Cross-species Comparison of Spontaneous Brain Activity Propagation across Sleep-wakefulness States

2043 

Abstract Submission 

Yiyun Qi¹, Ruoming Wang¹, Dante Picchioni², Alan Koretsky², Jeff Duyn², Zhifeng Liang³, Zhiwei Ma¹

¹ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China, ²National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, ³Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

Yiyun Qi  
ShanghaiTech University
Shanghai, China

Ruoming Wang  
ShanghaiTech University
Shanghai, China

Dante Picchioni  
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD, USA

Alan Koretsky  
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD, USA

Jeff Duyn  
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD, USA

Zhifeng Liang  
Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shanghai, China

Zhiwei Ma  
ShanghaiTech University
Shanghai, China

Understanding the brain's dynamic processes, particularly traveling waves in resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) [1], is the key to unraveling its complex functionalities. These waves, which are tied to electrophysiological measures in animal models [2], have been increasingly recognized for their role across various brain activity scales. These directionally constrained waves are found to propagate along a spatial axis representing cortical hierarchical organization [3]. Ongoing arousal fluctuations are found to be associated with global waves of spontaneous brain activity in both rodents and humans, by using physiological arousal indicators [4-6]. However, it is yet to be understood how traveling waves propagate under different sleep/wakefulness states in these species. A comprehensive examination of the relationship between cortical hierarchical organization and propagation patterns of traveling waves under different sleep/wakefulness states is not only critical for illuminating the underlying mechanism of dynamic brain connectivity, but also essential for providing insights into the evolutionary aspects of functional architecture of the brain across species.

Two open-source datasets (Dataset 1: OpenNeuro ds003768; Dataset 2: Mouse sleep fMRI with simultaneous ECoG) were employed in this study [6-8]. Dataset 1 included simultaneous EEG-rsfMRI data from human sleep, and Dataset 2 included simultaneous ECoG-rsfMRI data from mouse sleep. The synchronized electrophysiological data were used to classify sleep/wakefulness stages. To extract propagation patterns of spontaneous brain activity, each subject's global mean signal was segmented into chunks based on peak global activity, and in each chunk, every voxel's rsfMRI signal peak had either an advance or a delay relative to the global signal peak. This was used to form a specific vector containing time delay information. The vectors of the same sleep/wakefulness stage were grouped together to be merged into a matrix [3]. Singular value decomposition was applied to each matrix, extracting the principal propagation delay profile for each sleep/wakefulness stage. To obtain cortical hierarchical organization for each sleep/wakefulness stage, functional gradients were calculated using the average resting-state functional connectivity matrix of that stage based on the diffusion embedding algorithm [9]. Spatial correlations between propagation delay profiles and functional gradients were assessed to determine their relationships.

Fig. 1a shows human propagation delay profile of each stage was spatially similar to the principal gradient of that stage, indicating the propagations of spontaneous brain activity at different stages followed cortical hierarchical organization. Fig. 1b shows similar relationships in the mouse brain, but in the awake state, the propagation delay profile was similar to the secondary functional gradient instead, indicating the difference between these two species. Fig. 2 shows the comparison of propagation delay profiles between these two species. Specifically, under the awake state, the propagation in the human brain occurred between default mode regions and primary sensory areas (Fig. 2a). In the mouse brain, it was between the anterior cingulate and primary sensory cortex plus the amygdala (Fig. 2d). Under NREM, the propagation in the human brain involved the visual cortex and limbic system at one end, and primary sensory areas at the other end (Fig. 2b and c). In the mouse brain, one end of the propagation still included the primary sensory cortex, but the amygdala was no longer involved (Fig. 2e).

This study reveals the relationship between cortical hierarchy and propagation patterns of spontaneous brain activity across wakefulness and NREM states in both human and mouse brains. The propagation features conserved between the human and mouse brains open avenues for further research into the evolutionary aspects of dynamic brain connectivity across species.

Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) ²

Task-Independent and Resting-State Analysis ¹

Data analysis

ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

FUNCTIONAL MRI

Sleep

Other - fMRI Propagation Patterns