Realistic modeling of ephaptic fields in the human brain


" ... to evaluate the role of self-generated ephaptic fields in the human cortex, we adapt an interaction approximation that considers the relative orientation of neuron and field to derive the membrane potential perturbation in pyramidal cells. Building on this, we define a simplified metric (EMOD1) that weights dipole coupling as a function of distance and relative orientation between emitter and receiver and evaluate it in a sample of 401 realistic human brain models from subjects aged 16-83. Results reveal that ephaptic modulation follows gyrification patterns in the human brain, and significantly decreases with age, with higher involvement of sensorimotor regions and medial brain structures." {Credits 1}

They propose that cortical gyrification is related to better cognitive function due to better ephaptic information transmission capacities between neurons, they also propose that:

" the decrease of ephaptic coupling with age may contribute to loss of control over oscillatory patterns and cortical excitability, potentially contributing to age-related cognitive changes" {Credits 1}

" ephaptic interaction might play a role in the pathogenesis of seizure via its potential contribution to self-regulation of cortical excitability" {Credits 1}

" Higher levels of gyrification are also found to relate to greater local connectivity in the brains of individuals with autism spectrum disorders, suggesting ephaptically mediated hyperconnectivity." {Credits 1}

I have a probably stupid idea but I going to write it: if autism is a "overproduction of self" can be it related to "overproduction of endogenously interacting fields"?

{Credits 1} 🎪 Ruffini, G., Salvador, R., Tadayon, E., Sanchez-Todo, R., Pascual-Leone, A., & Santarnecchi, E. (2019). Realistic modeling of ephaptic fields in the human brain. bioRxiv, 688101. © The Authors. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.


Last modified on 09-Jul-19

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