Spatiotemporal dynamics of the cerebral cortex: from unconscious brain states towards consciousness
[eng] Understanding the dynamics of the brain that gives rise to conscious experience and that underscore the transition through different brain states is one of the central problems of today’s neuroscience. The cerebral cortex as a structured network is capable to spontaneously express different ty...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/181767 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/181767 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/672946 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Escorça cerebral Cerebral cortex |
| Sumario: | [eng] Understanding the dynamics of the brain that gives rise to conscious experience and that underscore the transition through different brain states is one of the central problems of today’s neuroscience. The cerebral cortex as a structured network is capable to spontaneously express different types of dynamics that are continuously changing over time according to the ongoing brain state. Transitions across physiological or pharmacologically induced brain states are correlated with changes in network excitability and functional connectivity, giving rise to a wide repertoire of spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity. In this context, the pharmacologically induced brain states transitions provide a good model to understand the interplay of mechanisms that give rise to conscious behavior, where more gradual changes can be induced in order to disentangle the transitions dynamics. In this Thesis, we developed a set of new analytical tools to provide a thorough analysis of the cortical spatiotemporal dynamics under highly synchronized, unconscious brain states characterized by slow wave activity, and during the transitions towards consciousness. We reveal the mechanisms related to such activity at multiple scales, in vivo, in vitro and in silico, and their relationship with the disruption of causal interactions that causes the drop of cortical complexity typical of unconscious brain states. |
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