Communication dynamics in the human connectome shape the cortex-wide propagation of direct electrical stimulation

Abstract

Communication between gray matter regions underpins all facets of brain function. We study inter-areal communication in the human brain using intracranial EEG recordings, acquired following 29,055 single-pulse direct electrical stimulations in a total of 550 individuals across 20 medical centers (average of 87 ± 37 electrode contacts per subject). We found that network communication models-computed on structural connectivity inferred from diffusion MRI-can explain the causal propagation of focal stimuli, measured at millisecond timescales. Building on this finding, we show that a parsimonious statistical model comprising structural, functional, and spatial factors can accurately and robustly predict cortex-wide effects of brain stimulation (R2=46% in data from held-out medical centers). Our work contributes toward the biological validation of concepts in network neuroscience and provides insight into how connectome topology shapes polysynaptic inter-areal signaling. We anticipate that our findings will have implications for research on neural communication and the design of brain stimulation paradigms.