Effect of Brain network topologies on the synchronization of neuronal oscillations – Is this the gateway to the understanding of Central Nervous disorders?

N. Astudillo, M. Garcia – Russo, and D. Quesada

School of Science, Technology, and Engineering Management, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL 33054

The Brain Project is aimed at the understanding of the inner working of the brain and how the complex network formed by neurons yields to emergent behaviors at different scales. These varieties of behaviors resulting from the collective action of groups of neurons and cortical areas are hypothesized to be crucial for the comprehension of Central Nervous Disorders (CND) as for example, epilepsy, schizophrenia, Parkinson, Alzheimer, concussion in athletes, and many others. Such conditions seem to appear due to some kind of bottleneck effect while nervous signals spread through the brain wide web. In this communication, we are evaluating the impact of brain network topologies on the synchronization of different neuronal networks. Two approaches are adopted, a microscopic one, addressing the interaction between groups of neurons and following the dynamics of the FitzHugh-Nagumo model, and the mesoscopic one, addressing the interaction between patches in the cortex and following the Kuramoto model, capable to integrate the action of groups of neurons as a whole unit. The relationship between the topological indices characterizing the networks and the attained synchronization is studied. Results are compared with images obtained from functional MRI (fMRI) and EEK. A potential translation of this research into epilepsy treatment and surgery is addressed also.