Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Australia.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 28;10(1):18505. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-75466-y.
The complex nature of physiological systems where multiple organs interact to form a network is complicated by direct and indirect interactions, with varying strength and direction of influence. This study proposes a novel framework which quantifies directional and pairwise couplings, while controlling for the effect of indirect interactions. Simulation results confirm the superiority of this framework in uncovering directional primary links compared to previous published methods. In a practical application of cognitive attention and alertness tasks, the method was used to assess controlled directed interactions between the cardiac, respiratory and brain activities (prefrontal cortex). It revealed increased interactions during the alertness task between brain wave activity on the left side of the brain with heart rate and respiration compared to resting phases. During the attention task, an increased number of right brain wave interactions involving respiration was also observed compared to rest, in addition to left brain wave activity with heart rate. The proposed framework potentially assesses directional interactions in complex network physiology and may detect cognitive dysfunctions associated with altered network physiology.
生理系统的复杂性在于多个器官相互作用形成网络，这种相互作用既有直接的也有间接的，其影响的强度和方向也各不相同。本研究提出了一种新的框架，可以量化方向和成对的耦合，同时控制间接相互作用的影响。模拟结果证实，与之前发表的方法相比，该框架在揭示方向主要联系方面具有优越性。在认知注意力和警觉性任务的实际应用中，该方法用于评估心脏、呼吸和大脑活动（前额叶皮层）之间的受控定向相互作用。结果表明，在警觉任务中，与休息阶段相比，大脑左半球的脑波活动与心率和呼吸之间的相互作用增加。在注意力任务中，与休息相比，还观察到涉及呼吸的右脑波相互作用的数量增加，以及与心率相关的左脑波活动。该框架可以评估复杂网络生理学中的方向相互作用，并可能检测与网络生理学改变相关的认知功能障碍。
