Title:
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Computational analysis and modelling of dynamic brain connectivity
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This PhD thesis contributes towards extending connectivity analyses and
neurocomputational modelling of brain activities, and their applications. It starts with a brief
review of different classes of neural models with different levels of realism. A main focus is
the neural mass models (NMMs) that account for the collective behaviour of neuronal
populations striking a balance between mathematical simplicity and biological plausibility,
and hence suitable for large-scale neural circuit modelling. This is followed by a review on
two popular large-scale neural connectivity frameworks, dynamic causal modelling (DCM)
and Granger causal modelling (GCM), with a focus on human neuroimaging data. The thesis
has led to four original research contributions. In the first contribution, a fully self-feedback
model (FSM) is introduced as an extension to existing NMMs. FSM contains extra sel£feedback
loops in both excitatory and inhibitory subpopulations, more consistent with the
canonical cortical column architecture. It is shown that under both single- and multi-area
simulations of event-related potentials (ERPs), FSM outperforms classic NMMs. In the second
contribution, the DCM approach is used to provide insights into the underlying neural circuit
dynamics of pattern reversal visual evoked potentials extracted from concurrent EEG-fMRI
data. An optimal DCM model with recurrent forward-backward process disclosed the timing
of signal propagation across ventral and dorsal connectivity pathways as well as the largescale
effective connectivity in the human visual system. In the third contribution, an extension
of GCM called 'partial' Granger causality (PGq is introduced to decipher the directed
functional connectivity of ERPs. It is shown that time-domain PGC can detect the underlying
causal connectivity relatively rapidly and robustly while capturing the accurate evolution of
the directed neural connectivity dynamics over time. Lastly, PGC technique applied to EEG
segments under a robot-assisted gait training reveals brain connectivity changes in fronto-centroparietal
network with strong ·correlation with the behavioural performance of
individuals.
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