Causal manipulation of functional connectivity in a specific neural pathway during behaviour and at rest

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Abstract

Correlations in brain activity between two areas (functional connectivity) have been shown to relate to their underlying structural connections. We examine the possibility that functional connectivity also reflects short-term changes in synaptic efficacy. We demonstrate that paired transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) near ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and primary motor cortex (M1) with a short 8ms inter-pulse interval evoking synchronous pre- and post-synaptic activity and which strengthens interregional connectivity between the two areas in a pattern consistent with Hebbian plasticity, leads to increased functional connectivity between PMv and M1 as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Moreover, we show that strengthening connectivity between these nodes has effects on a wider network of areas, such as decreasing coupling in a parallel motor programming stream. A control experiment revealed that identical TMS pulses at identical frequencies caused no change in fMRI-measured functional connectivity when the inter-pulse-interval was too long for Hebbian-like plasticity.

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Vanessa M Johnen

Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

For correspondence
vanessa.johnen@psy.ox.ac.uk

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Franz-Xaver Neubert

Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Ethan R Buch

Human Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Lennart M Verhagen

Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Jill O'Reilly

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Rogier B Mars

Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Matthew F S Rushworth

Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Human subjects: Human subjects: Informed consent, including consent to publish was obtained from all subjects. The study was performed in accordance with local ethics committee approval (MKREC REF 07/Q1603/11 and Berkshire REC 11/SC/0537).

Copyright

This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.