The frequency gradient of human resting-state brain oscillations follows cortical hierarchies

TY - JOUR

T1 - The frequency gradient of human resting-state brain oscillations follows cortical hierarchies

AU - Mahjoory, Keyvan

AU - Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs

AU - Keitel, Anne

AU - Gross, Joachim

N1 - © 2020, Mahjoory et al.

PY - 2020/9/7

Y1 - 2020/9/7

N2 - The human cortex is characterized by local morphological features such as cortical thickness, myelin content, and gene expression that change along the posterior-anterior axis. We investigated if some of these structural gradients are associated with a similar gradient in a prominent feature of brain activity - namely the frequency of oscillations. In resting-state MEG recordings from healthy participants (N=187) using mixed effect models, we found that the dominant peak frequency in a brain area decreases significantly along the posterior-anterior axis following the global hierarchy from early sensory to higher-order areas. This spatial gradient of peak frequency was significantly anticorrelated with that of cortical thickness, representing a proxy of the cortical hierarchical level. This result indicates that the dominant frequency changes systematically and globally along the spatial and hierarchical gradients and establishes a new structure-function relationship pertaining to brain oscillations as a core organization that may underlie hierarchical specialization in the brain.

AB - The human cortex is characterized by local morphological features such as cortical thickness, myelin content, and gene expression that change along the posterior-anterior axis. We investigated if some of these structural gradients are associated with a similar gradient in a prominent feature of brain activity - namely the frequency of oscillations. In resting-state MEG recordings from healthy participants (N=187) using mixed effect models, we found that the dominant peak frequency in a brain area decreases significantly along the posterior-anterior axis following the global hierarchy from early sensory to higher-order areas. This spatial gradient of peak frequency was significantly anticorrelated with that of cortical thickness, representing a proxy of the cortical hierarchical level. This result indicates that the dominant frequency changes systematically and globally along the spatial and hierarchical gradients and establishes a new structure-function relationship pertaining to brain oscillations as a core organization that may underlie hierarchical specialization in the brain.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85090510073

U2 - 10.7554/eLife.53715

DO - 10.7554/eLife.53715

M3 - Article

C2 - 32820722

SN - 2050-084X

VL - 9

JO - eLife

JF - eLife

M1 - e53715

ER -