Partial entropy decomposition reveals higher-order information structures in human brain activity. 2023

Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.

The standard approach to modeling the human brain as a complex system is with a network, where the basic unit of interaction is a pairwise link between two brain regions. While powerful, this approach is limited by the inability to assess higher-order interactions involving three or more elements directly. In this work, we explore a method for capturing higher-order dependencies in multivariate data: the partial entropy decomposition (PED). Our approach decomposes the joint entropy of the whole system into a set of nonnegative atoms that describe the redundant, unique, and synergistic interactions that compose the system's structure. PED gives insight into the mathematics of functional connectivity and its limitation. When applied to resting-state fMRI data, we find robust evidence of higher-order synergies that are largely invisible to standard functional connectivity analyses. Our approach can also be localized in time, allowing a frame-by-frame analysis of how the distributions of redundancies and synergies change over the course of a recording. We find that different ensembles of regions can transiently change from being redundancy-dominated to synergy-dominated and that the temporal pattern is structured in time. These results provide strong evidence that there exists a large space of unexplored structures in human brain data that have been largely missed by a focus on bivariate network connectivity models. This synergistic structure is dynamic in time and likely will illuminate interesting links between brain and behavior. Beyond brain-specific application, the PED provides a very general approach for understanding higher-order structures in a variety of complex systems.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008279 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Non-invasive method of demonstrating internal anatomy based on the principle that atomic nuclei in a strong magnetic field absorb pulses of radiofrequency energy and emit them as radiowaves which can be reconstructed into computerized images. The concept includes proton spin tomographic techniques. Chemical Shift Imaging,MR Tomography,MRI Scans,MRI, Functional,Magnetic Resonance Image,Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Functional,Magnetization Transfer Contrast Imaging,NMR Imaging,NMR Tomography,Tomography, NMR,Tomography, Proton Spin,fMRI,Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,Imaging, Chemical Shift,Proton Spin Tomography,Spin Echo Imaging,Steady-State Free Precession MRI,Tomography, MR,Zeugmatography,Chemical Shift Imagings,Echo Imaging, Spin,Echo Imagings, Spin,Functional MRI,Functional MRIs,Image, Magnetic Resonance,Imaging, Magnetic Resonance,Imaging, NMR,Imaging, Spin Echo,Imagings, Chemical Shift,Imagings, Spin Echo,MRI Scan,MRIs, Functional,Magnetic Resonance Images,Resonance Image, Magnetic,Scan, MRI,Scans, MRI,Shift Imaging, Chemical,Shift Imagings, Chemical,Spin Echo Imagings,Steady State Free Precession MRI
D012146 Rest Freedom from activity. Rests
D001921 Brain The part of CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM that is contained within the skull (CRANIUM). Arising from the NEURAL TUBE, the embryonic brain is comprised of three major parts including PROSENCEPHALON (the forebrain); MESENCEPHALON (the midbrain); and RHOMBENCEPHALON (the hindbrain). The developed brain consists of CEREBRUM; CEREBELLUM; and other structures in the BRAIN STEM. Encephalon
D001931 Brain Mapping Imaging techniques used to colocalize sites of brain functions or physiological activity with brain structures. Brain Electrical Activity Mapping,Functional Cerebral Localization,Topographic Brain Mapping,Brain Mapping, Topographic,Functional Cerebral Localizations,Mapping, Brain,Mapping, Topographic Brain
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D019277 Entropy The measure of that part of the heat or energy of a system which is not available to perform work. Entropy increases in all natural (spontaneous and irreversible) processes. (From Dorland, 28th ed) Entropies

Related Publications

Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
January 2021, Entropy (Basel, Switzerland),
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
January 2013, Topics in current chemistry,
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
March 2020, Molecular biology of the cell,
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
January 2024, Nature biotechnology,
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
October 2020, Entropy (Basel, Switzerland),
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
January 2015, Frontiers in neuroscience,
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
August 2003, Network (Bristol, England),
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
July 1979, European journal of biochemistry,
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
August 2020, Entropy (Basel, Switzerland),
Thomas F Varley, and Maria Pope, and Maria Grazia Puxeddu, and Joshua Faskowitz, and Olaf Sporns
May 2012, IEEE transactions on image processing : a publication of the IEEE Signal Processing Society,
Copied contents to your clipboard!