Discovering the Rhythm of Brain Waves in Cognition and Disease

Highlights:

A paradigm shift in neuroscience has led to the discovery of spiral brain waves in the cerebral cortex, which may play a crucial role in complex brain activity
The spiral waves are brain signals produced by the aggregate activity of millions, if not billions, of neurons at the microscopic level, often emerging at the boundaries that separate different functional networks in the brain
This innovative approach to neuroscience could reveal diverse pathways behind nervous system diseases and potentially pave the way for new diagnostic methods

Consider going to a concert where, instead of a symphony, each artist performs solo, one movement at a time - a violinist during one piece, a cellist during the next, and possibly a clarinetist after that. Until recently, that is what neuroscientists did: they recorded the spikes of each neuron separately.

However, a paradigm change is taking place as researchers embrace a broader perspective, which has resulted in a startling discovery: strange spiral brain waves that dance in the brain's outer layer - the cerebral cortex - and may play a critical role in organizing complicated brain activity.

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‘Unraveling the brain's symphony! The discovery of spiral #BrainWaves in the cerebral cortex could unlock a new understanding of cognitive processing and neurological disorders. #Neuroscience #Cognition ’

Emergent Waves in Cerebral Cortex: Could be the New Window into Brain Diseases

The cerebral cortex, a convoluted outer area of the brain, is at the center of many high-level activities such as logic, emotion, thought, memory, language, and consciousness (). This elaborately folded section makes up approximately half of the brain's mass and is crucial to our cognitive experience.

The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour by scientists from the University of Sydney and Fudan University, may open up new avenues for studying brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and cerebral palsy, according to the authors ().

"These emergent waves enable us to understand how different brain regions or networks are effectively coordinated during cognitive processing," senior author and University of Sydney Associate Professor Pulin Gong told Salon. "These emergent waves enable us to understand how different brain regions or networks are effectively coordinated during cognitive processing."

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Utilizing Fluid Physics and fMRI Scans to Decode Brain Wave Patterns

The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans on 100 young individuals aged 22 to 35. The waves revealed a hypnotic interplay of clockwise and counterclockwise rotations throughout multiple brain areas, frequently converging at the intersections of distinct brain networks, when participants engaged in cognitive tasks such as completing math problems.

The team used methods developed by fluid physicists to explore wave patterns in turbulent flows to evaluate imaging data obtained as part of the Human Connectome Project (HCP) (). What has previously been utilized to construct more efficient piping systems is now assisting scientists in better understanding the brain. The HCP is an open research initiative that collects brain scans from hundreds of volunteers while they sit quietly in the scanner in a resting condition or execute one of several simple tasks.

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Spiral Waves are the Microscopic Brain Signals Orchestrating Neural Activity

The spiral waves are brain signals produced by the aggregate activity of millions, if not billions, of neurons at the microscopic level.

"One key characteristic of these brain spirals is that they often emerge at the boundaries that separate different functional networks in the brain," Ph.D. student and lead author Yiben Xu said in a statement. "Through their rotational motion, they effectively coordinate the flow of activity between these networks. In our research, we observed that these interacting brain spirals allow for flexible reconfiguration of brain activity during various tasks involving natural language processing and working memory, which they achieve by changing their rotational directions."

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Potential of Brain Waves in Neurological Diagnostics and Memory Research

According to scientists, this large-scale approach to neuroscience could identify diverse pathways behind nervous system illnesses and potentially lead to novel diagnostic procedures. The scientists intend to combine experimental recordings with modeling studies in the future to better understand the mechanisms behind brain spirals and their functional functions in cognition.

The researchers behind this recent work are not alone in their investigation of brain waves. Lyle Muller, an assistant professor of applied mathematics at the University of Western Ontario, directs a group that investigates the connections between traveling waves during sleep and neuronal plasticity - the process by which the brain learns and integrates new memories. During neurodegenerative illnesses, this crucial function deteriorates.

Muller and his colleagues discovered that rotating wave patterns known as spindles that occur during non-REM sleep (when our brains, breathing, and heart rate slow) could permit the plasticity required for memory storage during sleep. Because these spindles alter with age, a better understanding of these wave patterns could provide insights into how plasticity breaks down in disease, according to Muller.

Significance of Spiral Wave Patterns in Brain Function and Neurological Disorders

"While this is a fundamentally new way of studying the brain, understanding neural activity with a dynamic, systems-level approach has a lot of promise for understanding disorders of the nervous system," Muller told Salon. "Understanding the link between traveling waves, sleep and the aging process, by analyzing direct electrical recordings that have a strong link to the activity of single neurons, is a priority for future research in my lab."

Muller believes the spiral waves observed by Gong and his colleagues span numerous brain areas and could represent an interesting technique for coordinating information flow via the brain's neuronal circuits. However, he stated that it is not yet evident how.

"Testing whether these spiral wave patterns can lead to new predictions of neural circuit dynamics and behavior, and confirming their specific underlying mechanism through computational modeling, will tell us whether these new spiral wave patterns are telling us something interesting about the symphony of neurons in the human brain," Muller said, "or whether they may be more related to supplementary functions, like the tuning of the instruments or the lighting in the performance hall."

References:

Interacting spiral wave patterns underlie complex brain dynamics and are related to cognitive processing - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37322235/)
Cerebral Cortex - (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23073-cerebral-cortex)
Human Connectome Project - (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Connectome_Project)

Source-Medindia