Synchrony in directed connectomes

Abstract

Synchronisation plays a fundamental role in a variety of physiological functions, such as visual perception, cognitive function, sleep and arousal. The precise role of the interplay between local dynamics and directed cortical topology on the propensity for cortical structures to synchronise, however, remains poorly understood. Here, we study the impact that directed network topology has on the synchronisation properties of the brain by considering a range of species and parcellations, including the cortex of the cat and the Macaque monkey, as well as the nervous system of the C. elegans round worm. We deploy a Kuramoto phase model to simulate neural dynamics on the aforementioned connectomes, and investigate the extent to which network directionality influences distributed patterns of neural synchrony. In particular, we find that network directionality induces both slower synchronisation speeds and more robust phase locking in the presence of network delays. Moreover, in contrast to large-scale connectomes, we find that recently observed relations between resting state directionality patterns and network structure appear to break down for invertebrate networks such as the C. elegans connectome, thus suggesting that observed variations in directed network topology at different scales can significantly impact patterns of neural synchrony. Our results suggest that directionality plays a key role in shaping network dynamics and moreover that its exclusion risks simplifying neural activation dynamics in a potentially significant way.