Mapping cognitive brain functions at scale

Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani; Alejandro Ojeda; Gillian Grennan; Vojislav Maric; Hortense Le; Fahad Alim; Mariam Zafar-Khan; Juan Diaz-Delgado; Sarita Silveira; Dhakshin Ramanathan; Jyoti Mishra

NeuroImage (May 2021)

Mapping cognitive brain functions at scale

Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani,
Alejandro Ojeda,
Gillian Grennan,
Vojislav Maric,
Hortense Le,
Fahad Alim,
Mariam Zafar-Khan,
Juan Diaz-Delgado,
Sarita Silveira,
Dhakshin Ramanathan,
Jyoti Mishra

Affiliations

Pragathi Priyadharsini Balasubramani: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Corresponding authors at: University of California, San Diego, Neural Engineering & Translation Labs (NEAT Labs), 9500 Gilman Drive Mail Code 0875, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Alejandro Ojeda: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Gillian Grennan: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Vojislav Maric: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Hortense Le: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Fahad Alim: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Mariam Zafar-Khan: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Juan Diaz-Delgado: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Sarita Silveira: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Dhakshin Ramanathan: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Mental Health, VA San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, CA
Jyoti Mishra: Neural Engineering and Translation Labs, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA; Corresponding authors at: University of California, San Diego, Neural Engineering & Translation Labs (NEAT Labs), 9500 Gilman Drive Mail Code 0875, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 231
p. 117641

Abstract

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A fundamental set of cognitive abilities enable humans to efficiently process goal-relevant information, suppress irrelevant distractions, maintain information in working memory, and act flexibly in different behavioral contexts. Yet, studies of human cognition and their underlying neural mechanisms usually evaluate these cognitive constructs in silos, instead of comprehensively in-tandem within the same individual. Here, we developed a scalable, mobile platform, “BrainE” (short for Brain Engagement), to rapidly assay several essential aspects of cognition simultaneous with wireless electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. Using BrainE, we rapidly assessed five aspects of cognition including (1) selective attention, (2) response inhibition, (3) working memory, (4) flanker interference and (5) emotion interference processing, in 102 healthy young adults. We evaluated stimulus encoding in all tasks using the EEG neural recordings, and isolated the cortical sources of the spectrotemporal EEG dynamics. Additionally, we used BrainE in a two-visit study in 24 young adults to investigate the reliability of the neuro-cognitive data as well as its plasticity to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We found that stimulus encoding on multiple cognitive tasks could be rapidly assessed, identifying common as well as distinct task processes in both sensory and cognitive control brain regions. Event related synchronization (ERS) in the theta (3-7 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) frequencies as well as event related desynchronization (ERD) in the beta frequencies (13-30 Hz) were distinctly observed in each task. The observed ERS/ERD effects were overall anticorrelated. The two-visit study confirmed high test-retest reliability for both cognitive and neural data, and neural responses showed specific TMS protocol driven modulation. We also show that the global cognitive neural responses are sensitive to mental health symptom self-reports. This first study with the BrainE platform showcases its utility in studying neuro-cognitive dynamics in a rapid and scalable fashion.

Published in NeuroImage

ISSN: 1053-8119 (Print); 1095-9572 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Medicine: Internal medicine: Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Website: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/neuroimage

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