Consciousness depends on integration between parietal cortex, striatum, and thalamus

Afrasiabi, Mohsen; Redinbaugh, Michelle J.; Phillips, Jessica M.; Kambi, Niranjan A.; Mohanta, Sounak; Raz, Aeyal; Haun, Andrew M.; Saalmann, Yuri B.

doi:10.1016/j.cels.2021.02.003

Cited by 78 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 69 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We performed a stereotaxic head implant and craniotomy surgery using aseptic techniques under isoflurane general anesthesia (1-2%) according to the procedures described previously (Redinbaugh et al, 2020; Afrasiabi et al, 2021). We placed 2.5mm craniotomies over the frontal eye fields (FEF), lateral intraparietal area (LIP), CL, and caudate nucleus (CN) using stereotaxic measurements based on high-quality structural MRI acquired in advance of the surgery and comparisons to a stereotaxic atlas (Saleem and Logothetis, 2007).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We averaged 6-10 T1-weighted images for the pre-surgery high-quality structural image of each monkey, and we averaged 2 T1-weighted images to visualize electrodes in situ . Further imaging details have been described previously (Redinbaugh et al, 2020; Afrasiabi et al, 2021). Electrode placements were further verified online using functional criteria.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further imaging details have been described previously (Redinbaugh et al, 2020;Afrasiabi et al, 2021). Electrode placements were further verified online using functional criteria.…”

Section: Surgery and Electrode Placementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CL also receives input from the reticular activating system and projects directly to the basal ganglia (Smith et al, 2004; Smith et al, 2014), serving as both a key input and output of the structure (Jones, 2007). While the role of the basal ganglia in consciousness is debated (Tononi, 2004; Schiff, 2010; Boly et al, 2017), the striatum contributes to integrated information (Afrasiabi et al, 2021), a measure of neural complexity associated with consciousness (Oizumi et al, 2014), and contributes strongly to decoding neural differences between conscious states (Afrasiabi et al, 2021). Further, the basal ganglia are linked to altered consciousness with hallucinogens (Preller et al, 2019) and are suppressed during general anesthesia (Mhuircheartaigh et al, 2010) and absence epilepsy (Berman et al, 2010; Carney et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Thalamic deep brain stimulation as a paradigm to reduce consciousness: implications for cortico-striatal dynamics, absence epilepsy and consciousness studies

Redinbaugh

Afrasiabi

Phillips

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anesthetic manipulations provide much-needed causal evidence for neural correlates of consciousness, but nonspecific drug effects complicate their interpretation. Evidence suggests that thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) can either increase or decrease consciousness, depending on the stimulation target and parameters. The putative role of the central lateral thalamus (CL) in consciousness makes it an ideal DBS target to manipulate circuit-level mechanisms in corticostriatothalamic (CST) systems, thereby influencing consciousness and related processes. We used multimicroelectrode DBS targeted to CL in macaques while recording from frontal, parietal, and striatal regions. DBS induced episodes reminiscent of absence epilepsy, here termed absence-like activity (ALA), with decreased behavior and vacant staring coinciding with low-frequency oscillations. DBS modulated ALA likelihood in a frequency-specific manner. ALA events corresponded to decreases in measures of neural complexity (entropy) and integration (Phi*), an index of consciousness, and substantial changes to communication in CST circuits. During ALA, power spectral density and coherence at low frequencies increased across CST circuits, especially in thalamoparietal and corticostriatal pathways. Decreased consciousness and neural integration corresponded to shifts in corticostriatal network configurations that dissociated parietal and subcortical structures. Overall, the features of ALA and implicated networks were similar to those of absence epilepsy. As this same multimicroelectrode DBS method, but at different stimulation frequencies, can also increase consciousness in anesthetized macaques, it can be used to flexibly address questions of consciousness with limited confounds, as well as inform clinical investigations of absence epilepsy and other consciousness disorders.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further imaging details have been described previously (Redinbaugh et al, 2020;Afrasiabi et al, 2021). Electrode placements were further verified online using functional criteria.…”

Section: Surgery and Electrode Placementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Thalamic deep brain stimulation as a paradigm to reduce consciousness: implications for cortico-striatal dynamics, absence epilepsy and consciousness studies

Redinbaugh

Afrasiabi

Phillips

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another large difference is that the caudoputamen (CP) in the striatum, which is not included among complexes with large w mc when bidirectionality is considered, forms the main complex when bidirectionality is ignored. The striatum, more broadly the basal ganglia, is not thought to contribute directly to consciousness 5,39 (but see 63,64 ).…”

Section: Significance Of Considering Bidirectionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bidirectionally connected cores in a mouse connectome: Towards extracting the brain subnetworks essential for consciousness

Kitazono

Aoki

Oizumi

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Where in the brain consciousness resides remains unclear. It has been suggested that the subnetworks supporting consciousness should be bidirectionally (recurrently) connected because both feed-forward and feedback processing are necessary for conscious experience. Accordingly, evaluating which subnetworks are bidirectionally connected and the strength of these connections would likely aid the identification of regions essential to consciousness. Here, we propose a method for hierarchically decomposing a network into cores with different strengths of bidirectional connection, as a means of revealing the structure of the complex brain network. We applied the method to a whole-brain mouse connectome. We found that cores with strong bidirectional connections consisted of regions presumably essential to consciousness (e.g., the isocortical and thalamic regions, and claustrum) and did not include regions presumably irrelevant to consciousness (e.g., cerebellum). Contrarily, we could not find such correspondence between cores and consciousness when we applied other simple methods which ignored bidirectionality. These findings suggest that our method provides a novel insight into the relation between bidirectional brain network structures and consciousness.

show abstract

Whole‐brain analyses indicate the impairment of posterior integration and thalamo‐frontotemporal broadcasting in disorders of consciousness

Panda,

López‐González,

Gilson

et al. 2023

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study of the brain's dynamical activity is opening a window to help the clinical assessment of patients with disorders of consciousness. For example, glucose uptake and the dysfunctional spread of naturalistic and synthetic stimuli has proven useful to characterize hampered consciousness. However, understanding of the mechanisms behind loss of consciousness following brain injury is still missing. Here, we study the propagation of endogenous and in‐silico exogenous perturbations in patients with disorders of consciousness, based upon directed and causal interactions estimated from resting‐state fMRI data, fitted to a linear model of activity propagation. We found that patients with disorders of consciousness suffer decreased capacity for neural propagation and responsiveness to events, and that this can be related to severe reduction of glucose metabolism as measured with [18F]FDG‐PET. In particular, we show that loss of consciousness is related to the malfunctioning of two neural circuits: the posterior cortical regions failing to convey information, in conjunction with reduced broadcasting of information from subcortical, temporal, parietal and frontal regions. These results shed light on the mechanisms behind disorders of consciousness, triangulating network function with basic measures of brain integrity and behavior.

show abstract

Consciousness depends on integration between parietal cortex, striatum, and thalamus

Cited by 78 publications

References 69 publications

Thalamic deep brain stimulation as a paradigm to reduce consciousness: implications for cortico-striatal dynamics, absence epilepsy and consciousness studies

Thalamic deep brain stimulation as a paradigm to reduce consciousness: implications for cortico-striatal dynamics, absence epilepsy and consciousness studies

Bidirectionally connected cores in a mouse connectome: Towards extracting the brain subnetworks essential for consciousness

Whole‐brain analyses indicate the impairment of posterior integration and thalamo‐frontotemporal broadcasting in disorders of consciousness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About