Northoff Georg, Wolman Angelika, Zhang Jianfeng
School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research associated with the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
Phys Life Rev. 2025 Sep;54:173-201. doi: 10.1016/j.plrev.2025.07.009. Epub 2025 Jul 11.
Current neuroscience faces a divide between cognitive function and neural dynamics. Cognitive function is typically studied during task-related activity, while neural dynamics are a key feature of the brain's spontaneous activity, as measured in the resting state. How are dynamics and cognition connected? Although neural dynamics themselves are well understood, their relationship to-and influence on-cognitive functions remain yet unclear. Addressing this gap is the goal of our paper. For that purpose, we first review recent findings on how dynamic features like neural variability and intrinsic neural timescales (INT) shape various cognitive functions. We then expand our view beyond task-specific foreground activity to the deeper background layers of the brain's neural activity-its task-unspecific and spontaneous activity. This leads us to propose a Dynamic Layer Model of the Brain (DLB). Drawing on empirical and computational evidence, we demonstrate how neural variability, INT, and other dynamic features (such as scale-free dynamics) connect these three layers of neural activity. Next, we show how these three layers from spontaneous over task-unspecific to task-specific activity mediate four temporal mechanisms through which brain dynamics shape cognition: these range from temporal encoding and integration of input dynamics to temporal scaffolding and segmentation of cognitive output. We conclude that the brain's neural dynamics operate in the background, shaping the cognitive functions and their contents in the neural foreground in a temporal-dynamic manner. This perspective is at the core of Spatiotemporal Neuroscience, which provides a wider framework than Cognitive Neuroscience by revealing how the brain's intrinsic dynamics shape our cognition.
当前神经科学面临着认知功能与神经动力学之间的鸿沟。认知功能通常在与任务相关的活动中进行研究，而神经动力学是大脑自发活动的一个关键特征，如在静息状态下所测量的那样。动力学与认知是如何联系的呢？尽管神经动力学本身已被充分理解，但其与认知功能的关系以及对认知功能的影响仍不清楚。填补这一空白是我们论文的目标。为此，我们首先回顾最近关于神经变异性和内在神经时间尺度（INT）等动态特征如何塑造各种认知功能的研究发现。然后，我们将视野从特定任务的前台活动扩展到大脑神经活动的更深层次背景——其非特定任务和自发活动。这使我们提出了大脑的动态层模型（DLB）。借助实证和计算证据，我们展示了神经变异性、INT和其他动态特征（如无标度动力学）如何连接这三层神经活动。接下来，我们展示了从自发活动到非特定任务活动再到特定任务活动的这三层如何介导大脑动力学塑造认知的四种时间机制：这些机制从输入动力学的时间编码和整合到认知输出的时间支架和分割。我们得出结论，大脑的神经动力学在背景中运作，以时间动态的方式塑造神经前台的认知功能及其内容。这种观点是时空神经科学的核心，它通过揭示大脑的内在动力学如何塑造我们的认知，提供了一个比认知神经科学更广泛的框架。
