Distributed harmonic patterns of structure-function dependence orchestrate human consciousness
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
A central question in neuroscience is how consciousness arises from the dynamic interplay of brain structure and function. Here we decompose functional MRI signals from pathological and pharmacologically-induced perturbations of consciousness into distributed patterns of structure-function dependence across scales: the harmonic modes of the human structural connectome. We show that structure-function coupling is a generalisable indicator of consciousness that is under bi-directional neuromodulatory control. We find increased structure-function coupling across scales during loss of consciousness, whether due to anaesthesia or brain injury, capable of discriminating between behaviourally indistinguishable sub-categories of brain-injured patients, tracking the presence of covert consciousness. The opposite harmonic signature characterises the altered state induced by LSD or ketamine, reflecting psychedelic-induced decoupling of brain function from structure and correlating with physiological and subjective scores. Overall, connectome harmonic decomposition reveals how neuromodulation and the network architecture of the human connectome jointly shape consciousness and distributed functional activation across scales.
Date Issued
2023-01-28
Date Acceptance
2023-01-11
Citation
Communications Biology, 2023, 6
ISSN
2399-3642
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Communications Biology
Volume
6
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2023 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-04474-1
Subjects
ANESTHESIA EMERGENCE
Biology
BRAIN ACTIVITY
CONNECTIVITY
DISORDERS
HUMAN CONNECTOME
INADEQUATE EMERGENCE
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics
MODEL
Multidisciplinary Sciences
NETWORKS
PROPOFOL
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
SIGNAL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
117
Date Publish Online
2023-01-28