Plasticity versus stability across the human cortical visual connectome

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Brain Plasticity

Background:

• The balance between neural plasticity and stability is crucial for brain function.
• It is hypothesized that plasticity increases with higher levels of cortical processing.
• Direct quantitative comparisons of plasticity across hierarchical levels are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between plasticity and hierarchical level in the human visual cortex.
• To quantitatively compare plasticity between low- and high-level visual processing areas.
• To test theories explaining the balance between plasticity and stability.

Main Methods:

• Quantified neural plasticity as the complement of heritability of resting-state functional connectivity.
• Analyzed the human cortical visual system.
• Examined changes in plasticity across visual processing hierarchy.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a non-monotonic relationship between plasticity and hierarchical level in the visual cortex.
• Observed a decrease in plasticity from early to mid-level cortex.
• Found an increase in plasticity at higher levels of the visual hierarchy.

Conclusions:

• The observed non-monotonic plasticity pattern challenges theories based solely on "coding-catastrophe" costs.
• This pattern can be explained by a simultaneous decrease in short-term adaptation and increase in long-term plasticity.
• Findings provide new insights into the dynamic balance of plasticity and stability across brain processing hierarchies.