Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Cascades and Cognitive State: Focused Attention Incurs Subcritical Dynamics

Erik D. Fagerholm, Romy Lorenz, Gregory Scott, Martin Dinov, Peter J. Hellyer, Nazanin Mirzaei, Clare Leeson, David W. Carmichael, David J. Sharp, Woodrow L. Shew and Robert Leech
Journal of Neuroscience 18 March 2015, 35 (11) 4626-4634; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3694-14.2015
Erik D. Fagerholm
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Romy Lorenz
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Gregory Scott
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Martin Dinov
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Peter J. Hellyer
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Peter J. Hellyer
Nazanin Mirzaei
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Clare Leeson
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David W. Carmichael
2Imaging and Biophysics, UCL Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom, and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David W. Carmichael
David J. Sharp
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Woodrow L. Shew
3University of Arkansas, Department of Physics, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robert Leech
1The Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, The Centre for Neuroscience, The Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Robert Leech
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The analysis of neuronal avalanches supports the hypothesis that the human cortex operates with critical neural dynamics. Here, we investigate the relationship between cascades of activity in electroencephalogram data, cognitive state, and reaction time in humans using a multimodal approach. We recruited 18 healthy volunteers for the acquisition of simultaneous electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging during both rest and during a visuomotor cognitive task. We compared distributions of electroencephalogram-derived cascades to reference power laws for task and rest conditions. We then explored the large-scale spatial correspondence of these cascades in the simultaneously acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Furthermore, we investigated whether individual variability in reaction times is associated with the amount of deviation from power law form. We found that while resting state cascades are associated with approximate power law form, the task state is associated with subcritical dynamics. Furthermore, we found that electroencephalogram cascades are related to blood oxygen level-dependent activation, predominantly in sensorimotor brain regions. Finally, we found that decreased reaction times during the task condition are associated with increased proximity to power law form of cascade distributions. These findings suggest that the resting state is associated with near-critical dynamics, in which a high dynamic range and a large repertoire of brain states may be advantageous. In contrast, a focused cognitive task induces subcritical dynamics, which is associated with a lower dynamic range, which in turn may reduce elements of interference affecting task performance.

  • attention
  • criticality
  • EEG
  • fMRI
  • power law

This article is freely available online through the J Neurosci Author Open Choice option.

View Full Text
Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 35 (11)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 35, Issue 11
18 Mar 2015
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
  • Ed Board (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Cascades and Cognitive State: Focused Attention Incurs Subcritical Dynamics
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
Cascades and Cognitive State: Focused Attention Incurs Subcritical Dynamics
Erik D. Fagerholm, Romy Lorenz, Gregory Scott, Martin Dinov, Peter J. Hellyer, Nazanin Mirzaei, Clare Leeson, David W. Carmichael, David J. Sharp, Woodrow L. Shew, Robert Leech
Journal of Neuroscience 18 March 2015, 35 (11) 4626-4634; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3694-14.2015

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Request Permissions
Share
Cascades and Cognitive State: Focused Attention Incurs Subcritical Dynamics
Erik D. Fagerholm, Romy Lorenz, Gregory Scott, Martin Dinov, Peter J. Hellyer, Nazanin Mirzaei, Clare Leeson, David W. Carmichael, David J. Sharp, Woodrow L. Shew, Robert Leech
Journal of Neuroscience 18 March 2015, 35 (11) 4626-4634; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3694-14.2015
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • attention
  • criticality
  • EEG
  • fMRI
  • power law

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

Articles

  • Choice Behavior Guided by Learned, But Not Innate, Taste Aversion Recruits the Orbitofrontal Cortex
  • Maturation of Spontaneous Firing Properties after Hearing Onset in Rat Auditory Nerve Fibers: Spontaneous Rates, Refractoriness, and Interfiber Correlations
  • Insulin Treatment Prevents Neuroinflammation and Neuronal Injury with Restored Neurobehavioral Function in Models of HIV/AIDS Neurodegeneration
Show more Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • Decoding reach direction in early “visual” cortex of congenitally blind individuals
  • Signatures of Electrical Stimulation Driven Network Interactions in the Human Limbic System
  • Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Underlie the Effects of Attention on Visual Appearance and Response Bias
Show more Behavioral/Cognitive
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2023 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.