Abstract
This article uses the ideas of neuroenergetic and neural field theories to detect stimulation-driven energy flows in the brain during face and auditory word processing. In this analysis, energy flows are thought to create the stable gradients of the fMRI weighted summary images. The sources, from which activity spreads in the brain during face processing, were detected in the occipital cortex. The following direction of energy flows in the frontal cortex was described: the right inferior frontal = >the left inferior frontal = >the triangular part of the left inferior frontal cortex = >the left operculum. In the left operculum, a localized circuit was described. For auditory word processing, the sources of activity flows were detected bilaterally in the middle superior temporal regions, they were also detected in the left posterior superior temporal cortex. Thus, neuroenergetic assumptions may give a novel perspective for the analysis of neuroimaging data.
Highlights
Dynamical neural field theories [1,2] provide a theoretical framework to describe macroscopically the activity of the neuron ensemble
Current neuroimaging methods use different approaches to detect the changes in brain energy: the increase of metabolism reflected by the increase of blood flow, blood oxygenation (PET with H2O15 and BOLD fMRI), the increase in the metabolic rate of glucose (PET with FDG) [5]. fMRI measures the consumption of energy by the brain through oxygen consumption, which is needed for the synthesis of the energy-carrying ATP molecules
We applied our analysis of energy flows to the face processing data set
Summary
Dynamical neural field theories [1,2] provide a theoretical framework to describe macroscopically the activity of the neuron ensemble. The other direction of statistical and thermodynamic modelling of brain function is based on the free energy minimisation principle [3] and gradient reduction [4]. FMRI measures the consumption of energy by the brain through oxygen consumption, which is needed for the synthesis of the energy-carrying ATP molecules. This energy is used for different processes, resulting in changes of the electric field. Free energy is a sort of internal energy with some corrections for temperature and entropy This approach does not consider individual molecules and cells in the brain. The size of these brain volumes (voxels) can be arbitrarily chosen on the basis of the technically available spatial resolution and the need for precision
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