With our ability to record more neurons simultaneously, making sense of these data is a challenge. Functional connectivity is one popular way to study the relationship of multiple neural signals. Correlation-based methods are a set of currently well-used techniques for functional connectivity estimation. However, due to explaining away and unobserved common inputs (Stevenson, Rebesco, Miller, & Körding, 2008), they produce spurious connections. The general linear model (GLM), which models spike trains as Poisson processes (Okatan, Wilson, & Brown, 2005;Truccolo, Eden, Fellows, Donoghue, & Brown, 2005;Pillow et al., 2008), avoids these confounds. We develop here a new class of methods by using differential signals based on simulated intracellular voltage recordings. It is equivalent to a regularized AR(2) model. We also expand the method to simulated local field potential recordings and calcium imaging. In all of our simulated data, the differential covariance-based methods achieved performance better than or similar to the GLM method and required fewer data samples. This new class of methods provides alternative ways to analyze neural signals.

No abstract

Measuring functional connectivity from fMRI recordings is important in understanding processing in cortical networks. However, because the brain's connection pattern is complex, currently used methods are prone to producing false functional connections. We introduce differential covariance analysis, a new method that uses derivatives of the signal for estimating functional connectivity. We generated neural activities from dynamical causal modeling and a neural network of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons and then converted them to hemodynamic signals using the forward balloon model. The simulated fMRI signals, together with the ground-truth connectivity pattern, were used to benchmark our method with other commonly used methods. Differential covariance achieved better results in complex network simulations. This new method opens an alternative way to estimate functional connectivity.

No abstract

Measuring functional connectivity from fMRI recordings is important in understanding processing in cortical networks. However, because the brain's connection pattern is complex, currently used methods are prone to producing false functional connections.We introduce differential covariance analysis, a new method that uses derivatives of the signal for estimating functional connectivity. We generated neural activities from Dynamical Causal Modeling and a neural network of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons and then converted them to hemodynamic signals using the forward Balloon model. The simulated fMRI signals together with the ground truth connectivity pattern were used to benchmark our method with other commonly used methods. Differential covariance achieved better results in complex network simulations. This new method opens an alternative way to estimate functional connectivity.

Recordings from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) reflect the influence of pathways between brain areas. A wide range of methods have been proposed to measure this functional connectivity (FC), but the lack of ''ground truth'' has made it difficult to systematically validate them. Most measures of FC produce connectivity estimates that are symmetrical between brain areas. Differential covariance (dCov) is an algorithm for analyzing FC with directed graph edges. Applied to synthetic datasets, dCov-FC was more effective than covariance and partial correlation in reducing false positive connections and more accurately matching the underlying structural connectivity. When we applied dCov-FC to resting state fMRI recordings from the human connectome project (HCP) and anesthetized mice, dCov-FC accurately identified strong cortical connections from diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) in individual humans and viral tract tracing in mice. In addition, those HCP subjects whose rs-fMRI were more integrated, as assessed by a graph-theoretic measure, tended to have shorter reaction times in several behavioral tests. Thus, dCov-FC was able to identify anatomically verified connectivity that yielded measures of brain integration causally related to behavior.

Recordings from resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) reflect the influence of pathways between brain areas. A wide range of methods have been proposed to measure this functional connectivity (FC), but the lack of “ground truth” has made it difficult to systematically validate them. Most measures of FC produce connectivity estimates that are symmetrical between brain areas. Differential covariance (dCov) is an algorithm for analyzing FC with directed graph edges. When we applied dCov to rs-fMRI recordings from the human connectome project (HCP) and anesthetized mice, dCov-FC accurately identified strong cortical connections from diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) in individual humans and viral tract tracing in mice. In addition, those HCP subjects whose dCov-FCs were more integrated, as assessed by a graph-theoretic measure, tended to have shorter reaction times in several behavioral tests. Thus, dCov-FC was able to identify anatomically verified connectivity that yielded measures of brain integration significantly correlated with behavior.

No abstract