TY - JOUR
T1 - Cortical chemoarchitecture shapes macroscale effective functional connectivity patterns in macaque cerebral cortex
AU - Turk, Elise
AU - Scholtens, Lianne H.
AU - van den Heuvel, Martijn P.
PY - 2016/5/1
Y1 - 2016/5/1
N2 - The mammalian cortex is a complex system of-at the microscale level-interconnected neurons and-at the macroscale level-interconnected areas, forming the infrastructure for local and global neural processing and information integration. While the effects of regional chemoarchitecture on local cortical activity are well known, the effect of local neurotransmitter receptor organization on the emergence of large scale region-to-region functional interactions remains poorly understood. Here, we examined reports of effective functional connectivity-as measured by the action of strychnine administration acting on the chemical balance of cortical areas-in relation to underlying regional variation in microscale neurotransmitter receptor density levels in the macaque cortex. Linking cortical variation in microscale receptor density levels to collated information on macroscale functional connectivity of the macaque cortex, we show macroscale patterns of effective corticocortical functional interactions-and in particular, the strength of connectivity of efferent macroscale pathways-to be related to the ratio of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor densities of cortical areas. Our findings provide evidence for the microscale chemoarchitecture of cortical areas to have a direct stimulating influence on the emergence of macroscale functional connectivity patterns in the mammalian brain.
AB - The mammalian cortex is a complex system of-at the microscale level-interconnected neurons and-at the macroscale level-interconnected areas, forming the infrastructure for local and global neural processing and information integration. While the effects of regional chemoarchitecture on local cortical activity are well known, the effect of local neurotransmitter receptor organization on the emergence of large scale region-to-region functional interactions remains poorly understood. Here, we examined reports of effective functional connectivity-as measured by the action of strychnine administration acting on the chemical balance of cortical areas-in relation to underlying regional variation in microscale neurotransmitter receptor density levels in the macaque cortex. Linking cortical variation in microscale receptor density levels to collated information on macroscale functional connectivity of the macaque cortex, we show macroscale patterns of effective corticocortical functional interactions-and in particular, the strength of connectivity of efferent macroscale pathways-to be related to the ratio of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor densities of cortical areas. Our findings provide evidence for the microscale chemoarchitecture of cortical areas to have a direct stimulating influence on the emergence of macroscale functional connectivity patterns in the mammalian brain.
KW - Brain networks
KW - Functional connectivity
KW - Graph theory
KW - Neurotransmitter receptors
KW - Strychnine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84960532385&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84960532385&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23141
DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23141
M3 - Article
C2 - 26970255
SN - 1065-9471
VL - 37
SP - 1856
EP - 1865
JO - Human brain mapping
JF - Human brain mapping
IS - 5
ER -