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Brain network reorganization after targeted attack at a hub region
Wenyu Tu1, Zilu Ma2, Nanyin Zhang3
1Neuroscience Program, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Neuroimage
|May 30, 2021
Summary
Disrupting a brain hub region, like the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, causes widespread network changes. This hub dysfunction impacts brain network resilience, segregation, and integration, unlike non-hub region disruption.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Systems Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Brain network architecture is well-studied, but the effects of local region dysfunction, especially hubs, remain unclear.
- Understanding how brain networks reconfigure upon acute hub failure is crucial for comprehending brain function and dysfunction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the causal impact of acutely inactivating a hub region on brain network properties.
- To determine if hub dysfunction leads to system-wide network reconfigurations.
Main Methods:
- Utilized chemogenetics and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) in an awake rodent model.
- Acutely inactivated a hub region (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) and a non-hub region (primary visual cortex) for comparison.
- Monitored changes in brain network topology, resilience, segregation, and integration.
Main Results:
- Suppressing neural activity in a hub region caused ripple effects beyond direct connections, affecting multiple brain systems.
- Hub dysfunction significantly altered whole-brain network topology, impacting network resilience and segregation.
- Selective inhibition of excitatory neurons in the hub further modified network integration.
- No significant network changes were observed in sham controls or when a non-hub region was perturbed.
Conclusions:
- Acute dysfunction of a brain hub region can induce large-scale network changes, supporting the hypothesis of cascading effects.
- This study provides a mechanistic framework for understanding the relationship between local brain regions and global network properties.
- Hub regions play a critical role in maintaining overall brain network dynamics, with their dysfunction having disproportionate effects compared to non-hub regions.
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