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Published on: April 9, 2014
Brain state regulation during normal development: Intrinsic activity fluctuations in simultaneous EEG-fMRI
Rafael Lüchinger1, Lars Michels, Ernst Martin
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Insights
Brain maturation shows decreased EEG and BOLD signal amplitudes. Functional coupling remains stable, but thalamocortical activity changes indicate altered brain state regulation in development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Adolescent brain maturation involves decreased electroencephalography (EEG) low-frequency activity.
- This EEG power attenuation correlates with reduced gray matter and glucose metabolism.
- The origins of these electrophysiological changes and their relation to functional measures like fMRI BOLD signal are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of EEG-BOLD coupling using simultaneous recordings.
- To identify hemodynamic correlates of EEG oscillations during brain maturation.
- To compare EEG power attenuation with Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal power maturation.
Main Methods:
- Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were recorded from children, adolescents, and young adults during resting states.
- Analysis focused on the developmental changes in EEG and BOLD signal amplitudes and their functional coupling.
- Thalamocortical EEG-BOLD coupling and thalamic BOLD power were specifically examined for maturational differences.
Main Results:
- Both EEG and BOLD signal amplitudes significantly decreased from childhood to adulthood.
- The functional coupling between EEG and BOLD signals remained relatively consistent across age groups.
- A global reduction in slow BOLD signal fluctuation amplitude was identified as a novel marker of brain maturation, paralleling EEG, gray matter, and glucose metabolism changes.
- Absence of thalamocortical EEG-BOLD coupling in children, alongside increased thalamic BOLD power, suggests maturational changes in brain state regulation.
Conclusions:
- The global decrease in spontaneous BOLD signal fluctuation amplitude is a novel electrophysiological marker of brain maturation.
- While EEG and BOLD amplitudes decrease with age, their functional coupling is largely preserved.
- Developmental changes in thalamocortical connectivity and thalamic BOLD power indicate significant maturation of brain state regulation during adolescence.
Abstract:
Brain maturation in adolescence is mirrored by the EEG as a pronounced decrease in low frequency activity. This EEG power attenuation parallels reductions of structural and metabolic markers of neuronal maturation (i.e., gray matter loss and decrease of absolute cerebral glucose utilization). However, it is largely unknown what causes these electrophysiological changes, and how this functional reorganization relates to other functional measures such as the fMRI BOLD signal. In this study, we used simultaneously recorded EEG and fMRI to localize hemodynamic correlates of fluctuating EEG oscillations and to study the development of this EEG-BOLD coupling. Furthermore, the maturational EEG power attenuation was directly compared to BOLD signal power maturation. Both analyses were novel in their developmental perspective and aimed at providing a functional lead to EEG maturation. Data from 19 children, 18 adolescents and 18 young adults were acquired in 10 min eyes-open/eyes-closed resting states. Our results revealed that both EEG and BOLD amplitudes strongly decrease between childhood and adulthood, but their functional coupling remains largely unchanged. The global reduction of absolute amplitude of spontaneous slow BOLD signal fluctuation is a novel marker for brain maturation, and parallels the globally decreasing trajectories of EEG amplitudes, gray matter and glucose metabolism during adolescence. Further, the absence of thalamocortical EEG-BOLD coupling in children together with age-related normalized thalamic BOLD power increase indicated maturational changes in brain state regulation.
