Biology subjects

Krause, B. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Krause, B. M..

11 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Network and hierarchical organization of intrinsic timescales in the human brain

Intrinsic neural timescales represent the characteristic duration over which information is maintained in neuronal circuits. Evidence suggests that neural timescales vary systematically across the cortical hierarchy, with shorter timescales in primary sensory areas and longer timescales in higher-order association regions. In previous studies, hierarchy has been defined categorically, anatomically, or from the principal gradient of resting-state fMRI functional connectivity derived using diffusion map embedding (DME). Here, we assign hierarchical position to individual human intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recording sites by projecting their MNI coordinates onto this embedding space, derived from Human Connectome Project resting-state fMRI data. We estimated neural timescales from resting-state iEEG recordings in adult neurosurgical patients (n=46, 25 female) by extracting the aperiodic component of the local field potential power spectrum using spectral parameterization. Timescales increased monotonically with hierarchical position and associated with two region of interest (ROI)-level measures of network topology derived from DME of participants iEEG functional connectivity: ROIs with stronger mean functional connectivity exhibited longer timescales, as did ROIs functioning as hubs, defined by proximity to the center of embedding space. Finally, timescales varied with sleep stage, with slowest values during NREM and fastest during wake and REM. The hierarchical gradient present during wake and N1 was no longer detected during REM, N2, and N3 sleep, driven by a selective increase in timescales at lower levels of the hierarchy. This work presents a novel metric of hierarchy that can be applied to iEEG data, establishes a direct link between neural timescales, cortical hierarchy, and network topology in human iEEG, and demonstrates that this hierarchical organization is dynamically modulated by brain state. Significance StatementThe brain processes information across multiple timescales simultaneously, with different cortical regions specialized for fast sensory processing or slow integration of context. We measured intrinsic neural timescales from human intracranial electrophysiological recordings and applied a novel method to locate each recording site along the cortical hierarchy. Timescales increased systematically from sensory to association areas, and were longest in network hubs, i.e., regions that are uniformly and widely connected to the rest of the brain. During sleep, this hierarchical organization was not detected, with sensory areas showing the largest increases in timescale. These findings advance our understanding of how the brains temporal organization is shaped by network architecture and modulated by brain state.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Electrophysiological effects of psilocybin co-administered with midazolam

The serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin induces neural plasticity and profoundly alters consciousness. The benzodiazepine midazolam blunts neural plasticity and induces conscious sedation and amnesia at low doses. In our recent open label pilot study, we administered oral psilocybin (25 mg) along with intravenous midazolam at doses allowing a full psychedelic experience while blunting memory for the experience. We previously reported preliminary results from high density scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recorded during the dosing session. Here, we examined changes in EEG band power, normalized Lempel Ziv complexity (LZCn), and spectral exponent. We used linear mixed effects models that incorporated time and the subjective effects of midazolam and psilocybin, measured with the Observers Assessment of Arousal and Sedation (OAA/S) and selected items from the Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) questionnaire, respectively. At 15-30 mins, when midazolam (but likely not psilocybin) was at its targeted effect site concentration, we observed increased beta power and decreased spectral exponent. As the subjective effects of psilocybin commenced and over the next six hours, we observed increased LZCn and spectral exponent and decreased broadband power. OAA/S improved model fits for alpha power while ASC improved model fits for LZCn and spectral exponent. These data are further evidence that the effects of psilocybin are maintained in the presence of midazolam, supporting its utility in mechanistic studies of psilocybins therapeutic activity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Dexmedetomidine produces more sleep-like brain activity compared to propofol

IntroductionDexmedetomidine is a selective 2-adrenergic agonist used as an anesthesia adjunct to produce a state of sleep-like sedation. However, how brain activity compares quantitatively during dexmedetomidine anesthesia to that during natural sleep, and thus just how "sleep-like" dexmedetomidine anesthesia is, remains unclear. Previously, we showed that the general anesthetic propofol is associated with changes in connectivity and cortical network structure comparable to those observed during sleep. Here, we compare the effects on brain activity of dexmedetomidine, propofol, and sleep quantitatively using intracranial encephalographic (iEEG) recordings in human research participants. MethodsiEEG recordings were obtained in 34 epilepsy patients being evaluated for potential seizure resection surgery. Band power and functional connectivity (alpha weighted phase lag index, gamma envelope correlations) and network entropy were measured in recordings during task-free ("resting state") periods just prior to surgery during anesthesia with either dexmedetomidine or propofol, and during overnight sleep. Anesthesia stage (wake, sedated, unresponsive) was determined using the Observers Assessment of Arousal and Sedation. Sleep was staged using standard polysomnography. ResultsAs expected, significant differences in delta power were observed during dexmedetomidine and propofol as well as during sleep. However, the magnitude of changes in delta power were smaller and regionally heterogeneous for propofol compared to dexmedetomidine and sleep. Functional connectivity changes were comparable between dexmedetomidine, propofol, and natural sleep. Significant changes in network entropy were observed for dexmedetomidine, propofol, and sleep, but changes were larger for propofol compared to dexmedetomidine and sleep. Quantitative comparisons between changes in delta power and network entropy suggest that unresponsiveness under dexmedetomidine produces a similar brain state to that observed during N2 sleep. ConclusionsWhile delta power, functional connectivity, and network entropy all showed changes during propofol, dexmedetomidine, and sleep, the magnitudes of these changes suggest that dexmedetomidine is more similar than propofol to sleep, specifically to N2 sleep.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Co-administration of midazolam and psilocybin: Differential effects on subjective quality versus memory of the psychedelic experience

Aspects of the acute experience induced by the serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin predict symptomatic relief in multiple psychiatric disorders and improved well-being in healthy participants, but whether these therapeutic effects are immediate or are based on memories of the experience is unclear. To examine this, we co-administered psilocybin (25 mg) with the amnestic benzodiazepine midazolam in 8 healthy participants and assayed the subjective quality of, and memory for, the dosing-day experience. We identified a midazolam dose that allowed a conscious psychedelic experience to occur while partially impairing memory for the experience. Furthermore, midazolam dose and memory impairment tended to associate inversely with salience, insight, and well-being induced by psilocybin. These data suggest a role for memory in therapeutically relevant behavioral effects occasioned by psilocybin. Because midazolam blocks memory by blocking cortical neural plasticity, it may also be useful for evaluating the contribution of the pro-neuroplastic properties of psychedelics to their therapeutic activity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Consciousness is indexed by analogous cortical reorganization during sleep and anesthesia

Although sleep and anesthesia are predicted to share common neural signatures of transitions into and out of unconsciousness, supportive evidence has been elusive. We identified these signatures using intracranial electroencephalography in neurosurgical patients. We applied diffusion map embedding to map cortical location into a space where proximity indicates functional similarity using a normalized connectivity ( diffusion) matrix, itself a rich source of information about network properties. During reduced consciousness, diffusion matrices exhibited decreased effective dimensionality, reflecting reduced network entropy. Furthermore, functional brain regions exhibited tighter clustering in embedding space with greater distances between regions, corresponding to decreased differentiation and functional integration. These changes were not region-specific, suggesting global network reorganization. These results strongly suggest common neural substrates for loss and recovery of consciousness during anesthesia and sleep, providing a systems-level mechanistic understanding within an intuitive geometric context and laying the foundation for evaluation of cortical state transitions in clinical settings.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Functional geometry of auditory cortical resting state networks derived from intracranial electrophysiology

Understanding central auditory processing critically depends on defining underlying auditory cortical networks and their relationship to the rest of the brain. We addressed these questions using resting state functional connectivity derived from human intracranial electroencephalography. Mapping recording sites into a low-dimensional space where proximity represents functional similarity revealed a hierarchical organization. At fine scale, a group of auditory cortical regions excluded several higher order auditory areas and segregated maximally from prefrontal cortex. On mesoscale, the proximity of limbic structures to auditory cortex suggested a limbic stream that parallels the classically described ventral and dorsal auditory processing streams. Identities of global hubs in anterior temporal and cingulate cortex depended on frequency band, consistent with diverse roles in semantic and cognitive processing. On a macro scale, observed hemispheric asymmetries were not specific for speech and language networks. This approach can be applied to multivariate brain data with respect to development, behavior, and disorders. BlurbWe describe the organization of human neocortex on multiple spatial scalesbased on resting state intracranial electrophysiology. We focus on cortical regions involved in auditory processing and examine inter-regional hierarchical relationships, network topology, and hemispheric lateralization. This work introduces a powerful analytical tool to examine mechanisms of altered arousal states, brain development, and neuropsychiatric disorders.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Multivariate autoregressive model estimation for high dimensional intracranial electrophysiological data

Fundamental to elucidating the functional organization of the brain is the assessment of causal interactions between different brain regions. Multivariate autoregressive (MVAR) modeling techniques applied to multisite electrophysiological recordings are a promising avenue for identifying such causal links. They estimate the degree to which past activity in one or more brain regions is predictive of another regions present activity, while simultaneously accounting for the mediating effects of other regions. Including in the model as many mediating variables as possible has the benefit of drastically reducing the odds of detecting spurious causal connectivity. However, effective bounds on the number of MVAR model coefficients that can be estimated reliably from limited data make exploiting the potential of MVAR models challenging. Here, we utilize well-established dimensionality-reduction techniques to fit MVAR models to human intracranial data from {bsim}100 - 200 recording sites spanning dozens of anatomically and functionally distinct cortical regions. First, we show that high dimensional MVAR models can be successfully estimated from long segments of data and yield plausible connectivity profiles. Next, we use these models to generate synthetic data with known ground-truth connectivity to explore the utility of applying principal component analysis and group least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) to reduce the number of parameters (connections) during model fitting to shorter data segments. We show that group LASSO is highly effective for recovering ground truth connectivity in the limited data regime, capturing important features of connectivity for high-dimensional models with as little as 10 s of data. The methods presented here have broad applicability to the analysis of high-dimensional time series data in neuroscience, facilitating the elucidation of the neural basis of sensation, cognition, and arousal.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Electrophysiological signatures of acute systemic lipopolysaccharide: potential implications for delirium science

BackgroundNovel preventive therapies are needed for postoperative delirium, which especially affects aged patients. A mouse model is presented that captures inflammation-associated cortical slow wave activity (SWA) observed in patients, allowing exploration of the mechanistic role of prostaglandin-adenosine signaling. MethodsEEG and cortical cytokine measurements (interleukin 6 [IL-6], monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 [MCP-1]) were obtained from adult and aged mice. Behavior, SWA, and functional connectivity (alpha-band weighted phase lag index) were assayed before and after systemic administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) +/- piroxicam (cyclooxygenase inhibitor) or caffeine (adenosine receptor antagonist). To avoid confounds from inflammation-driven changes in movement, which alter SWA and connectivity, electrophysiological recordings were classified as occurring during quiescence or movement, and propensity score matching used to match distributions of movement magnitude between baseline and LPS. ResultsLPS produces increases in cortical cytokines and behavioral quiescence. In movement-matched data, LPS produces increases in SWA (likelihood-ratio test: {chi}2(4)=21.51, p=0.00057), but not connectivity ({chi}2(4)=6.39, p=0.17). Increases in SWA associate with IL6 (p<0.001) and MCP-1 (p=0.001) and are suppressed by piroxicam (p<0.001) and caffeine (p=0.046). Aged animals compared to adult show similar LPS-induced SWA during movement, but exaggerated cytokine response and increased SWA during quiescence. ConclusionsCytokine-SWA correlations during wakefulness are consistent with observations in patients with delirium. Absence of connectivity effects after accounting for movement changes suggests decreased connectivity in patients is a biomarker of hypoactivity. Exaggerated effects in quiescent aged animals are consistent with increased hypoactive delirium in older patients. Prostaglandin-adenosine signaling may link inflammation to neural changes and hence delirium.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Cortical functional connectivity indexes arousal state during sleep and anesthesia

Disruption of cortical connectivity likely contributes to loss of consciousness (LOC) during both sleep and general anesthesia, but the degree of overlap in the underlying mechanisms is unclear. Both sleep and anesthesia comprise states of varying levels of arousal and consciousness, including states of largely maintained consciousness (sleep: N1, REM; anesthesia: sedated but responsive) as well as states of substantially reduced consciousness (sleep: N2/N3; anesthesia: unresponsive). Here, we tested the hypotheses that (1) cortical connectivity will reflect clear changes when transitioning into states of reduced consciousness, and (2) these changes are similar for arousal states of comparable levels of consciousness during sleep and anesthesia. Using intracranial recordings from five neurosurgical patients, we compared resting state cortical functional connectivity (as measured by weighted phase lag index) in the same subjects across arousal states during natural sleep [wake (WS), N1, N2, N3, REM] and propofol anesthesia [pre-drug wake (WA), sedated/responsive (S) and unresponsive (U)]. In wake states WS and WA, alpha-band connectivity within and between temporal, parietal and occipital regions was dominant. This pattern was largely unchanged in N1, REM and S. Transitions into states of reduced consciousness N2, N3 and U were characterized by dramatic and strikingly similar changes in connectivity, with dominant connections shifting to frontal cortex. We suggest that shifts from temporo-parieto-occipital to frontal cortical connectivity may reflect impaired sensory processing in states of reduced consciousness. The data indicate that functional connectivity can serve as a biomarker of arousal state and suggest common mechanisms of LOC in sleep and anesthesia.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Evidence that PV+ cells enhance temporal population codes but not stimulus-related timing in auditory cortex

Spatio-temporal cortical activity patterns relative to both peripheral input and local network activity carry information about stimulus identity and context. GABAergic interneurons are reported to regulate spiking at millisecond precision in response to sensory stimulation and during gamma oscillations; their role in regulating spike timing during induced network bursts is unclear. We investigated this issue in murine auditory thalamo-cortical (TC) brain slices, in which TC afferents induced network bursts similar to previous reports in vivo. Spike timing relative to TC afferent stimulation during bursts was poor in pyramidal cells and SOM+ interneurons. It was more precise in PV+ interneurons, consistent with their reported contribution to spiking precision in pyramidal cells. Optogenetic suppression of PV+ cells unexpectedly improved afferent-locked spike timing in pyramidal cells. In contrast, our evidence suggests that PV+ cells do regulate the spatio-temporal spike pattern of pyramidal cells during network bursts, whose organization is suited to ensemble coding of stimulus information. Simulations showed that suppressing PV+ cells reduces the capacity of pyramidal cell networks to produce discriminable spike patterns. By dissociating temporal precision with respect to a stimulus versus internal cortical activity, we identified a novel role for GABAergic cells in regulating information processing in cortical networks.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Evidence that loss of consciousness under anesthesia is not associated with impaired stimulus representation in auditory cortex

The mechanism whereby anesthetics cause loss of consciousness (LOC) is poorly understood. Current theories suggest that impaired representation of information in cortico-thalamic networks contributes to LOC under anesthesia. We sought to determine whether such changes are present in auditory cortex using information theoretic analysis of multiunit responses in rats. We tested the effects of three agents with different molecular targets: isoflurane, which acts at multiple pre- and postsynaptic loci, propofol, which acts primarily on GABAA receptors, and dexmedetomidine, an 2 adrenergic agonist. We reasoned that changes in the representation of sensory stimuli causative for LOC would be present regardless of the molecular target of the anesthetic. All three agents caused LOC, as assayed by the loss of righting reflex (LORR). We presented acoustic stimuli that varied across a wide range of temporal and spectral dynamics under control, sub-hypnotic (i.e. dose too low to cause LORR), just-hypnotic (a dose just sufficient to cause LORR) and recovery conditions. Changes in mutual information (MI) between the stimulus and spike responses under anesthesia diverged in two ways from predictions of a model in which stimulus representation is impaired upon LOC. First, the sign of changes in MI was agent-specific: MI increased under dexmedetomidine, while it decreased under isoflurane and propofol. Second, there was no consistent change in MI when transitioning from sub-hyptnotic to just-hypnotic doses: for none of the agents did MI decrease at the higher dose, and in some cases MI actually increased relative to the sub-hypnotic dose. Changes in MI under anesthesia were strongly correlated with changes in precision and reliability of spike timing, consistent with the importance of temporal stimulus features in driving auditory cortical activity. These data indicate that primary sensory cortex is not the locus for changes in information representation causative for LOC under anesthesia.

neuroscience↗