Hierarchical rhythmic propagation of corticothalamic interactions for consciousness: A computational study

• Published in: Computers in biology and medicine 2024-02, Vol.169, p.107843, Article 107843
• Main Authors: Zhang, Qian, Lu, Han, Wang, Jihang, Yang, Taoyi, Bi, Weida, Zeng, Yi, Yu, Buwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anesthetics; Anteriorization; Brain; Brain research; Cerebral Cortex; Computational neuroscience; Consciousness; Corticothalamic model; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - methods; General anesthesia; Heterogeneity; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neural networks; Neurons; Phase transitions; Propofol; Propofol - pharmacology; Simulation; Spiking neural network; Thalamus
• ISSN: 0010-4825; 1879-0534; 1879-0534
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.107843

Clarifying the mechanisms of loss and recovery of consciousness in the brain is a major challenge in neuroscience, and research on the spatiotemporal organization of rhythms at the brain region scale at different levels of consciousness remains scarce. By applying computational neuroscience, an extended corticothalamic network model was developed in this study to simulate the altered states of consciousness induced by different concentration levels of propofol. The cortex area containing oscillation spread from posterior to anterior in four successive time stages, defining four groups of brain regions. A quantitative analysis showed that hierarchical rhythm propagation was mainly due to heterogeneity in the inter-brain region connections. These results indicate that the proposed model is an anatomically data-driven testbed and a simulation platform with millisecond resolution. It facilitates understanding of activity coordination across multiple areas of the conscious brain and the mechanisms of action of anesthetics in terms of brain regions. [Display omitted] •A neural network is established to simulate propofol with millisecond resolution.•The structural basis of anteriorization is assessed in clinical anesthesia.•Heterogeneous brain connectivity explains hierarchical rhythm propagation.•This model enables brain simulation constrained by inter-areal directed connections.