Allostasis as a core feature of hierarchical gradients in the human brain

Abstract

This paper integrates emerging evidence from two broad scientific literatures into one common framework: (1) Hierarchical gradients of functional connectivity that reflect the brain’s large-scale structural architecture (e.g., a lamination gradient in the cerebral cortex) and (2) approaches to predictive processing and one of its specific instantiations called allostasis (i.e., the predictive regulation of energetic resources in the service of coordinating the body’s internal systems). This synthesis begins to sketch a coherent, neurobiologically-inspired framework suggesting that predictive energy regulation is at the core of human brain function, and by extension, psychological and behavioral phenomena, providing a shared vocabulary for theory building and knowledge accumulation.

Affective enhancement of episodic memory is associated with widespread patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity across the adult lifespan

“…Contributions of the cerebellum are particularly noteworthy given converging evidence identifying cerebellar involvement in broad aspects of affective processing (Adamaszek et al, 2017), going beyond its established role in sensorimotor domains. Because affective arousal is related to interoceptive sensations (Barrett et al, 2004), which emerge from changes in heart rate, glucose levels, inflammation, and so on, the current results are also consistent with our recent proposal that the cerebellum may play a domain-general computational role in support of the cerebral cortex, primarily concerned with efficient (i.e., predictive) regulation of the body's internal systems (Katsumi et al, 2022;Katsumi, Kamona, et al, 2021). Collectively, these findings underscore the notion that large-scale intrinsic functional interactions across the whole brain may form the basis for the affective enhancement of episodic memory.…”

“…This yielded a 11 × 11 affinity matrix quantifying pairwise similarity in the spatial topography of brain-behavior correlation, which was submitted to PCA. For each resulting PC, we computed the sum of all 11 brain-behavior regression maps weighted by the respective PC scores (Katsumi et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2019). These component-weighted sum of brain-behavior regression maps revealed dominant axes along which the spatial topography of brain-behavior relationships can be summarized.…”

“…This procedure identified the relative proportion of voxels in each contributing map belonging to each of the seven canonical networks (i.e., visual, somatomotor, dorsal attention, salience, limbic, frontoparietal, and default mode). Here, we adhere to the original and conventional use of these network labels, although we acknowledge that the "default" and "limbic" networks are not always distinguished in the literature (e.g., Kong et al, 2019) and that both networks contain agranular, limbic tissue (Katsumi et al, 2022;Kleckner et al, 2017). In addition, anatomical labels of each suprathreshold cluster were examined and reported using the Harvard-Oxford cortical and subcortical atlas (Desikan et al, 2006;Frazier et al, 2005;Goldstein et al, 2007;Makris et al, 2006) as well as the AAL atlas (Tzourio-Mazoyer et al, 2002).…”

Structural integrity of the anterior mid-cingulate cortex contributes to resilience to delirium in SuperAging

“…the autonomic nervous system, the immune system, the endocrine system) and to coordinate skeletomotor movements, all in the service of predictively managing the body’s energy resources. 13 , 77 Therefore, structural integrity of the aMCC may be important for reducing the likelihood of developing symptoms including arousal and psychomotor disturbance and metabolic dysfunction, both of which have been shown to characterize subtypes of delirium. 78 , 79 More research is needed to explicate the link between structural and functional properties of the aMCC and the pathophysiology of delirium.…”

Affective Enhancement of Episodic Memory Is Associated With Widespread Patterns of Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in the Brain Across the Adult Lifespan

“…This procedure resulted in a 11 × 11 affinity matrix quantifying pairwise similarity in the spatial topography of brain-behavior correlation, which was submitted to PCA. For each resulting PC, we computed the sum of all 11 brain-behavior regression maps weighted by a factor of the respective PC scores ( Zhang et al, 2019 ; Katsumi et al, 2022 ). These component-weighted sum of brain-behavior regression maps revealed dominant axes along which the spatial topography of brain-behavior relationships can be summarized.…”