title: Cortical rich club regions can organize state-dependent functional network formation by engaging in oscillatory behavior.
abstract: Cognition is hypothesized to require the globally coordinated, functionally relevant integration of otherwise segregated information processing carried out by specialized brain regions. Studies of the macroscopic connectome as well as recent neuroimaging and neuromodeling research have suggested a densely connected collective of cortical hubs, termed the rich club, to provide a central workspace for such integration. In order for rich club regions to fulfill this role they must dispose of a dynamic mechanism by which they can actively shape networks of brain regions whose information processing needs to be integrated. A potential candidate for such a mechanism comes in the form of oscillations which might be employed to establish communication channels among relevant brain regions. We explore this possibility using an integrative approach combining whole-brain computational modeling with neuroimaging, wherein we investigate the local dynamics model brain regions need to exhibit in order to fit (dynamic) network behavior empirically observed for resting as well as a range of task states. We find that rich club regions largely exhibit oscillations during task performance but not during rest. Furthermore, oscillations exhibited by rich club regions can harmonize a set of asynchronous brain regions thus supporting functional coupling among them. These findings are in line with the hypothesis that the rich club can actively shape integration using oscillations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6201BC Maastricht, The Netherlands; Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: mario.senden@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Senden
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6201BC Maastricht, The Netherlands; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Centre Jülich.
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.affiliation: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Martijn P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: van den Heuvel
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6201BC Maastricht, The Netherlands; Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands; Department of Neuroimaging and Neuromodeling, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), 1105BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goebel
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain; Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona 08010, Spain.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Deco
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D058256:Brain Waves; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D063132:Connectome; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult