Brice Marty

A geometric correction scheme for spatial leakage effects in MEG/EEG seed-based functional connectivity mapping

Spatial leakage effects are particularly confounding for seed‐based investigations of brain networks using source‐level electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). Various methods designed to avoid this issue have been introduced but are limited to particular assumptions about its temporal characteristics. Here, we investigate the usefulness of a model‐based geometric correction scheme (GCS) to suppress spatial leakage emanating from the seed location. We analyze its properties theoretically and then assess potential advantages and limitations with simulated and experimental MEG data (resting state and auditory‐motor task). To do so, we apply Minimum Norm Estimation (MNE) for source reconstruction and use variation of error parameters, statistical gauging of spatial leakage correction and comparison with signal orthogonalization. Results show that the GCS has a local (i.e., near the seed) effect only, in line with the geometry of MNE spatial leakage, and is able to map spatially all types of brain interactions, including linear correlations eliminated after signal orthogonalization. Furthermore, it is robust against the introduction of forward model errors. On the other hand, the GCS can be affected by local overcorrection effects and seed mislocation. These issues arise with signal orthogonalization too, although significantly less extensively, so the two approaches complement each other. The GCS thus appears to be a valuable addition to the spatial leakage correction toolkits for seed‐based FC analyses in source‐projected MEG/EEG data. Hum Brain Mapp 36:4604–4621, 2015.

About the electrophysiological basis of resting state networks

Matthew Jon Brookes, Mark Woolrich, Henry Luckhoo, Darren Price, Joanne Hale, Mary Stephenson, Gareth Barnes, Stephen Smith, and Peter Morris Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, Oxford centre for human brain activity, University of Oxford, Oxford, Wellcome trust centre for neuroimaging, University College London, London, Oxford Centre for functional MRI of the brain, University of Oxford, Oxford

Left Superior Temporal Gyrus Is Coupled to Attended Speech in a Cocktail-Party Auditory Scene.

Using a continuous listening task, we evaluated the coupling between the listeners cortical activity and the temporal envelopes of different sounds in a multitalker auditory scene using magnetoencephalography and corticovocal coherence analysis. Neuromagnetic signals were recorded from 20 right-handed healthy adult humans who listened to five different recorded stories (attended speech streams), one without any multitalker background (No noise) and four mixed with a “cocktail party” multitalker background noise at four signal-to-noise ratios (5, 0, −5, and −10 dB) to produce speech-in-noise mixtures, here referred to as Global scene. Coherence analysis revealed that the modulations of the attended speech stream, presented without multitalker background, were coupled at ∼0.5 Hz to the activity of both superior temporal gyri, whereas the modulations at 4–8 Hz were coupled to the activity of the right supratemporal auditory cortex. In cocktail party conditions, with the multitalker background noise, the coupling was at both frequencies stronger for the attended speech stream than for the unattended Multitalker background. The coupling strengths decreased as the Multitalker background increased. During the cocktail party conditions, the ∼0.5 Hz coupling became left-hemisphere dominant, compared with bilateral coupling without the multitalker background, whereas the 4–8 Hz coupling remained right-hemisphere lateralized in both conditions. The brain activity was not coupled to the multitalker background or to its individual talkers. The results highlight the key role of listeners left superior temporal gyri in extracting the slow ∼0.5 Hz modulations, likely reflecting the attended speech stream within a multitalker auditory scene. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT When people listen to one person in a “cocktail party,” their auditory cortex mainly follows the attended speech stream rather than the entire auditory scene. However, how the brain extracts the attended speech stream from the whole auditory scene and how increasing background noise corrupts this process is still debated. In this magnetoencephalography study, subjects had to attend a speech stream with or without multitalker background noise. Results argue for frequency-dependent cortical tracking mechanisms for the attended speech stream. The left superior temporal gyrus tracked the ∼0.5 Hz modulations of the attended speech stream only when the speech was embedded in multitalker background, whereas the right supratemporal auditory cortex tracked 4–8 Hz modulations during both noiseless and cocktail-party conditions.

Neurophysiological activity underlying altered brain metabolism in epileptic encephalopathies with CSWS

We investigated the neurophysiological correlate of altered regional cerebral glucose metabolism observed in children with epileptic encephalopathy with continuous spike-waves during sleep (CSWS) by using a multimodal approach combining time-sensitive magnetic source imaging (MSI) and positron emission tomography with [(18)F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-PET). Six patients (4 boys and 2 girls, age range: 4-8 years, 3 patients with Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS), 3 patients with atypical rolandic epilepsy (ARE)) were investigated by FDG-PET and MSI at the acute phase of CSWS. In all patients, the onset(s) of spike-waves discharges were associated with significant focal hypermetabolism. The propagation of epileptic discharges to other brain areas was associated with focal hypermetabolism (five patients), hypometabolism (one patient) or the absence of any significant metabolic change (one patient). Interestingly, most of the hypometabolic areas were not involved in the epileptic network per se. This study shows that focal hypermetabolism observed at the acute phase of CSWS are related to the onset or propagation sites of spike-wave discharges. Spike-wave discharges propagation can be associated to other types of metabolic changes, suggesting the occurrence of various neurophysiological mechanisms at the cellular level. Most of the hypometabolic areas are not involved in the epileptic network as such and are probably related to a mechanism of remote inhibition. These findings highlight the critical value of combining FDG-PET with time-sensitive functional neuroimaging approaches such as MSI to assess CSWS epileptic network when surgery is considered as a therapeutic approach.

Multilevel Cortical Processing of Somatosensory Novelty: A Magnetoencephalography Study.

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), this study investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics of the multilevel cortical processing of somatosensory change detection. Neuromagnetic signals of 16 healthy adult subjects (7 females and 9 males, mean age 29 ± 3 years) were recorded using whole-scalp-covering MEG while they underwent an oddball paradigm based on simple standard (right index fingertip tactile stimulation) and deviant (simultaneous right index fingertip and middle phalanx tactile stimulation) stimuli gathered into sequences to create and then deviate from stimulus patterns at multiple (local vs. global) levels of complexity. Five healthy adult subjects (3 females and 2 males, mean age 31, 6 ± 2 years) also underwent a similar oddball paradigm in which standard and deviant stimuli were flipped. Local deviations led to a somatosensory mismatch response peaking at 55–130 ms post-stimulus onset with a cortical generator located at the contralateral secondary somatosensory (cSII) cortex. The mismatch response was independent of the deviant stimuli physical characteristics. Global deviants led to a P300 response with cortical sources located bilaterally at temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and supplementary motor area (SMA). The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and the SMA were found to generate a contingent magnetic variation (CMV) attributed to top-down expectations. Amplitude of mismatch responses were modulated by top-down expectations and correlated with both the magnitude of the CMV and the P300 amplitude at the right TPJ. These results provide novel empirical evidence for a unified sensory novelty detection system in the human brain by linking detection of salient sensory stimuli in personal and extra-personal spaces to a common framework of multilevel cortical processing.

MEG Correlates of Learning Novel Objects Properties in Children

Learning the functional properties of objects is a core mechanism in the development of conceptual, cognitive and linguistic knowledge in children. The cerebral processes underlying these learning mechanisms remain unclear in adults and unexplored in children. Here, we investigated the neurophysiological patterns underpinning the learning of functions for novel objects in 10-year-old healthy children. Event-related fields (ERFs) were recorded using magnetoencephalography (MEG) during a picture-definition task. Two MEG sessions were administered, separated by a behavioral verbal learning session during which children learned short definitions about the “magical” function of 50 unknown non-objects. Additionally, 50 familiar real objects and 50 other unknown non-objects for which no functions were taught were presented at both MEG sessions. Children learned at least 75% of the 50 proposed definitions in less than one hour, illustrating childrens powerful ability to rapidly map new functional meanings to novel objects. Pre- and post-learning ERFs differences were analyzed first in sensor then in source space. Results in sensor space disclosed a learning-dependent modulation of ERFs for newly learned non-objects, developing 500–800 msec after stimulus onset. Analyses in the source space windowed over this late temporal component of interest disclosed underlying activity in right parietal, bilateral orbito-frontal and right temporal regions. Altogether, our results suggest that learning-related evolution in late ERF components over those regions may support the challenging task of rapidly creating new semantic representations supporting the processing of the meaning and functions of novel objects in children.

Neural Basis of Early Somatosensory Change Detection: A Magnetoencephalography Study.

The mismatch negativity (MMN) reflects the early detection of changes in sensory stimuli at the cortical level. The mechanisms underlying its genesis remain debated. This magnetoencephalography study investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics and the neural mechanisms of the magnetic somatosensory MMN. Somatosensory evoked magnetic fields elicited by tactile stimulation of the right fingertip (Single), tactile stimulation of the right middle phalanx and fingertip (Double) or omissions (Omitted) of tactile stimuli were studied in different paradigms: in oddballs where Double/Omitted followed a sequence of four Single, in sequences of two stimuli where Double occurred after one Single, and in random presentation of Double only. The predictability of Double occurrence in oddballs was also manipulated. Cortical sources of evoked responses were identified using equivalent current dipole modeling. Evoked responses elicited by Double were significantly different from those elicited by Single at the contralateral secondary somatosensory (cSII) cortex. Double elicited higher cSII cortex responses than Single when preceded by a sequence of four Single, compared to when they were preceded by one Single. Double elicited higher cSII cortex response when presented alone compared to when Double were preceded by one or a sequence of Single. Omitted elicited similar cSII cortex response than Single. Double in oddballs led to higher cSII cortex responses when less predictable. These data suggest that early tactile change detection involves mainly cSII cortex. The predictive coding framework probably accounts for the SII cortex response features observed in the different tactile paradigms.

Effect of movement rate on corticokinematic coherence

AIMS OF THE STUDY This study investigates the effect of movement rate on the coupling between cortical magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals and the kinematics of repetitive active finger movements, i.e., the corticokinematic coherence (CKC). MATERIAL AND METHODS CKC was evaluated in ten right-handed healthy adults performing repetitive flexion-extension of the right-hand fingers in three different movement rate conditions: slow (∼1 Hz, duration: 11 min), medium (∼2 Hz, duration: 5 min) and fast (∼3 Hz, duration: 3 min). Neuromagnetic signals were recorded with a whole-scalp-covering MEG (Elekta Oy) and index acceleration was monitored with a 3-axis accelerometer. Coherent sources were estimated on the time-course of the cross-correlogram using equivalent current dipole (ECD) modeling. RESULTS Significant coherence was found at movement frequency or its first harmonics in all subjects and movement conditions. ECDs clustered at the primary sensorimotor cortex contralateral to hand movements. Movement rate had no effect on the coherence levels and the location of coherent sources. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that the movement rate does not affect coherence levels and CKC source location during active finger movements. This finding has direct implications for CKC functional mapping applications and studies investigating the pathophysiology of central nervous disorders affecting proprioceptive pathways.