fMRI spectral signatures of sleep.

Sleep can be distinguished from wake by changes in brain electrical activity, typically assessed using electroencephalography (EEG). The hallmark of nonrapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep is the shift from high-frequency, low-amplitude wake EEG to low-frequency, high-amplitude sleep EEG dominated by spindles and slow waves. Here we identified signatures of sleep in brain hemodynamic activity, using simultaneous functional MRI (fMRI) and EEG. We found that, at the transition from wake to sleep, fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity evolved from a mixed-frequency pattern to one dominated by two distinct oscillations: a low-frequency (<0.1 Hz) oscillation prominent in light sleep and correlated with the occurrence of spindles, and a high-frequency oscillation (>0.1 Hz) prominent in deep sleep and correlated with the occurrence of slow waves. The two oscillations were both detectable across the brain but exhibited distinct spatiotemporal patterns. During the falling-asleep process, the low-frequency oscillation first appeared in the thalamus, then the posterior cortex, and lastly the frontal cortex, while the high-frequency oscillation first appeared in the midbrain, then the frontal cortex, and lastly the posterior cortex. During the waking-up process, both oscillations disappeared first from the thalamus, then the frontal cortex, and lastly the posterior cortex. The BOLD oscillations provide local signatures of spindle and slow wave activity. They may be employed to monitor the regional occurrence of sleep or wakefulness, track which regions are the first to fall asleep or wake up at the wake-sleep transitions, and investigate local homeostatic sleep processes.

Frequency Analysis of EEG Microstate Sequences in Wakefulness and NREM Sleep.

The majority of EEG microstate analyses concern wakefulness, and the existing sleep studies have focused on changes in spatial microstate properties and on microstate transitions between adjacent time points, the shortest available time scale. We present a more extensive time series analysis of unsmoothed EEG microstate sequences in wakefulness and non-REM sleep stages across many time scales. Very short time scales are assessed with Markov tests, intermediate time scales by the entropy rate and long time scales by a spectral analysis which identifies characteristic microstate frequencies. During the descent from wakefulness to sleep stage N3, we find that the increasing mean microstate duration is a gradual phenomenon explained by a continuous slowing of microstate dynamics as described by the relaxation time of the transition probability matrix. The finite entropy rate, which considers longer microstate histories, shows that microstate sequences become more predictable (less random) with decreasing vigilance level. Accordingly, the Markov property is absent in wakefulness but in sleep stage N3, 10/19 subjects have microstate sequences compatible with a second-order Markov process. A spectral microstate analysis is performed by comparing the time-lagged mutual information coefficients of microstate sequences with the autocorrelation function of the underlying EEG. We find periodic microstate behavior in all vigilance states, linked to alpha frequencies in wakefulness, theta activity in N1, sleep spindle frequencies in N2, and in the delta frequency band in N3. In summary, we show that EEG microstates are a dynamic phenomenon with oscillatory properties that slow down in sleep and are coupled to specific EEG frequencies across several sleep stages.

Complexity Measures for EEG Microstate Sequences: Concepts and Algorithms.

EEG microstate sequence analysis quantifies properties of ongoing brain electrical activity which is known to exhibit complex dynamics across many time scales. In this report we review recent developments in quantifying microstate sequence complexity, we classify these approaches with regard to different complexity concepts, and we evaluate excess entropy as a yet unexplored quantity in microstate research. We determined the quantities entropy rate, excess entropy, Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC), and Hurst exponents on Potts model data, a discrete statistical mechanics model with a temperature-controlled phase transition. We then applied the same techniques to EEG microstate sequences from wakefulness and non-REM sleep stages and used first-order Markov surrogate data to determine which time scales contributed to the different complexity measures. We demonstrate that entropy rate and LZC measure the Kolmogorov complexity (randomness) of microstate sequences, whereas excess entropy and Hurst exponents describe statistical complexity which attains its maximum at intermediate levels of randomness. We confirmed the equivalence of entropy rate and LZC when the LZ-76 algorithm is used, a result previously reported for neural spike train analysis (Amigó et al., Neural Comput 16:717-736, https://doi.org/10.1162/089976604322860677 , 2004). Surrogate data analyses prove that entropy-based quantities and LZC focus on short-range temporal correlations, whereas Hurst exponents include short and long time scales. Sleep data analysis reveals that deeper sleep stages are accompanied by a decrease in Kolmogorov complexity and an increase in statistical complexity. Microstate jump sequences, where duplicate states have been removed, show higher randomness, lower statistical complexity, and no long-range correlations. Regarding the practical use of these methods, we suggest that LZC can be used as an efficient entropy rate estimator that avoids the estimation of joint entropies, whereas entropy rate estimation via joint entropies has the advantage of providing excess entropy as the second parameter of the same linear fit. We conclude that metrics of statistical complexity are a useful addition to microstate analysis and address a complexity concept that is not yet covered by existing microstate algorithms while being actively explored in other areas of brain research.

Propofol Reversibly Attenuates Short-Range Microstate Ordering and 20 Hz Microstate Oscillations.

Microstate sequences summarize the changing voltage patterns measured by electroencephalography, using a clustering approach to reduce the high dimensionality of the underlying data. A common approach is to restrict the pattern matching step to local maxima of the global field power (GFP) and to interpolate the microstate fit in between. In this study, we investigate how the anesthetic propofol affects microstate sequence periodicity and predictability, and how these metrics are changed by interpolation. We performed two frequency analyses on microstate sequences, one based on time-lagged mutual information, the other based on Fourier transform methodology, and quantified the effects of interpolation. Resting-state microstate sequences had a 20 Hz frequency peak related to dominant 10 Hz (alpha) rhythms, and the Fourier approach demonstrated that all five microstate classes followed this frequency. The 20 Hz periodicity was reversibly attenuated under moderate propofol sedation, as shown by mutual information and Fourier analysis. Characteristic microstate frequencies could only be observed in non-interpolated microstate sequences and were masked by smoothing effects of interpolation. Information-theoretic analysis revealed faster microstate dynamics and larger entropy rates under propofol, whereas Shannon entropy did not change significantly. In moderate sedation, active information storage decreased for non-interpolated sequences. Signatures of non-equilibrium dynamics were observed in non-interpolated sequences, but no changes were observed between sedation levels. All changes occurred while subjects were able to perform an auditory perception task. In summary, we show that low dose propofol reversibly increases the randomness of microstate sequences and attenuates microstate oscillations without correlation to cognitive task performance. Microstate dynamics between GFP peaks reflect physiological processes that are not accessible in interpolated sequences.

Perturbations in dynamical models of whole-brain activity dissociate between the level and stability of consciousness.

Consciousness transiently fades away during deep sleep, more stably under anesthesia, and sometimes permanently due to brain injury. The development of an index to quantify the level of consciousness across these different states is regarded as a key problem both in basic and clinical neuroscience. We argue that this problem is ill-defined since such an index would not exhaust all the relevant information about a given state of consciousness. While the level of consciousness can be taken to describe the actual brain state, a complete characterization should also include its potential behavior against external perturbations. We developed and analyzed whole-brain computational models to show that the stability of conscious states provides information complementary to their similarity to conscious wakefulness. Our work leads to a novel methodological framework to sort out different brain states by their stability and reversibility, and illustrates its usefulness to dissociate between physiological (sleep), pathological (brain-injured patients), and pharmacologically-induced (anesthesia) loss of consciousness.

Awakening: Predicting external stimulation to force transitions between different brain states.

A fundamental problem in systems neuroscience is how to force a transition from one brain state to another by external driven stimulation in, for example, wakefulness, sleep, coma, or neuropsychiatric diseases. This requires a quantitative and robust definition of a brain state, which has so far proven elusive. Here, we provide such a definition, which, together with whole-brain modeling, permits the systematic study in silico of how simulated brain stimulation can force transitions between different brain states in humans. Specifically, we use a unique neuroimaging dataset of human sleep to systematically investigate where to stimulate the brain to force an awakening of the human sleeping brain and vice versa. We show where this is possible using a definition of a brain state as an ensemble of "metastable substates," each with a probabilistic stability and occurrence frequency fitted by a generative whole-brain model, fine-tuned on the basis of the effective connectivity. Given the biophysical limitations of direct electrical stimulation (DES) of microcircuits, this opens exciting possibilities for discovering stimulation targets and selecting connectivity patterns that can ensure propagation of DES-induced neural excitation, potentially making it possible to create awakenings from complex cases of brain injury.

Signature of consciousness in brain-wide synchronization patterns of monkey and human fMRI signals.

During the sleep-wake cycle, the brain undergoes profound dynamical changes, which manifest subjectively as transitions between conscious experience and unconsciousness. Yet, neurophysiological signatures that can objectively distinguish different consciousness states based are scarce. Here, we show that differences in the level of brain-wide signals can reliably distinguish different stages of sleep and anesthesia from the awake state in human and monkey fMRI resting state data. Moreover, a whole-brain computational model can faithfully reproduce changes in global synchronization and other metrics such as functional connectivity, structure-function relationship, integration and segregation across vigilance states. We demonstrate that the awake brain is close to a Hopf bifurcation, which naturally coincides with the emergence of globally correlated fMRI signals. Furthermore, simulating lesions of individual brain areas highlights the importance of connectivity hubs in the posterior brain and subcortical nuclei for maintaining the model in the awake state, as predicted by graph-theoretical analyses of structural data.

Noise-driven multistability vs deterministic chaos in phenomenological semi-empirical models of whole-brain activity.

An outstanding open problem in neuroscience is to understand how neural systems are capable of producing and sustaining complex spatiotemporal dynamics. Computational models that combine local dynamics with in vivo measurements of anatomical and functional connectivity can be used to test potential mechanisms underlying this complexity. We compared two conceptually different mechanisms: noise-driven switching between equilibrium solutions (modeled by coupled Stuart-Landau oscillators) and deterministic chaos (modeled by coupled Rossler oscillators). We found that both models struggled to simultaneously reproduce multiple observables computed from the empirical data. This issue was especially manifested in the case of noise-driven dynamics close to a bifurcation, which imposed overly strong constraints on the optimal model parameters. In contrast, the chaotic model could produce complex behavior over a range of parameters, thus being capable of capturing multiple observables at the same time with good performance. Our observations support the view of the brain as a non-equilibrium system able to produce endogenous variability. We presented a simple model capable of jointly reproducing functional connectivity computed at different temporal scales. Besides adding to our conceptual understanding of brain complexity, our results inform and constrain the future development of biophysically realistic large-scale models.

Unconsciousness reconfigures modular brain network dynamics.

The dynamic core hypothesis posits that consciousness is correlated with simultaneously integrated and differentiated assemblies of transiently synchronized brain regions. We represented time-dependent functional interactions using dynamic brain networks and assessed the integrity of the dynamic core by means of the size and flexibility of the largest multilayer module. As a first step, we constrained parameter selection using a newly developed benchmark for module detection in heterogeneous temporal networks. Next, we applied a multilayer modularity maximization algorithm to dynamic brain networks computed from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired during deep sleep and under propofol anesthesia. We found that unconsciousness reconfigured network flexibility and reduced the size of the largest spatiotemporal module, which we identified with the dynamic core. Our results represent a first characterization of modular brain network dynamics during states of unconsciousness measured with fMRI, adding support to the dynamic core hypothesis of human consciousness.

Low-Frequency Oscillations Code Speech during Verbal Working Memory.

The way the human brain represents speech in memory is still unknown. An obvious characteristic of speech is its evolvement over time. During speech processing, neural oscillations are modulated by the temporal properties of the acoustic speech signal, but also acquired knowledge on the temporal structure of language influences speech perception-related brain activity. This suggests that speech could be represented in the temporal domain, a form of representation that the brain also uses to encode autobiographic memories. Empirical evidence for such a memory code is lacking. We investigated the nature of speech memory representations using direct cortical recordings in the left perisylvian cortex during delayed sentence reproduction in female and male patients undergoing awake tumor surgery. Our results reveal that the brain endogenously represents speech in the temporal domain. Temporal pattern similarity analyses revealed that the phase of frontotemporal low-frequency oscillations, primarily in the beta range, represents sentence identity in working memory. The positive relationship between beta power during working memory and task performance suggests that working memory representations benefit from increased phase separation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Memory is an endogenous source of information based on experience. While neural oscillations encode autobiographic memories in the temporal domain, little is known on their contribution to memory representations of human speech. Our electrocortical recordings in participants who maintain sentences in memory identify the phase of left frontotemporal beta oscillations as the most prominent information carrier of sentence identity. These observations provide evidence for a theoretical model on speech memory representations and explain why interfering with beta oscillations in the left inferior frontal cortex diminishes verbal working memory capacity. The lack of sentence identity coding at the syllabic rate suggests that sentences are represented in memory in a more abstract form compared with speech coding during speech perception and production.

Connectivity dynamics from wakefulness to sleep.

Interest in time-resolved connectivity in fMRI has grown rapidly in recent years. The most widely used technique for studying connectivity changes over time utilizes a sliding windows approach. There has been some debate about the utility of shorter versus longer windows, the use of fixed versus adaptive windows, as well as whether observed resting state dynamics during wakefulness may be predominantly due to changes in sleep state and subject head motion. In this work we use an independent component analysis (ICA)-based pipeline applied to concurrent EEG/fMRI data collected during wakefulness and various sleep stages and show: 1) connectivity states obtained from clustering sliding windowed correlations of resting state functional network time courses well classify the sleep states obtained from EEG data, 2) using shorter sliding windows instead of longer non-overlapping windows improves the ability to capture transition dynamics even at windows as short as 30 â€‹s, 3) motion appears to be mostly associated with one of the states rather than spread across all of them 4) a fixed tapered sliding window approach outperforms an adaptive dynamic conditional correlation approach, and 5) consistent with prior EEG/fMRI work, we identify evidence of multiple states within the wakeful condition which are able to be classified with high accuracy. Classification of wakeful only states suggest the presence of time-varying changes in connectivity in fMRI data beyond sleep state or motion. Results also inform about advantageous technical choices, and the identification of different clusters within wakefulness that are separable suggest further studies in this direction.

Modeling regional changes in dynamic stability during sleep and wakefulness.

Global brain states are frequently placed within a unidimensional continuum by correlational studies, ranging from states of deep unconsciousness to ordinary wakefulness. An alternative is their multidimensional and mechanistic characterization in terms of different cognitive capacities, using computational models to reproduce the underlying neural dynamics. We explore this alternative by introducing a semi-empirical model linking regional activation and long-range functional connectivity in the different brain states visited during the natural wake-sleep cycle. Our model combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, in vivo estimates of structural connectivity, and anatomically-informed priors to constrain the independent variation of regional activation. The best fit to empirical data was achieved using priors based on functionally coherent networks, with the resulting model parameters dividing the cortex into regions presenting opposite dynamical behavior. Frontoparietal regions approached a bifurcation from dynamics at a fixed point governed by noise, while sensorimotor regions approached a bifurcation from oscillatory dynamics. In agreement with human electrophysiological experiments, sleep onset induced subcortical deactivation with low correlation, which was subsequently reversed for deeper stages. Finally, we introduced periodic forcing of variable intensity to simulate external perturbations, and identified the key regions relevant for the recovery of wakefulness from deep sleep. Our model represents sleep as a state with diminished perceptual gating and the latent capacity for global accessibility that is required for rapid arousals. To the extent that the qualitative characterization of local dynamics is exhausted by the dichotomy between unstable and stable behavior, our work highlights how expanding the model parameter space can describe states of consciousness in terms of multiple dimensions with interpretations given by the choice of anatomically-informed priors.

Generative Embeddings of Brain Collective Dynamics Using Variational Autoencoders.

We consider the problem of encoding pairwise correlations between coupled dynamical systems in a low-dimensional latent space based on few distinct observations. We use variational autoencoders (VAEs) to embed temporal correlations between coupled nonlinear oscillators that model brain states in the wake-sleep cycle into a two-dimensional manifold. Training a VAE with samples generated using two different parameter combinations results in an embedding that encodes the repertoire of collective dynamics, as well as the topology of the underlying connectivity network. We first follow this approach to infer the trajectory of brain states measured from wakefulness to deep sleep from the two end points of this trajectory; then, we show that the same architecture was capable of representing the pairwise correlations of generic Landau-Stuart oscillators coupled by complex network topology.

Human cortical-hippocampal dialogue in wake and slow-wave sleep.

Declarative memory consolidation is hypothesized to require a two-stage, reciprocal cortical-hippocampal dialogue. According to this model, higher frequency signals convey information from the cortex to hippocampus during wakefulness, but in the reverse direction during slow-wave sleep (SWS). Conversely, lower-frequency activity propagates from the information "receiver" to the "sender" to coordinate the timing of information transfer. Reversal of sender/receiver roles across wake and SWS implies that higher- and lower-frequency signaling should reverse direction between the cortex and hippocampus. However, direct evidence of such a reversal has been lacking in humans. Here, we use human resting-state fMRI and electrocorticography to demonstrate that δ-band activity and infraslow activity propagate in opposite directions between the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Moreover, both δ activity and infraslow activity reverse propagation directions between the hippocampus and cerebral cortex across wake and SWS. These findings provide direct evidence for state-dependent reversals in human cortical-hippocampal communication.

Perturbation of whole-brain dynamics in silico reveals mechanistic differences between brain states.

Human neuroimaging research has revealed that wakefulness and sleep involve very different activity patterns. Yet, it is not clear why brain states differ in their dynamical complexity, e.g. in the level of integration and segregation across brain networks over time. Here, we investigate the mechanisms underlying the dynamical stability of brain states using a novel off-line in silico perturbation protocol. We first adjust a whole-brain computational model to the basal dynamics of wakefulness and deep sleep recorded with fMRI in two independent human fMRI datasets. Then, the models of sleep and awake brain states are perturbed using two distinct multifocal protocols either promoting or disrupting synchronization in randomly selected brain areas. Once perturbation is halted, we use a novel measure, the Perturbative Integration Latency Index (PILI), to evaluate the recovery back to baseline. We find a clear distinction between models, consistently showing larger PILI in wakefulness than in deep sleep, corroborating previous experimental findings. In the models, larger recoveries are associated to a critical slowing down induced by a shift in the model's operation point, indicating that the awake brain operates further from a stable equilibrium than deep sleep. This novel approach opens up for a new level of artificial perturbative studies unconstrained by ethical limitations allowing for a deeper investigation of the dynamical properties of different brain states.

Occupation-Associated Fatal Limbic Encephalitis Caused by Variegated Squirrel Bornavirus 1, Germany, 2013.

Limbic encephalitis is commonly regarded as an autoimmune-mediated disease. However, after the recent detection of zoonotic variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 in a Prevost's squirrel (Callosciurus prevostii) in a zoo in northern Germany, we retrospectively investigated a fatal case in an autoantibody-seronegative animal caretaker who had worked at that zoo. The virus had been discovered in 2015 as the cause of a cluster of cases of fatal encephalitis among breeders of variegated squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides) in eastern Germany. Molecular assays and immunohistochemistry detected a limbic distribution of the virus in brain tissue of the animal caretaker. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated a spillover infection from the Prevost's squirrel. Antibodies against bornaviruses were detected in the patient's cerebrospinal fluid by immunofluorescence and newly developed ELISAs and immunoblot. The putative antigenic epitope was identified on the viral nucleoprotein. Other zoo workers were not infected; however, avoidance of direct contact with exotic squirrels and screening of squirrels are recommended.

Advanced CT for diagnosis of seizure-related stroke mimics.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: It is assumed that up to 30 % of clinically diagnosed acute ischaemic strokes (AIS) are actually stroke mimics (SM). Our aim was to evaluate the usefulness of advanced CT including CT angiography (CTA) and CT perfusion (CTP) findings when distinguishing AIS from seizure-related SM. METHODS: Over a 22-month period data were gathered of patients who presented to our stroke centre with AIS-like symptoms and were examined immediately with an advanced CT, analysed and evaluated by two experienced neuroradiologists who preferred SM rather than AIS. All these patients additionally received electroencephalography and follow-up imaging. CTA was the important feature to exclude vessel occlusion or haemodynamic relevant stenosis. Perfusion patterns were retrospectively analysed qualitatively. RESULTS: The most common perfusion abnormality was cortical hyperperfusion (22/37 [59.5 %] patients) followed by a hypoperfusion pattern with a cortical-subcortical involvement (15/37 [40.5 %] patients) without evidence of vessel occlusion or stenosis. Seizure-related hyper- and hypoperfusion patterns typically crossed the normal anatomical vascular territories boundaries. CONCLUSION: Beyond its use in core and penumbra estimation, advanced CT provides important information to emergency physicians in the difficult clinical diagnosis when differentiating between AIS and seizure-related symptoms with an important impact on therapeutic decision-making. KEY POINTS: • Advanced CT helps to differentiate between ischaemic strokes and stroke mimics. • Seizure-related perfusion patterns are distinct from ischaemia hypoperfusion. • Advanced CT could improve rapid adequate treatment for AIS and seizure events.

On the Stability of BOLD fMRI Correlations.

Measurement of correlations between brain regions (functional connectivity) using blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI has proven to be a powerful tool for studying the functional organization of the brain. Recently, dynamic functional connectivity has emerged as a major topic in the resting-state BOLD fMRI literature. Here, using simulations and multiple sets of empirical observations, we confirm that imposed task states can alter the correlation structure of BOLD activity. However, we find that observations of "dynamic" BOLD correlations during the resting state are largely explained by sampling variability. Beyond sampling variability, the largest part of observed "dynamics" during rest is attributable to head motion. An additional component of dynamic variability during rest is attributable to fluctuating sleep state. Thus, aside from the preceding explanatory factors, a single correlation structure-as opposed to a sequence of distinct correlation structures-may adequately describe the resting state as measured by BOLD fMRI. These results suggest that resting-state BOLD correlations do not primarily reflect moment-to-moment changes in cognitive content. Rather, resting-state BOLD correlations may predominantly reflect processes concerned with the maintenance of the long-term stability of the brain's functional organization.

Mapping visual dominance in human sleep.

Sleep is a universal behavior, essential for humans and animals alike to survive. Its importance to a person's physical and mental health cannot be overstated. Although lateralization of function is well established in the lesion, split-brain and task based neuroimaging literature, and more recently in functional imaging studies of spontaneous fluctuations of the fMRI BOLD signal during wakeful rest, it is unknown if these asymmetries are present during sleep. We investigated hemispheric asymmetries in the global brain signal during non-REM sleep. Here we show that increasing sleep depth is accompanied by an increasing rightward asymmetry of regions in visual cortex including primary bilaterally and in the right hemisphere along the lingual gyrus and middle temporal cortex. In addition, left hemisphere language regions largely maintained their leftward asymmetry during sleep. Right hemisphere attention related regions expressed a more complicated relation with some regions maintaining a rightward asymmetry while this was lost in others. These results suggest that asymmetries in the human brain are state dependent.

Progression to deep sleep is characterized by changes to BOLD dynamics in sensory cortices.

Sleep has been shown to subtly disrupt the spatial organization of functional connectivity networks in the brain, but in a way that largely preserves the connectivity within sensory cortices. Here we evaluated the hypothesis that sleep does impact sensory cortices, but through alteration of activity dynamics. We therefore examined the impact of sleep on hemodynamics using a method for quantifying non-random, high frequency signatures of the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal (amplitude variance asymmetry; AVA). We found that sleep was associated with the elimination of these dynamics in a manner that is restricted to auditory, motor and visual cortices. This elimination was concurrent with increased variance of activity in these regions. Functional connectivity between regions showing AVA during wakefulness maintained a relatively consistent hierarchical structure during wakefulness and N1 and N2 sleep, despite a gradual reduction of connectivity strength as sleep progressed. Thus, sleep is related to elimination of high frequency non-random activity signatures in sensory cortices that are robust during wakefulness. The elimination of these AVA signatures conjointly with preservation of the structure of functional connectivity patterns may be linked to the need to suppress sensory inputs during sleep while still maintaining the capacity to react quickly to complex multimodal inputs.