Hansen Justine Y, Cauzzo Simone, Singh Kavita, García-Gomar María Guadalupe, Shine James M, Bianciardi Marta, Misic Bratislav
Montréal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
Brainstem Imaging Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2024 Dec;27(12):2500-2511. doi: 10.1038/s41593-024-01787-0. Epub 2024 Oct 16.
The brainstem is a fundamental component of the central nervous system, yet it is typically excluded from in vivo human brain mapping efforts, precluding a complete understanding of how the brainstem influences cortical function. In this study, we used high-resolution 7-Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging to derive a functional connectome encompassing cortex and 58 brainstem nuclei spanning the midbrain, pons and medulla. We identified a compact set of integrative hubs in the brainstem with widespread connectivity with cerebral cortex. Patterns of connectivity between brainstem and cerebral cortex manifest as neurophysiological oscillatory rhythms, patterns of cognitive functional specialization and the unimodal-transmodal functional hierarchy. This persistent alignment between cortical functional topographies and brainstem nuclei is shaped by the spatial arrangement of multiple neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. We replicated all findings using 3-Tesla data from the same participants. Collectively, this work demonstrates that multiple organizational features of cortical activity can be traced back to the brainstem.
脑干是中枢神经系统的一个基本组成部分，但它通常被排除在活体人类脑图谱研究之外，这使得我们无法全面了解脑干如何影响皮层功能。在本研究中，我们使用高分辨率7特斯拉功能磁共振成像技术，绘制了一个包含皮层和横跨中脑、脑桥和延髓的58个脑干核团的功能连接组。我们在脑干中确定了一组紧密的整合枢纽，它们与大脑皮层有着广泛的连接。脑干与大脑皮层之间的连接模式表现为神经生理振荡节律、认知功能特化模式以及单峰-跨模态功能层次结构。皮层功能地形图与脑干核团之间的这种持续对应关系是由多种神经递质受体和转运体的空间排列所塑造的。我们使用来自同一参与者的3特斯拉数据重复了所有研究结果。总体而言，这项工作表明皮层活动的多种组织特征都可以追溯到脑干。
