inverted-U shaped developmental patterns. In addition, females showed higher consistency in regional brain activity and time-varying connectivity than males. However, in terms of behavioral predictions, only stationary connectivity demonstrated the ability to predict full-scale intelligence quotient. These findings suggest that individual differences in time-varying and stationary connectivity may capture distinct aspects of behavioral phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Di
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
| | - Ting Xu
- Center for the Developing Brain, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY 10022, USA
| | - Lucina Q Uddin
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Bharat B Biswal
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
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Kraft D, Fiebach CJ. Probing the association between resting-state brain network dynamics and psychological resilience. Netw Neurosci 2022; 6:175-195. [PMID: 36605891 PMCID: PMC9810279 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
This study aimed at replicating a previously reported negative correlation between node flexibility and psychological resilience, that is, the ability to retain mental health in the face of stress and adversity. To this end, we used multiband resting-state BOLD fMRI (TR = .675 sec) from 52 participants who had filled out three psychological questionnaires assessing resilience. Time-resolved functional connectivity was calculated by performing a sliding window approach on averaged time series parcellated according to different established atlases. Multilayer modularity detection was performed to track network reconfigurations over time, and node flexibility was calculated as the number of times a node changes community assignment. In addition, node promiscuity (the fraction of communities a node participates in) and node degree (as proxy for time-varying connectivity) were calculated to extend previous work. We found no substantial correlations between resilience and node flexibility. We observed a small number of correlations between the two other brain measures and resilience scores that were, however, very inconsistently distributed across brain measures, differences in temporal sampling, and parcellation schemes. This heterogeneity calls into question the existence of previously postulated associations between resilience and brain network flexibility and highlights how results may be influenced by specific analysis choices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominik Kraft
- Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany,* Corresponding Author:
| | - Christian J. Fiebach
- Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany,Brain Imaging Center, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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Fedota JR, Ross TJ, Castillo J, McKenna MR, Matous AL, Salmeron BJ, Menon V, Stein EA. Time-Varying Functional Connectivity Decreases as a Function of Acute Nicotine Abstinence. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2021; 6:459-469. [PMID: 33436331 PMCID: PMC8035238 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Revised: 09/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The nicotine withdrawal syndrome (NWS) includes affective and cognitive disruptions whose incidence and severity vary across time during acute abstinence. However, most network-level neuroimaging uses static measures of resting-state functional connectivity and assumes time-invariance and is thus unable to capture dynamic brain-behavior relationships. Recent advances in resting-state functional connectivity signal processing allow characterization of time-varying functional connectivity (TVFC), which characterizes network communication between networks that reconfigure over the course of data collection. Therefore, TVFC may more fully describe network dysfunction related to the NWS. METHODS To isolate alterations in the frequency and diversity of communication across network boundaries during acute nicotine abstinence, we scanned 25 cigarette smokers in the nicotine-sated and abstinent states and applied a previously validated method to characterize TVFC at a network and a nodal level within the brain. RESULTS During abstinence, we found brain-wide decreases in the frequency of interactions between network nodes in different modular communities (i.e., temporal flexibility). In addition, within a subset of the networks examined, the variability of these interactions across community boundaries (i.e., spatiotemporal diversity) also decreased. Finally, within 2 of these networks, the decrease in spatiotemporal diversity was significantly related to NWS clinical symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Using multiple measures of TVFC in a within-subjects design, we characterized a novel set of changes in network communication and linked these changes to specific behavioral symptoms of the NWS. These reductions in TVFC provide a meso-scale network description of the relative inflexibility of specific large-scale brain networks during acute abstinence.
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Affiliation(s)
- John R Fedota
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland.
| | - Thomas J Ross
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Juan Castillo
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Michael R McKenna
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
| | - Allison L Matous
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
| | - Betty Jo Salmeron
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Vinod Menon
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Stanford Neuroscience Institute, Stanford, California
| | - Elliot A Stein
- Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland.
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Necka EA, Lee IS, Kucyi A, Cheng JC, Yu Q, Atlas LY. Applications of dynamic functional connectivity to pain and its modulation. Pain Rep 2019; 4:e752. [PMID: 31579848 DOI: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000000752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2019] [Revised: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Since early work attempting to characterize the brain's role in pain, it has been clear that pain is not generated by a specific brain region, but rather by coordinated activity across a network of brain regions, the "neuromatrix." The advent of noninvasive whole-brain neuroimaging, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, has provided insight on coordinated activity in the pain neuromatrix and how correlations in activity between regions, referred to as "functional connectivity," contribute to pain and its modulation. Initial functional connectivity investigations assumed interregion connectivity remained stable over time, and measured variability across individuals. However, new dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) methods allow researchers to measure how connectivity changes over time within individuals, permitting insights on the dynamic reorganization of the pain neuromatrix in humans. We review how dFC methods have been applied to pain, and insights afforded on how brain connectivity varies across time, either spontaneously or as a function of psychological states, cognitive demands, or the external environment. Specifically, we review psychophysiological interaction, dynamic causal modeling, state-based dynamic community structure, and sliding-window analyses and their use in human functional neuroimaging of acute pain, chronic pain, and pain modulation. We also discuss promising uses of dFC analyses for the investigation of chronic pain conditions and predicting pain treatment efficacy and the relationship between state- and trait-based pain measures. Throughout this review, we provide information regarding the advantages and shortcomings of each approach, and highlight potential future applications of these methodologies for better understanding the brain processes associated with pain.
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Maillet D, Beaty RE, Kucyi A, Schacter DL. Large-scale network interactions involved in dividing attention between the external environment and internal thoughts to pursue two distinct goals. Neuroimage 2019; 197:49-59. [PMID: 31018153 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2018] [Revised: 03/14/2019] [Accepted: 04/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research suggests that default-mode network (DMN) and dorsal attention network (DAN) are involved in internally- and externally-directed attention, respectively, through interactions with salience network (SN) and frontoparietal network (FPCN). Performing a task requiring external attention is often accompanied by a down-regulation of attention to internal thoughts, and vice-versa. In contrast, we often divide our attention between the external environment and internal thoughts to pursue distinct goals, yet virtually no prior research has examined how brain networks support this functionally critical neurocognitive process. In the current study, participants planned their responses for an upcoming alternate uses divergent thinking task (AUT-Condition), indicated whether arrows were pointing left or right (Arrows-Condition) or performed both tasks simultaneously (Dual-Task condition). Behaviorally, the Dual-Task condition was associated with equivalent generation of alternate uses but increased RT variability compared to the single-task conditions. Static connectivity analyses indicated that FPCN and SN increased their connectivity to DMN and reduced their connectivity to DAN during the Dual-Task condition and the AUT-Condition compared to the Arrows-Condition. Furthermore, DAN-SN connectivity was highest during the Arrows-Condition, intermediate during the Dual-Task condition and lowest during the AUT-Condition. Finally, time-varying connectivity analyses indicated that individuals who reported spending less time thinking of alternate uses during the Dual-Task condition spent more time in a state associated with performing the Arrows-Condition. Overall, our results suggest that interactions between DMN, FPCN, SN and DAN allow internal-external dual-tasking, and that time-varying functional connectivity between these networks is sensitive to attentional fluctuations between tasks during dual-tasking.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Maillet
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, University of Toronto, 3560 Bathurst St, North York, ON, M6A 2E1, Canada.
| | - Roger E Beaty
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, 140 Moore Building, University Park, PA, 16801, USA.
| | - Aaron Kucyi
- Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, 300 Pasteur Drive, Room M030, Stanford, CA, 94305-2200, USA.
| | - Daniel L Schacter
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
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Schwab S, Harbord R, Zerbi V, Elliott L, Afyouni S, Smith JQ, Woolrich MW, Smith SM, Nichols TE. Directed functional connectivity using dynamic graphical models. Neuroimage 2018; 175:340-353. [PMID: 29625233 PMCID: PMC6153304 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.03.074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2018] [Revised: 03/26/2018] [Accepted: 03/30/2018] [Indexed: 10/30/2022] Open
Abstract
There are a growing number of neuroimaging methods that model spatio-temporal patterns of brain activity to allow more meaningful characterizations of brain networks. This paper proposes dynamic graphical models (DGMs) for dynamic, directed functional connectivity. DGMs are a multivariate graphical model with time-varying coefficients that describe instantaneous directed relationships between nodes. A further benefit of DGMs is that networks may contain loops and that large networks can be estimated. We use network simulations and human resting-state fMRI (N = 500) to investigate the validity and reliability of the estimated networks. We simulate systematic lags of the hemodynamic response at different brain regions to investigate how these lags potentially bias directionality estimates. In the presence of such lag confounds (0.4-0.8 s offset between connected nodes), our method has a sensitivity of 72%-77% to detect the true direction. Stronger lag confounds have reduced sensitivity, but do not increase false positives (i.e., directionality estimates of the opposite direction). In human resting-state fMRI, the default mode network has consistent influence on the cerebellar, the limbic and the auditory/temporal networks. We also show a consistent reciprocal relationship between the visual medial and visual lateral network. Finally, we apply the method in a small mouse fMRI sample and discover a highly plausible relationship between areas in the hippocampus feeding into the cingulate cortex. We provide a computationally efficient implementation of DGM as a free software package for R.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Schwab
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Statistics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom; Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
| | - Ruth Harbord
- MOAC Doctoral Training Centre, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
| | - Valerio Zerbi
- Neural Control of Movement Lab, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Lloyd Elliott
- Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Soroosh Afyouni
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Jim Q Smith
- Department of Statistics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
| | - Mark W Woolrich
- Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen M Smith
- Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas E Nichols
- Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Statistics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom; Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
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