Spatial multi-scaled chimera states of cerebral cortex network and its inherent structure-dynamics relationship in human brain

Natl Sci Rev. 2020 Jun 5;8(1):nwaa125. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa125. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Human cerebral cortex displays various dynamics patterns under different states, however the mechanism how such diverse patterns can be supported by the underlying brain network is still not well understood. Human brain has a unique network structure with different regions of interesting to perform cognitive tasks. Using coupled neural mass oscillators on human cortical network and paying attention to both global and local regions, we observe a new feature of chimera states with multiple spatial scales and a positive correlation between the synchronization preference of local region and the degree of symmetry of the connectivity of the region in the network. Further, we use the concept of effective symmetry in the network to build structural and dynamical hierarchical trees and find close matching between them. These results help to explain the multiple brain rhythms observed in experiments and suggest a generic principle for complex brain network as a structure substrate to support diverse functional patterns.

Keywords: cerebral cortex network; chimera state; neural mass model; synchronization.