Stuart Fogel

School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada; Sleep Research Unit, The University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal, Canada.

2 papers in the library · 64 citations · publishing 2021-2023

Papers

Higher-order sensorimotor circuit of the brain's global network supports human consciousness.

NeuroImage May 1, 2021 Pengmin Qin, Xuehai Wu, Changwei Wu et al. 51 citations

Consciousness depends on a network of brain regions that integrate sensory and motor information. Analyzing fMRI data from people in preserved (awake, fully conscious brain-injury survivors), reduced (N1-sleep, minimally conscious), and lost (N3-sleep, anesthesia, unresponsive wakefulness) states, plus a unique rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep group, researchers identified key hubs whose degree centrality—a measure of network importance—dropped significantly when consciousness was reduced or absent. These hubs included the supplementary motor area, bilateral supramarginal gyrus, supragenual/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and left middle temporal gyrus. A higher-order sensorimotor circuit connecting these regions showed functional connectivity that correlated with consciousness levels across groups and remained active in REM sleep, suggesting this circuit supports consciousness and offers new targets for treating disorders of consciousness.

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117850 Full text Anesthesia Degree centrality Disorders of consciousness Higher-order sensorimotor circuit +1

Topographic-dynamic reorganisation model of dreams (TRoD) - A spatiotemporal approach.

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews May 1, 2023 Georg Northoff, Andrea Scalabrini, Stuart Fogel 13 citations

Dreams occupy a bizarre and poorly understood state of consciousness. The Topographic-dynamic Re-organization model (TRoD) proposes that dreaming involves a shift toward increased activity and connectivity in the default-mode network (DMN) alongside reduced activity in the central executive network, except during lucid dreaming. Dynamically, dreams shift toward slower brain frequencies and longer timescales, placing them between wakefulness and NREM stage 2 or slow-wave sleep. This re-organization produces abnormal spatiotemporal processing of internal and external inputs, moving from temporal segregation to integration. The resulting integration yields bizarre, self-centric mental content and hallucinatory-like states, suggesting that topography and temporal dynamics may serve as a common currency linking brain activity to dream experience.

DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105117 Full text Dream Dynamic Re-organization Self +2