A Causal Network Analysis of Neuromodulation in the Cortico-Subcortical Limbic Network
Neural decoding and neuromodulation technologies hold great promise for treating mood and other brain disorders in next-generation therapies that manipulate functional brain networks. Here, we perform a novel causal network analysis to decode multiregional communication in the primate mood processing network and determine how neuromodulation, short-burst tetanic microstimulation (SB-TetMS), alters multiregional network communication. The causal network analysis revealed a mechanism of network excitability that regulates when a sender stimulation site communicates with receiver sites. Decoding network excitability from neural activity at modulator sites predicted sender-receiver communication while SB-TetMS neuromodulation specifically disrupted sender-receiver communication. These results reveal specific network mechanisms of multiregional communication and suggest a new generation of brain therapies that combine neural decoding to predict multiregional communication with neuromodulation to disrupt multiregional communication.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryDecoding and modulating multiregional network communication.