Transient Brain-Wide Neuronal Activations in Nonhuman Primate Under Resting and Anesthetized Conditions

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to determine the existence of and identify transient brain-wide patterns in nonhuman primates if these patterns did exist. Specifically, this thesis revolves around identification of coactivation patterns (CAPs). Through observation of these CAPs derived from timeframe-wise cluster analysis, other questions arose: do these patterns I identified in monkeys show some correspondence to those in a different species using different modalities of neuroimaging, focusing on humans in the present thesis, and how do these patterns present in varying levels of consciousness within the same species using the same imaging technique? Using electrocorticography (ECoG) monkey data, I have identified the existence of CAPs in monkeys as well as observed spatiotemporal patterns these activations exhibited in the resting state, the characteristics of neural networks which are similar to humans. Using human electroencephalography (EEG) data, I have also compared the results of monkey ECoG resting data analysis against human CAPs and found significant similarities in spatial, transitional, and temporal patterns between the two species. Finally, I compared the same results from the monkey ECoG resting data analysis to patterns found in anesthetized conditions of nonhuman primates and found differences in the spatial and temporal characteristics of brain-wide coactivations between these different states of consciousness within the same species.