Brain Connectivity Flashcards
How many types of brain connectivity there are?
There are 3 types:
- functional
- structural/anatomical
- effective
What is anatomical connectivity?
Anatomical connectivity refers to a network of physical or structural (synaptic) connections linking sets of neurons or neuronal elements, as well as their associated structural biophysical attributes encapsulated in parameters such as synaptic strength or effectiveness
Set of physical structures linking neuronal units at a given time
- local circuits to large state networks and inter-regional pathways
Relatively static and shorter time scales (Seconds-minutes), but can be dynamic and longer time scales e.g. hours to days (learning and development)
What is functional connectivity?
It captures patterns of deviations from statistical independence between distributed and often spatially remote locations, measuring their correlation, spectral coherence or phase-locking
Functional connectivity refers to the functionally integrated relationship between spatially separated brain regions.
- Time dependant (hundreds of Ms) and measures statistical interdependence without explicit reference to causal effects
- Different methodologies of measuring the brain activity will result different statistical estimates of functional connectivity
What is effective connectivity?
effective connectivity is defined as the influence one neural system exerts over another
It requires the specification of a causal model
inferred though perturbations of observations of the temporal order of neural effects
Explain the interaction between different types of connectivity
- Mutually interrelated. E.g. functional and effective connectivity are constrained by structural connectivity
- Structural inputs and outputs of a given cortical region, its connectional fingerprint are major determinants of its functional properties.
- Functional interaction can contribute to the shaping of the undelaying anatomical substrate either though activity dependant synaptic modification or Through affecting an organism’s perceptual, cognitive or behavioural capabilities, and thus its adaptation and survival
Define neural synchrony
Concerted interactions among neuronal populations or Direct reciprocal exchange of signals between two Populations, whereby the activity in one population Influences the second, such that the dynamics become Entrained and mutually reinforcing.
What are the types of measuring neural synchronisation?
Linear and nonlinear
What are some examples of linear methods?
- Linear correlation
- Coherence (magnitude squared coherence and partial coherence)
- Granger causality
- Multivariate modelling (directed transfer function and partial directed coherence)
What are some examples of nonlinear methods?
- Nonlinear correlation
- Information theory (mutual information and transfer entropy)
- Phase synchrony (wavelet, mean phase coherence, Hilbert+Shannon)
- Generalised synchrony (similarity index and families; mixed predictability; cross prediction)
What are the advantages of linear methods?
- Simple to calculate
- Easier to interpret
- Availability of confidence limit
- Backing of strong mathematical support
What are the disadvantages of linear methods?
- Only linear coupling can be revealed
- No directional information
- Requirement of stationarity condition
- Requires strong visual similarity between two signals
What are the advantages of non-linear methods?
- Simple to calculate
- Easy to interpret
- Availability of confidence limit
- Frequency related coupling information
What are the disadvantages of non-linear methods?
- Stationarity, linearity
- Poor estimation for limited data
- No directional information
- Mixing amplitude and phase information
What are the advantages and disadvantaged of Granger causality?
Advantages • Availability of directional information • Stochastic formulation Disadvantages • Only linear coupling • Causality is not always well-defined • Biased estimation for limited data • Parametric formulation
What is Partial Directed Coherence (PDC)?
- Detection of causality
- Sensitivity on directed coupling
- Separation of common driver
- Multivariate modelling Complete co-variance structure
- Frequency specific measure
- Applicable to linear as well as nonlinear systems
What are the advantages and disadvantages of partial directed coherence (PDC)?
Advantages • Considers the structure of the whole data set • Directional influence • Faster computation • Frequency related information
Disadvantages • Only linear interaction • Limited statistical confidence • Sensitive to pre-processing • Parametric modelling
What are the advantages and disadvantages of mutual information?
Advantages
• Reveals both linear and nonlinear coupling
• Reveals statistical interdependency
• Good theoretical backing
Disadvantages
• Difficult to estimate for limited data
• Sensitivity on noise
• Problem in estimation for high dimensional system
• No freq. related information