Bifurcation Analysis of Brain Connectivity Regulated Neural Oscillations in Schizophrenia

To disclose the pathophysiological mechanism of schizophrenia from the general connectivity among distinct brain regions, the computational model proposed by Szalisznyo et al. is generalized by incorporating the effects of the hippocampus. Based on the center manifold theorem and normal form theory, the emergence of abnormal alpha oscillations, which are directly associated with symptoms of schizophrenia, is analyzed in this network with Hopf bifurcation as a precursor. It is found that the clinically significant hypoconnectivities between the anterior cingulate and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus are helpful in inhibiting the abnormal alpha oscillations, while disconnection of the coupling from the anterior cingulate cortex to the striatum can induce schizophrenia. Moreover, polynomial chaos expansion and variance-based sensitivity analysis are applied to determine the contributions of these connection strengths to the variance of the neuronal population activity. Our model results are consistent with experimental observations and thus might be meaningful for clinical interference.