Towards an information theoretical description of communication in brain networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new framework combining two measures, PPS and PBS, to analyze and categorize communication dynamics in large-scale brain networks, revealing distinct communication regimes and regional broadcasting roles.

Contribution

It presents a novel information-theoretic framework for understanding brain communication dynamics using PPS and PBS measures, enabling classification of communication regimes and regional roles.

Findings

Brain communication can be categorized into three regimes: absent, relay, transducted.

Subcortical regions mainly act as broadcasters to multiple regions.

Cortical regions serve as relay stations or transducted broadcasters.

Abstract

Modeling communication dynamics in the brain is a key challenge in network neuroscience. We present here a framework that combines two measurements for any system where different communication processes are taking place on top of a fixed structural topology: Path Processing Score (PPS) estimates how much the brain signal has changed or has been transformed between any two brain regions (source and target); Path Broadcasting Strength (PBS) estimates the propagation of the signal through edges adjacent to the path being assessed. We use PPS and PBS to explore communication dynamics in large-scale brain networks. We show that brain communication dynamics can be divided into three main 'communication regimes' of information transfer: absent communication (no communication happening); relay communication (information is being transferred almost intact); transducted communication (the information is being transformed). We use PBS to categorize brain regions based on the way they broadcast information. Subcortical regions are mainly direct broadcasters to multiple receivers; Temporal and frontal nodes mainly operate as broadcast relay brain stations; Visual and somato-motor cortices act as multi-channel transducted broadcasters. This work paves the way towards the field of brain network information theory by providing a principled methodology to explore communication dynamics in large-scale brain networks.