[en] Low level states of consciousness are characterized by disruptions of brain activity that sustain arousal and awareness. Yet, how structural, dynamical, local and network brain properties interplay in the different levels of consciousness is unknown. Here, we study fMRI brain dynamics from patients that suffered brain injuries leading to a disorder of consciousness and from healthy subjects undergoing propofol induced sedation. We show that pathological and pharmacological low-level states of consciousness display less recurrent, less connected and more segregated synchronization patterns than conscious state. We use whole-brain models built upon healthy and injured structural connectivity to interpret these dynamical effects. We found that low-level states of consciousness were associated with reduced network interactions, together with more homogeneous and more structurally constrained local dynamics. Notably, these changes lead the structural hub regions to lose their stability during low level states of consciousness, thus attenuating the differences between hubs and non hubs brain dynamics.
Research center :
Coma Science Group, GIGA-Consciousness
Disciplines :
Neurology
Author, co-author :
López-González, Ane ✱; Universitat Pompeu Fabra > Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition
Panda, Rajanikant ✱; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Coma Science Group
Ponce-Alvarez, Adrián; Universitat Pompeu Fabra > Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition
Zamora-López, Gorka; Universitat Pompeu Fabra > Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition
Escrichs, Anira; Universitat Pompeu Fabra > Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition
Martial, Charlotte ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Coma Science Group
Thibaut, Aurore ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Coma Science Group
Kringelbach, Morten L; University of Oxford > Department of Psychiatry
Annen, Jitka ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Coma Science Group ; CHU Liège - Central University Hospital of Liege > Centre du Cerveau²
Laureys, Steven ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA Consciousness - Coma Science Group
Gustavo, Deco; Universitat Pompeu Fabra > Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition
✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.
Language :
English
Title :
Loss of consciousness reduces the stability of brain hubs and the heterogeneity of brain dynamics
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