The role of the locus coeruleus in shaping adaptive cortical melodies

Wainstein, Gabriel; Müller, Eli J.; Taylor, Natasha L; Munn, Brandon; Shine, James M.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2022.03.006

Cited by 33 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…Sympathovagal modulations towards brain oscillations shape emotional and physical arousal [140,141]. The locus coeruleus in the brainstem, which regulates arousal and autonomic function, also shapes neuronal excitability across the brain [142][143][144], suggesting further links between autonomic activity and the orchestrating of neuronal dynamics during conscious processing. The links of high order structures with HRV have been shown in multiple experimental conditions.…”

Section: Consciousness and Complexity In The Brain-heart Communicatio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain-heart interactions in the neurobiology of consciousness

Candia-Rivera¹

2022

Preprint

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Recent experimental evidence on patients with disorders of consciousness revealed that observing brain-heart interactions helps to detect residual consciousness, even in patients with absence of behavioral signs of consciousness. Those findings support hypotheses suggesting that visceral activity is involved in the neurobiology of consciousness, and sum to the existing evidence in healthy participants in which the neural responses to heartbeats reveal perceptual and self-consciousness. More evidence obtained through mathematical modeling of physiological dynamics revealed that emotion processing is prompted by an initial modulation from ascending vagal inputs to the brain, followed by sustained bidirectional brain-heart interactions. Those findings support long-lasting hypotheses on the causal role of bodily activity in emotions, feelings, and potentially consciousness. In this paper, the theoretical landscape on the potential role of heartbeats in cognition and consciousness is reviewed, as well as the experimental evidence supporting these hypotheses. I advocate for methodological developments on the estimation of brain-heart interactions to uncover the role of the heart in the origin, levels, and contents of consciousness. The ongoing evidence depicts interactions further than the cortical responses evoked by each heartbeat, suggesting the potential presence of non-linear, complex, and bidirectional communications between brain and heartbeat dynamics. Further developments on methodologies to analyze brain-heart interactions may contribute to a better understanding of the physiological dynamics involved in homeostatic-allostatic control, cognitive functions, and consciousness.

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Section: Consciousness and Complexity In The Brain-heart Communicatio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain-heart interactions in the neurobiology of consciousness

Candia-Rivera¹

2022

Preprint

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“…In particular, we determine a brain region’s response function, describing the up- or downregulation of its mean activity following global (brain-wide) modulations in the strength of recurrent connections ( Figure 2C ). This process can be linked to how structures in the ascending neuromodulatory systems (e.g., noradrenergic) facilitate the reorganization of cortex-wide dynamics by allowing coordinated communication between otherwise segregated systems ( Shine et al, 2016 ; Shine, 2019 ; Wainstein et al, 2022 ). In particular, previous work has shown that neuromodulatory agents can modify the biophysical properties of neurons through various cellular mechanisms ( Shine et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For each species, we determined their brain regions’ response functions, which describe the regulation of intrinsic neural activity following brain-wide modulations in excitability. Modulations in global excitability could come from various sources, from external inputs ( Zhang et al, 2020 ) to internal influences such as neuromodulation ( Shine, 2019 ; Wainstein et al, 2022 ; Bang et al, 2020 ). The response function of each region encapsulates all these phenomena, differentiating it from typical input-output response curves ( Kinouchi and Copelli, 2006 ; Gollo et al, 2016 ), with its shape, particularly its slope, characterized by the neural dynamic range.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary shaping of human brain dynamics

Pang

Rilling

Roberts

et al. 2022

eLife

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The human brain is distinct from those of other species in terms of size, organization, and connectivity. How do structural evolutionary differences drive patterns of neural activity enabling brain function? Here, we combine brain imaging and biophysical modeling to show that the anatomical wiring of the human brain distinctly shapes neural dynamics. This shaping is characterized by a narrower distribution of dynamic ranges across brain regions compared with that of chimpanzees, our closest living primate relatives. We find that such a narrow dynamic range distribution supports faster integration between regions, particularly in transmodal systems. Conversely, a broad dynamic range distribution as seen in chimpanzees facilitates brain processes relying more on neural interactions within specialized local brain systems. These findings suggest that human brain dynamics have evolved to foster rapid associative processes in service of complex cognitive functions and behavior.

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“…For each species, we determined their brain regions' response functions, which describe the regulation of intrinsic neural activity following brain-wide modulations in excitability. Modulations in global excitability could come from various sources, from external inputs [34] to internal influences such as neuromodulation [16][17][18]. The response function of each region encapsulates all these phenomena, differentiating it from typical input-output response curves [19,35], with its shape characterized by the neural dynamic range.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1C). This process can be linked to how structures in the ascending neuromodulatory systems (e.g., noradrenergic) facilitate the reorganization of cortex-wide dynamics by allowing coordinated communication between otherwise segregated systems [15][16][17]. In particular, neuromodulatory agents can mediate changes in the excitability of cortical regions, which can occur in a subsecond timescale [18], effectively driving modulations in the strength of recurrent connections in cortical regions (i.e., our model's 𝑤 parameter).…”

Section: Modeling Neural Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary shaping of human brain dynamics

Pang

Rilling

Roberts

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The human brain is distinct from those of other species in terms of size, organization, and connectivity. How do these structural evolutionary differences drive patterns of neural activity enabling brain function? Here, we combine brain imaging and biophysical modeling to show that the anatomical wiring of the human brain distinctly shapes neural dynamics. This shaping is characterized by a narrower distribution of dynamic ranges across brain regions compared with that of chimpanzees, our closest living primate relatives. We find that such a sharp dynamic range distribution supports faster integration between regions, particularly in transmodal systems. Conversely, a broad dynamic range distribution as seen in chimpanzees facilitates brain processes relying more on neural interactions within specialized local brain systems. These findings suggest that human brain dynamics have evolved to foster rapid associative processes in service of complex cognitive functions and behavior.

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The role of the locus coeruleus in shaping adaptive cortical melodies

Cited by 33 publications

References 116 publications

Brain-heart interactions in the neurobiology of consciousness

Brain-heart interactions in the neurobiology of consciousness

Evolutionary shaping of human brain dynamics

Evolutionary shaping of human brain dynamics

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