The understanding of human brain mechanisms has captured the imagination of scientists for ages. From the quantitative perspective, there is evidence that damages to brain structure affect brain function and, as a consequence, cognitive aspects. As there is evidence that brain structure might be affected by altered cognition. However, the complex interplay between the human brain and the mind remains still poorly understood. This fact has important clinical consequences, limiting applications devoted to the prevention and treatment of brain diseases. In the present thesis, we aim to enhance our understanding of human brain mechanisms by means of an integrated and data-driven approach, by adopting a systemic perspective and leveraging on tools from computational and network neuroscience. We successfully enhance the state of the art of computational neuroscience in several manners. Firstly, we inspect human cognition by focusing on the geometric exploration of concepts in the human mind to build new datadriven metrics to complement the neurological assessment and to confirm Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. We formalize a new stochastic process, the potential-driven random walk, able to model the trade-off between exploitation and exploration of network structure, by accounting for local and global information, providing a flexible tool to span from random walk to shortestpath based navigation. Probing the interplay between brain structure and dynamics by means of its Von Neumann entropy, we develop a new framework for the multiscale analysis of the human connectome, which is effective for discerning between healthy conditions and Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, by integrating data from the human brain structural connectivity, its functional response errors as measured by Direct Electrical Stimulation and semantic selectivity, we propose a new procedure for mapping the human brain triadic nature, thus providing a model-oriented bridge between the human brain and mind. Besides shedding more light on human brain functioning, our findings offer original and promising clues to develop integrated biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease detection, with the potential of extension for applications to other neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders.

Exploring the interplay between the human brain and the mind: a complex systems approach / Benigni, Barbara. - (2022 Jun 13), pp. 1-216. [10.15168/11572_346541]

Exploring the interplay between the human brain and the mind: a complex systems approach

Benigni, Barbara
2022-06-13

Abstract

The understanding of human brain mechanisms has captured the imagination of scientists for ages. From the quantitative perspective, there is evidence that damages to brain structure affect brain function and, as a consequence, cognitive aspects. As there is evidence that brain structure might be affected by altered cognition. However, the complex interplay between the human brain and the mind remains still poorly understood. This fact has important clinical consequences, limiting applications devoted to the prevention and treatment of brain diseases. In the present thesis, we aim to enhance our understanding of human brain mechanisms by means of an integrated and data-driven approach, by adopting a systemic perspective and leveraging on tools from computational and network neuroscience. We successfully enhance the state of the art of computational neuroscience in several manners. Firstly, we inspect human cognition by focusing on the geometric exploration of concepts in the human mind to build new datadriven metrics to complement the neurological assessment and to confirm Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. We formalize a new stochastic process, the potential-driven random walk, able to model the trade-off between exploitation and exploration of network structure, by accounting for local and global information, providing a flexible tool to span from random walk to shortestpath based navigation. Probing the interplay between brain structure and dynamics by means of its Von Neumann entropy, we develop a new framework for the multiscale analysis of the human connectome, which is effective for discerning between healthy conditions and Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, by integrating data from the human brain structural connectivity, its functional response errors as measured by Direct Electrical Stimulation and semantic selectivity, we propose a new procedure for mapping the human brain triadic nature, thus providing a model-oriented bridge between the human brain and mind. Besides shedding more light on human brain functioning, our findings offer original and promising clues to develop integrated biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease detection, with the potential of extension for applications to other neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders.
13-giu-2022
XXXIV
2020-2021
Università degli Studi di Trento
Information and Communication Technology
De Domenico, Manlio
Merler, Stefano
no
Inglese
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
PhD_Thesis_Barbara_Benigni.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: Tesi completa
Tipologia: Tesi di dottorato (Doctoral Thesis)
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 66.57 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
66.57 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/346541
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact