Neural overlap between resting state and self-relevant activity in human subcallosal cingulate cortex--single unit recording in an intracranial study

Nir Lipsman; Takashi Nakao; Noriaki Kanayama; Joachim K Krauss; Adam Anderson; Peter Giacobbe; Clement Hamani; William D Hutchison; Jonathan O Dostrovsky; Thilo Womelsdorf; Andres M Lozano; Georg Northoff

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.008

Neural overlap between resting state and self-relevant activity in human subcallosal cingulate cortex--single unit recording in an intracranial study

Cortex. 2014 Nov:60:139-44. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.008. Epub 2014 Sep 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada.
² Institute of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan.
³ Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of General Systems Studies, University of Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, Medizinische Hochschule, Hannover, Germany.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada.
⁶ Division of Psychiatry, Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada.
⁷ Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Canada.
⁸ Department of Biology, York University, Canada.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Canada; Taipei Medical University, Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, Brain and Consciousness Research Center, New Taipei City, Taiwan; Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders (CBBD), Normal University Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 25438747
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.008

Abstract

High activity of the default mode network (DMN) has been proposed to be central in processing self-relevant events. Thus far, this hypothesis of DMN function has not been tested directly using neurophysiological techniques. To test for the link between frontal midline DMN activity and self-relevant processing we measured neuronal activity (single-neurons' firing rates) in human subcallosal cingulate cortex (SCC) in the course of Deep Brain Stimulation surgery. We find that firing rates in SCC did not change during the presentation of specifically self-relevant stimuli when compared to the preceding pre-stimulus resting state level. In contrast, we observed significant changes in firing rates during other names in SCC. Such rest-self overlap seems to be specific for SCC since increase in firing rates in response to self-relevant stimuli were observed in another region, the subthalamic nucleus, in a group of Parkinson patients receiving deep brain stimulation surgery. These results suggest specific relationship between resting state and self-related activity, rest-self overlap, in specifically SCC as core region of the default-mode network.

Keywords: Deep brain stimulation; Default-mode network; Resting state; Self-relevance; Single-unit recording; Subcallosal cingulate cortex.

MeSH terms

Deep Brain Stimulation
Depressive Disorder, Major / physiopathology*
Depressive Disorder, Major / therapy
Electroencephalography
Gyrus Cinguli / physiology*
Humans
Neurons / physiology*
Parkinson Disease / physiopathology*
Parkinson Disease / therapy
Rest / physiology*