title: Reactivation of visual-evoked activity in human cortical networks.
abstract: In the absence of sensory input, neuronal networks are far from being silent. Whether spontaneous changes in ongoing activity reflect previous sensory experience or stochastic fluctuations in brain activity is not well understood. Here we demonstrate reactivation of stimulus-evoked activity that is distributed across large areas in the human brain. We performed simultaneous electrocorticography recordings from occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal areas in awake humans in the presence and absence of sensory stimulation. We found that, in the absence of visual input, repeated exposure to brief natural movies induces robust stimulus-specific reactivation at individual recording sites. The reactivation sites were characterized by greater global connectivity compared with those sites that did not exhibit reactivation. Our results indicate a surprising degree of short-term plasticity across multiple networks in the human brain as a result of repeated exposure to unattended information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas;
authors.forename: Mircea I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Chelaru
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas; Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, La Jolla, California;
authors.forename: Bryan J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas; and.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tandon
authors.affiliation: Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas; and.
authors.forename: Chris R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Conner
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas;
authors.forename: Susann
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Szukalski
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas; Department of Neurology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Jeremy D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Slater
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Giridhar P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Kalamangalam
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas; v.dragoi@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dragoi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000473:pathology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014851:Wakefulness; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cerebral cortex; human brain; reactivation