scholarly journals Variability and reliability of effective connectivity within the core default mode network: A longitudinal spectral DCM study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Almgren ◽  
Frederik Van de Steen ◽  
Simone Kühn ◽  
Adeel Razi ◽  
Karl Friston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Global Signal ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Within Subjects

AbstractDynamic 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 of effective connectivity has not been evaluated. Establishing reliability (within subjects) is crucial for its clinical use; e.g., as a neurophysiological phenotype of disease progression. Effective connectivity during rest is likely to vary due to changes in cognitive, behavioural, and physical states. Determining the sources of fluctuations in effective connectivity may yield greater understanding of brain processes and inform clinical applications about potential confounds. In the present study, we investigated the consistency of effective connectivity within and between subjects, as well as potential sources of variability (e.g., hemispheric asymmetry). We further investigated how standard procedures for data processing and signal extraction affect this consistency. DCM analyses were applied to four longitudinal resting state fMRI datasets. Our sample consisted of 20 subjects with 653 resting state fMRI sessions in total. These data allowed to quantify the robustness of connectivity estimates for each subject, and to draw conclusions beyond specific data features. We found that subjects contributing to all datasets showed systematic and reliable patterns of hemispheric asymmetry. When asymmetry was taken into account, subjects showed very similar connectivity patterns. We also found that various processing procedures (e.g. global signal regression and ROI size) had little effect on inference and reliability of connectivity for the majority of subjects. Bayesian model reduction increased reliability (within-subjects) and stability (between-subjects) of connectivity patterns.

scholarly journals The effect of global signal regression on DCM estimates of noise and effective connectivity from resting state fMRI

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Almgren ◽  
Frederik Van de Steen ◽  
Adeel Razi ◽  
Karl Friston ◽  
Daniele Marinazzo
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Measurement Noise ◽  
Resting State Networks ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Global Signal ◽  
Leibler Divergence

AbstractThe influence of the global BOLD signal on resting state functional connectivity in fMRI data remains a topic of debate, with little consensus. In this study, we assessed the effects of global signal regression (GSR) on effective connectivity within and between resting-state networks – as estimated with dynamic causal modelling (DCM) for resting state fMRI (rsfMRI). DCM incorporates a forward (generative) model that quantifies the contribution of different types of noise (including global measurement noise), effective connectivity, and (neuro)vascular processes to functional connectivity measurements. DCM analyses were applied to two different designs; namely, longitudinal and cross-sectional designs. In the modelling of longitudinal designs, we included four extensive longitudinal resting state fMRI datasets with a total number of 20 subjects. In the analysis of cross-sectional designs, we used rsfMRI data from 361 subjects from the Human Connectome Project. We hypothesized that (1) GSR would have no discernible impact on effective connectivity estimated with DCM, and (2) GSR would be reflected in the parameters representing global measurement noise. Additionally, we performed comparative analyses of the informative value of data with and without GSR. Our results showed negligible to small effects of GSR on connectivity within small (separately estimated) RSNs. For between-network connectivity, we found two important effects: the effect of GSR on between-network connectivity (averaged over all connections) was negligible to small, while the effect of GSR on individual connections was non-negligible. Contrary to our expectations, we found either no effect (in the longitudinal designs) or a non-specific (cross-sectional design) effect of GSR on parameters representing (global) measurement noise. Data without GSR were found to be more informative than data with GSR; however, in small resting state networks the precision of posterior estimates was greater using data after GSR. In conclusion, GSR is a minor concern in DCM studies; however, individual between-network connections (as opposed to average between-network connectivity) and noise parameters should be interpreted quantitatively with some caution. The Kullback-Leibler divergence of the posterior from the prior, together with the precision of posterior estimates, might offer a useful measure to assess the appropriateness of GSR, when nuancing data features in resting state fMRI.

scholarly journals Large-scale DCMs for resting-state fMRI

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeel Razi ◽  
Mohamed L. Seghier ◽  
Yuan Zhou ◽  
Peter McColgan ◽  
Peter Zeidman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Directed Graphs ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Large Graphs ◽  
Model Inversion ◽  
Graph Theoretic

This paper considers the identification of large directed graphs for resting-state brain networks based on biophysical models of distributed neuronal activity, that is, effective connectivity. This identification can be contrasted with functional connectivity methods based on symmetric correlations that are ubiquitous in resting-state functional MRI (fMRI). We use spectral dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to invert large graphs comprising dozens of nodes or regions. The ensuing graphs are directed and weighted, hence providing a neurobiologically plausible characterization of connectivity in terms of excitatory and inhibitory coupling. Furthermore, we show that the use of Bayesian model reduction to discover the most likely sparse graph (or model) from a parent (e.g., fully connected) graph eschews the arbitrary thresholding often applied to large symmetric (functional connectivity) graphs. Using empirical fMRI data, we show that spectral DCM furnishes connectivity estimates on large graphs that correlate strongly with the estimates provided by stochastic DCM. Furthermore, we increase the efficiency of model inversion using functional connectivity modes to place prior constraints on effective connectivity. In other words, we use a small number of modes to finesse the potentially redundant parameterization of large DCMs. We show that spectral DCM—with functional connectivity priors—is ideally suited for directed graph theoretic analyses of resting-state fMRI. We envision that directed graphs will prove useful in understanding the psychopathology and pathophysiology of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. We will demonstrate the utility of large directed graphs in clinical populations in subsequent reports, using the procedures described in this paper.

scholarly journals The Global Signal and Observed Anticorrelated Resting State Brain Networks

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (6) ◽  
pp. 3270-3283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Fox ◽  
Dongyang Zhang ◽  
Abraham Z. Snyder ◽  
Marcus E. Raichle
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Global Signal ◽  
Global Regression

Resting state studies of spontaneous fluctuations in the functional MRI (fMRI) blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal have shown great promise in mapping the brain's intrinsic, large-scale functional architecture. An important data preprocessing step used to enhance the quality of these observations has been removal of spontaneous BOLD fluctuations common to the whole brain (the so-called global signal). One reproducible consequence of global signal removal has been the finding that spontaneous BOLD fluctuations in the default mode network and an extended dorsal attention system are consistently anticorrelated, a relationship that these two systems exhibit during task performance. The dependence of these resting-state anticorrelations on global signal removal has raised important questions regarding the nature of the global signal, the validity of global signal removal, and the appropriate interpretation of observed anticorrelated brain networks. In this study, we investigate several properties of the global signal and find that it is, indeed, global, not residing preferentially in systems exhibiting anticorrelations. We detail the influence of global signal removal on resting state correlation maps both mathematically and empirically, showing an enhancement in detection of system-specific correlations and improvement in the correspondence between resting-state correlations and anatomy. Finally, we show that several characteristics of anticorrelated networks including their spatial distribution, cross-subject consistency, presence with modified whole brain masks, and existence before global regression are not attributable to global signal removal and therefore suggest a biological basis.

scholarly journals Regression dynamic causal modeling for resting-state fMRI

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Frässle ◽  
Samuel J. Harrison ◽  
Jakob Heinzle ◽  
Brett A. Clementz ◽  
Carol A. Tamminga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Computationally Efficient ◽  
Dynamic Causal Modeling ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract“Resting-state” functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is widely used to study brain connectivity. So far, researchers have been restricted to measures of functional connectivity that are computationally efficient but undirected, or to effective connectivity estimates that are directed but limited to small networks.Here, we show that a method recently developed for task-fMRI – regression dynamic causal modeling (rDCM) – extends to rs-fMRI and offers both directional estimates and scalability to whole-brain networks. First, simulations demonstrate that rDCM faithfully recovers parameter values over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios and repetition times. Second, we test construct validity of rDCM in relation to an established model of effective connectivity, spectral DCM. Using rs-fMRI data from nearly 200 healthy participants, rDCM produces biologically plausible results consistent with estimates by spectral DCM. Importantly, rDCM is computationally highly efficient, reconstructing whole-brain networks (>200 areas) within minutes on standard hardware. This opens promising new avenues for connectomics.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal functional interactivity among large-scale brain networks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Xu ◽  
Peter C. Doerschuk ◽  
Shella D. Keilholz ◽  
R. Nathan Spreng
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Spatial Direction ◽  
Macro Scale ◽  
High Degree

AbstractThe macro-scale intrinsic functional network architecture of the human brain has been well characterized. Early studies revealed robust and enduring patterns of static connectivity, while more recent work has begun to explore the temporal dynamics of these large-scale brain networks. Little work to date has investigated directed connectivity within and between these networks, or the temporal patterns of afferent (input) and efferent (output) connections between network nodes. Leveraging a novel analytic approach, prediction correlation, we investigated the causal interactions within and between large-scale networks of the brain using resting-state fMRI. This technique allows us to characterize information transfer between brain regions in both the spatial (direction) and temporal (duration) scales. Using data from the Human Connectome Project (N=200) we applied prediction correlation techniques to four resting state fMRI runs (total TRs = 4800). Three central observations emerged. First, the strongest and longest duration connections were observed within the somatomotor, visual and dorsal attention networks. Second, the short duration connections were observed for high-degree nodes in the visual and default networks, as well as in hippocampus. Specifically, the connectivity profile of the highest-degree nodes was dominated by efferent connections to multiple cortical areas. Moderate high-degree nodes, particularly in hippocampal regions, showed an afferent connectivity profile. Finally, multimodal association nodes in lateral prefrontal brain regions demonstrated a short duration, bidirectional connectivity profile, consistent with this region’s role in integrative and modulatory processing. These results provide novel insights into the spatiotemporal dynamics of human brain function.

scholarly journals A blind deconvolution approach to recover effective connectivity brain networks from resting state fMRI data

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guo-Rong Wu ◽  
Wei Liao ◽  
Sebastiano Stramaglia ◽  
Ju-Rong Ding ◽  
Huafu Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Blind Deconvolution ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Fmri Data

scholarly journals Intrinsic, dynamic and effective connectivity among large-scale brain networks modulated by oxytocin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Jiang ◽  
Xiaole Ma ◽  
Yayuan Geng ◽  
Zhiying Zhao ◽  
Feng Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Emotional Behavior ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Using Data

AbstractThe neuropeptide oxytocin is a key modulator of social-emotional behavior and its intranasal administration can influence the functional connectivity of brain networks involved in the control of attention, emotion and reward reported in humans. However, no studies have systematically investigated the effects oxytocin on dynamic or directional aspects of functional connectivity. The present study employed a novel computational framework to investigate these latter aspects in 15 oxytocin-sensitive regions using data from randomized placebo-controlled between-subject resting state functional MRI studies incorporating 200 healthy subjects. Results showed that oxytocin extensively modulated effective connectivity both between and within emotion, reward, salience and social cognition processing networks and their interactions with the default mode network, but had no effect on the frequency of dynamic changes. Top-down control over emotional processing regions such as the amygdala was particularly affected. Oxytocin effects were also sex-dependent, being more extensive in males. Overall, these findings suggest that modulatory effects of oxytocin on both within- and between-network interactions may underlie its functional influence on social-emotional behaviors, although in a sex-dependent manner. Furthermore, they demonstrate a useful approach to determining pharmacological influences on resting state effective connectivity and support oxytocin’s potential therapeutic use in psychiatric disorders.

scholarly journals The effect of global signal regression on DCM estimates of noise and effective connectivity from resting state fMRI

NeuroImage ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 116435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Almgren ◽  
Frederik Van de Steen ◽  
Adeel Razi ◽  
Karl Friston ◽  
Daniele Marinazzo
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Global Signal
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