Visual task complexity and eye movement patterns influence measures of human neurovascular coupling

Spence, Emma E.M.; Hodge, Sarah; Rosentreter, Ryan E.; Lam, Tyler; Squair, Jordan W.; Fisher, James; Phillips, Aaron A.

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113198

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…This visual stimulus has been shown to be the most selective for the posterior circulation in in-human NVC testing. 23 The research team members performing data collection of NVC responses were blinded to the contents of the infusion (placebo, SMTC, or phenylephrine), as were the volunteers. A separate member of the research team was responsible for preparation and administration of the infusion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of a Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor on Neurovascular Regulation in Humans

O’Gallagher

Rosentreter

Soriano

et al. 2022

Circulation Research

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BACKGROUND: Neurovascular coupling (NVC) is a key process in cerebral blood flow regulation. NVC ensures adequate brain perfusion to changes in local metabolic demands. Neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) is suspected to be involved in NVC; however, this has not been tested in humans. Our objective was to investigate the effects of nNOS inhibition on NVC in humans. METHODS: We performed a 3-visit partially randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study in 12 healthy subjects. On each visit, subjects received an intravenous infusion of either S-methyl-L-thiocitrulline (a selective nNOS-inhibitor), 0.9% saline (placebo control), or phenylephrine (pressor control). The NVC assessment involved eliciting posterior circulation hyperemia through visual stimulation while measuring posterior and middle cerebral arteries blood velocity. RESULTS: nNOS inhibition blunted the rapidity of the NVC response versus pressor control, evidenced by a reduced initial rise in mean posterior cerebral artery velocity (−3.3% [−6.5, −0.01], P =0.049), and a reduced rate of increase (ie, acceleration) in posterior cerebral artery velocity (slope reduced −4.3% [−8.5, −0.1], P =0.045). The overall magnitude of posterior cerebral artery response relative to placebo control or pressor control was not affected. Changes in BP parameters were well-matched between the S-methyl-L-thiocitrulline and pressor control arms. CONCLUSIONS: Neuronal NOS plays a role in dynamic cerebral blood flow control in healthy adults, particularly the rapidity of the NVC response to visual stimulation. This work opens the way to further investigation of the role of nNOS in conditions of impaired NVC, potentially revealing a therapeutic target.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of a Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor on Neurovascular Regulation in Humans

O’Gallagher

Rosentreter

Soriano

et al. 2022

Circulation Research

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“…First, the differences in complexity of paradigms in the current study might not have been sufficient to induce differential CBFV responses, as proposed in terms of the compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH) to recruit more neural activations matching with load increases [ 63 , 64 ]. As reported for other neuroimaging techniques (fMRI or SPECT), it provided greater activation in some specific brain areas, with increased task difficulty with verbal [ 54 ], arithmetic [ 56 ] or visual [ 30 , 65 ] paradigms. Although NVC assessment with fTCD has been rated as equivalent to that obtained with fMRI [ 66 ], this does not seem to be the case in our study, with respect to the ability of fTCD to reflect differences in complexity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…The quantification of the NVC response has been assessed by CBFV changes (ΔCBFV), induced by neural stimulation [ 12 , 22 – 25 ]. Moreover, fTCD has been extensively used for assessing NVC in the lateralization of functional brain regions with a range of tasks, such as cognitive [ 23 , 26 – 28 ], visual [ 11 , 29 , 30 ] and sensorimotor [ 24 , 31 , 32 ] paradigms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to detecting differences in lateralisation, a diagnostic tool to assess cognitive function needs to satisfy the condition of scalability , that is, to demonstrate the sensitivity to reflect differences in cognitive load, or its complexity. In the case of fTCD, this has been shown to be the case with visual stimulation [ 30 , 33 ], with changes in ΔCBFV detected in the posterior cerebral artery (PCA). With cognitive paradigms though, evidence of scalability is limited, and far from generalizable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The scalability of common paradigms for assessment of cognitive function: A functional transcranial Doppler study

2022

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Cognitive paradigms induce changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) associated with increased metabolic demand, namely neurovascular coupling (NVC). We tested the hypothesis that the effect of complexity and duration of cognitive paradigms will either enhance or inhibit the NVC response. Bilateral CBF velocity (CBFV) in the middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) via transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD), blood pressure (BP), electrocardiogram (ECG) and end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) of 16 healthy participants (aged 21–71 years) were simultaneously recorded at rest and during randomized paradigms of different complexities (naming words beginning with P-,R-,V- words and serial subtractions of 100–2,100–7,1000–17), and durations (5s, 30s and 60s). CBFV responses were population mean normalized from a 30-s baseline period prior to task initiation. A significant increase in bilateral CBFV response was observed at the start of all paradigms and provided a similar pattern in most responses, irrespective of complexity or duration. Although significant inter-hemispherical differences were found during performance of R-word and all serial subtraction paradigms, no lateralisation was observed in more complex naming word tasks. Also, the effect of duration was manifested at late stages of 100–7, but not for other paradigms. CBFV responses could not distinguish different levels of complexity or duration with a single presentation of the cognitive paradigm. Further studies of the ordinal scalability of the NVC response are needed with more advanced modelling techniques, or different types of neural stimulation.

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Functional transcranial dopplerography is a diagnostic tool for cognitive impairment syndrome

Polyakova,

Pushkin,

Kutkova

et al. 2024

Z. nevrol. psikhiatr. im. S.S. Korsakova

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Visual task complexity and eye movement patterns influence measures of human neurovascular coupling

Cited by 3 publications

References 44 publications

The Effect of a Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor on Neurovascular Regulation in Humans

The Effect of a Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor on Neurovascular Regulation in Humans

The scalability of common paradigms for assessment of cognitive function: A functional transcranial Doppler study

Functional transcranial dopplerography is a diagnostic tool for cognitive impairment syndrome

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