CRCNS Research Proposal: Modeling traveling waves in the human cortex

人类大脑由大量相互连接的脑细胞网络组成，一个重要的悬而未决的问题是解释这些细胞如何相互作用，以灵活地支持不同类型的行为。在这个项目中，首席研究人员(PI)假设，神经元活动的节奏波--行波--在允许大脑灵活重组并使与任务相关的活动在行为过程中转移到适当的目的地方面发挥着重要作用。该项目将直接测量来自人脑的行波，使用外科手术放置在大脑内的电极，与执行临床程序的神经外科医生合作。此外，使用这些录音，PI将创建这些波的计算模型，以测试行波如何在大脑中移动以及它们如何随着不同的任务行为改变方向的理论。除了解释行波传播的基本机制外，这项工作还对创建脑机接口和治疗与神经元相互作用中断相关的疾病具有实际意义。因此，这项研究对改善人类健康具有重要意义，因为它展示了行波在健康个体中的结构，并展示了行波在大脑疾病患者中可能无法正确传播。该项目是哥伦比亚大学和匹兹堡大学的合作项目，提供了宝贵的教育和外展机会。具体地说，它为来自纽约和匹兹堡地区的本科生和其他实习生提供神经科学方法的培训机会，并提供一个在线月会小组，讨论与行波有关的科学问题，该小组完全向所有人开放。该项目的目标是进行新颖的实验并建立计算模型，以解释人类大脑皮层中行波的功能特性和机制。神经元振荡的传播模式是一种广泛但神秘的现象，在这种现象中，神经元振荡在空间上传播穿过人类大脑皮层。PI假设行波协调整个大脑的信息传输，因此它们的方向和时间揭示了特定任务相关信息在哪里以及何时沿着大规模大脑区域进行处理。该项目将创建生物学上可信的计算模型，说明神经行波是如何在人脑中产生的，并通过在植入电极的人类神经外科患者身上进行平行实验来反复完善这些模型。这些受试者将执行现实的空间记忆和导航范例，并测量行波如何在不同方向传播以支持不同的行为。它还将创建计算模型来解释这些与任务相关的方向转变。PI将在实验中分析行波的时间与记忆提取速度的关系。具体地说，PI将创建​​计算模型，模拟行波传播的时间如何与神经信号在大脑皮层传播的保真度和速度有关。在这项工作中，通过实验和理论建模之间的密切互动，PI将获得对行波的神经基础的严格解释，用于高级认知和详细的神经计算类型。该奖项由数学和物理科学局(MPS)内的数学科学部(DMS)和计算机和信息科学与工程局(CEISE)内的信息和智能系统部(IIS)共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The human brain consists of a massive network of interconnected brain cells, and an important unanswered question is to explain how these cells interact to flexibly support different types of behaviors. In this project the principal investigators (PIs) hypothesize that rhythmic waves of neuronal activity—traveling waves—play an important role in allowing the brain to flexibly reorganize and cause task-related activity to move to its proper destination during behavior. This project will measure traveling waves from the human brain directly, using electrodes surgically placed inside the brain in collaboration with neurosurgeons performing clinical procedures. Further, using these recordings, the PIs will create computational models of these waves to test theories for how traveling waves move across the brain and how they change direction in relation to different task behaviors. In addition to explaining the fundamental mechanisms of traveling wave propagation, this work also has practical implications for creating brain-computer interfaces and treating diseases related to disrupted neuronal interactions. This research thus has implications for improving human health by showing how traveling waves should be structured in healthy individuals and demonstrating how they may not propagate properly in people with brain disorders. The project is a collaboration between Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh and offers valuable educational and outreach opportunities. Specifically, it offers training opportunities in neuroscience methods for undergraduates and other trainees from the New York City and Pittsburgh areas as well as an online monthly meeting group for the discussion of scientific issues related to traveling waves, which is fully open to all.The goal of this project is to perform novel experiments and build computational models to explain the functional properties and mechanisms of traveling waves in the human cortex. Traveling patterns of neuronal oscillations are a widespread but mysterious phenomenon in which neuronal oscillations propagate spatially across the human cortex. The PIs hypothesize that traveling waves coordinate information transmission across the brain such that their direction and timing reveal where and when specific task-related information is processed along large-scale brain regions. This project will create biologically plausible computational models of how neural traveling waves are generated in the human brain and iteratively refine these models by conducting parallel experiments in human neurosurgical patients with implanted electrodes. These subjects will perform realistic spatial memory and navigation paradigms and measure how traveling waves propagate in different directions to support separate behaviors. It will also create computational models to explain these task-related direction shifts. The PIs will analyze how the timing of traveling waves relates to the speed of memory retrieval in the experiments. Specifically, the PIs will create ​​computational models that simulate how the timing of traveling wave propagation relates to the fidelity and speed of neural signal propagation across the cortex. In this work, through close interaction between experiments and theoretical modeling, the PIs will obtain a rigorous explanation of the neural basis of traveling waves for high-level cognition and detailed types of neural computation.This award is being co-funded by the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) within the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate (MPS) and Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) in the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.