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Interhemispheric correlations of slow spontaneous neuronal fluctuations revealed in human sensory cortex

Nature Neuroscience volume 11, pages 1100–1108 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Animal studies have shown robust electrophysiological activity in the sensory cortex in the absence of stimuli or tasks. Similarly, recent human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed widespread, spontaneously emerging cortical fluctuations. However, it is unknown what neuronal dynamics underlie this spontaneous activity in the human brain. Here we studied this issue by combining bilateral single-unit, local field potentials (LFPs) and intracranial electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings in individuals undergoing clinical monitoring. We found slow (<0.1 Hz, following 1/f-like profiles) spontaneous fluctuations of neuronal activity with significant interhemispheric correlations. These fluctuations were evident mainly in neuronal firing rates and in gamma (40–100 Hz) LFP power modulations. Notably, the interhemispheric correlations were enhanced during rapid eye movement and stage 2 sleep. Multiple intracranial ECoG recordings revealed clear selectivity for functional networks in the spontaneous gamma LFP power modulations. Our results point to slow spontaneous modulations in firing rate and gamma LFP as the likely correlates of spontaneous fMRI fluctuations in the human sensory cortex.

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Figure 1: Two models of possible neuronal activity underlying fMRI events.
Figure 2: Interhemispheric comparison of slow spontaneous activity in human auditory cortex.
Figure 3: Profiles of correlated spontaneous activity.
Figure 4: Cross- and autocorrelograms.
Figure 5: Firing-rate and ISI distributions during rest and stimulation.
Figure 6: Spatial topography of spontaneous correlations in intracranial ECoG data.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants for volunteering to take part in the study; A.D. Ekstrom, E. Isham, E. Ho, T.A. Fields, and E. Behnke for technical assistance at UCLA; C. Wilson and J. Ogren for help with sleep recordings and staging; D. Yossef, S. Nagar, R. Cohen, C. Yosef, G. Yehezkel and the EEG technicians for assistance at the Tel Aviv Medical Center; and R. Paz and E. Schneidman for helpful discussions and feedback. This study was funded by the Israel Science Foundation, Minerva and Benoziyo Center grants to R. Malach, a US-Israel Binational Science Foundation grant to I.F. and R. Malach and a Human Frontier Science Program Organization fellowship to R. Mukamel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 240 Herzl Street, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Yuval Nir, Michal Harel, Lior Fisch, Hagar Gelbard-Sagiv, Amos Arieli & Rafael Malach

  2. Division of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Roy Mukamel & Itzhak Fried

  3. Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, 10003, New York, USA

    Ilan Dinstein

  4. School of Computer Science, Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eran Privman

  5. Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Svetlana Kipervasser, Miri Y Neufeld, Uri Kramer & Itzhak Fried

  6. Department of Neurology, Electroencephalography and Epilepsy Unit, Tel Aviv Medical Center, 6 Weizmann Street, Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel

    Svetlana Kipervasser & Miri Y Neufeld

  7. Functional Neurosurgery Unit, Tel Aviv Medical Center, 6 Weizmann Street, Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel

    Fani Andelman, Uri Kramer & Itzhak Fried

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Correspondence to Rafael Malach.

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Nir, Y., Mukamel, R., Dinstein, I. et al. Interhemispheric correlations of slow spontaneous neuronal fluctuations revealed in human sensory cortex. Nat Neurosci 11, 1100–1108 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2177

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