Collectivity in the Brain Sensory Response

TL;DR

This study investigates cooperative neural responses in the auditory cortex using MEG recordings, revealing local hemispheric collectivity and interhemispheric communication with lateralized timing, suggesting self-organized criticality and direct information transfer.

Contribution

It provides new evidence of two levels of neuronal cooperation in auditory processing, highlighting stochastic local responses and direct interhemispheric communication mechanisms.

Findings

Identification of local hemispheric collective responses (M100) with stochastic evolution.

Evidence of interhemispheric communication with contralateral leading by ~10ms.

Power spectrum analysis indicating self-organized criticality.

Abstract

A question of cooperative effects in auditory brain processing on various space- and time-scales is addressed. The experimental part of our study is based on Multichannel Magnetoencephalography recordings in normal human subjects. Left, right and binaural stimulations were used, in separate runs, for each subject. The resulting time-series representing left and right auditory cortex activity provide a clear evidence for two levels of neuronal cooperation. One is the local hemispheric collective response, termed M100 for its maximum at around 100ms after a stimulus onset. Its only global characteristics turn out to be time-locked to a stimulus, however, which means that the detailed neuronal evolution is largely stochastic. This, together with the $1/f$ character of the corresponding power spectrum indicates self-organized criticality as an underlying mechanism. The second level is communication between the two hemispheres with clear laterality effects: as a rule, the contralateral hemisphere leads by $\sim$10ms. Mutual information analysis points to a direct information transport as a way of this communication.