Capturing the non-stationarity of whole-brain dynamics underlying human brain states

Galadí, Javier Alejandro; Silva Pereira, Silvana; Sanz Per, Yonatan; Kringelbach, Morten L.; Gayte, Inmaculada; Lauf, Helmut; Tagliazucchi, Enzo; Langa, Jose Antonio; Deco, Gustavo

doi:http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118551

Capturing the non-stationarity of whole-brain dynamics underlying human brain states

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Galadí JA, Pereira S, Sanz Perl Y, Kringelbach ML, Gayte I, Laufs G, Tagliazucchi E, Lang JA, Deco G. Capturing the non-stationarity of whole-brain dynamics underlying human brain states. NeuroImage. 2021;244:118551. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118551

Abstract

Brain dynamics depicts an extremely complex energy landscape that changes over time, and its characterisation is a central unsolved problem in neuroscience. We approximate the non-stationary landscape sustained by the human brain through a novel mathematical formalism that allows us characterise the attractor structure, i.e. the stationary points and their connections. Due to its time-varying nature, the structure of the global attractor and the corresponding number of energy levels changes over time. We apply this formalism to distinguish quantitatively between the different human brain states of wakefulness and different stages of sleep, as a step towards future clinical applications.