Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Smart Healthcare Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, P. R. China.
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive, Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern, Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, Normal University, 100875 Beijing, P. R. China.
Int J Neural Syst. 2022 Feb;32(2):2250002. doi: 10.1142/S0129065722500022. Epub 2021 Dec 2.
The oxytocin effects on large-scale brain networks such as Default Mode Network (DMN) and Frontoparietal Network (FPN) have been largely studied using fMRI data. However, these studies are mainly based on the statistical correlation or Bayesian causality inference, lacking interpretability at the physical and neuroscience level. Here, we propose a physics-based framework of the Kuramoto model to investigate oxytocin effects on the phase dynamic neural coupling in DMN and FPN. Testing on fMRI data of 59 participants administrated with either oxytocin or placebo, we demonstrate that oxytocin changes the topology of brain communities in DMN and FPN, leading to higher synchronization in the FPN and lower synchronization in the DMN, as well as a higher variance of the coupling strength within the DMN and more flexible coupling patterns at group level. These results together indicate that oxytocin may increase the ability to overcome the corresponding internal oscillation dispersion and support the flexibility in neural synchrony in various social contexts, providing new evidence for explaining the oxytocin modulated social behaviors. Our proposed Kuramoto model-based framework can be a potential tool in network neuroscience and offers physical and neural insights into phase dynamics of the brain.
催产素对默认模式网络（DMN）和额顶网络（FPN）等大规模脑网络的影响在很大程度上是通过 fMRI 数据研究的。然而，这些研究主要基于统计相关性或贝叶斯因果推理，缺乏物理和神经科学层面的可解释性。在这里，我们提出了一个基于物理学的 Kuramoto 模型框架，用于研究催产素对 DMN 和 FPN 中相位动态神经耦合的影响。我们在 59 名参与者的 fMRI 数据上进行了测试，这些参与者接受了催产素或安慰剂的治疗，结果表明，催产素改变了 DMN 和 FPN 中脑区的拓扑结构，导致 FPN 中的同步性增加，DMN 中的同步性降低，DMN 内部耦合强度的方差增加，以及组水平上的耦合模式更加灵活。这些结果表明，催产素可能增加了克服相应内部振荡分散的能力，并支持在各种社会环境下神经同步的灵活性，为解释催产素调节的社会行为提供了新的证据。我们提出的基于 Kuramoto 模型的框架可以成为网络神经科学的一个潜在工具，并为大脑的相位动力学提供物理和神经学的见解。
