How does the shape of breathing relate to the shape of subcortical neural oscillations?

  • In collaboration with Dr. Christina Zelano, we are using human intracranial data to investigate the relationship between nasal respiration shape and neural oscillation shape.
  • Given what we know about respiration-entrained rhythms in the brain, we hypothesize that the waveform shape of breathing may be influencing the neural oscillatory waveform shape.
  • This has deeper implications regarding the underlying neural mechanisms of waveform shape and how much of a role respiration has on cognition.

With more careful parameterization of the electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform, what can we learn about the relationship between the heart and cognition?

  • Although in the cardiology world, the ECG waveform is meticulously understood, the cognitive science world has yet to decompose this waveform in its relation to neural function.
  • Research has shown influences of the ECG on behavior and neural activity, however, this has been limited to general cardiac phases: systole and diastole.
  • This leaves an opportunity to parameterize the waveform shapes of each ECG component (P,Q,R,S, and T waves) to link these deeply understood cardiac processes to neural activity and cognition.

How do respiratory waveform shape features change across the lifespan, between sexes, and in different cognitive or disease states?

  • The field knows very little about respiratory waveform shape, and because a fine-scale, breath-to-breath understanding has been largely ignored, there is a rich opportunity to understand how the breathing waveform changes across various demoographic, cognitive, and disease states.
  • In collaboration with Dr. Hector Gonzalez and Kevin Gonzalez, we are analyzing respiratory signals collected during sleep from an ancillary study of Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).
  • This large dataset (N=6,000+) encompasses a wide demographic, allowing us to test hypotheses around respiratory waveforms.

What are the underlying neural generators of respiration shape?

  • In collaboration with Dr. Irene Rembado at the Allen Institute, we are analyzing mouse data with simultaneously recorded respiration, scalp EEG, and Neuropixels (which record local field potential and single-unit spiking activity).
  • We aim to test the hypothesis that neural waveform shape is driven by the temporal synchrony of the excitatory post-synaptic potentils (EPSPs).
  • Based on this hypothesis, and our understanding of the respiration entrained subcortical rhythms, we believe that sharper inhalations will result in sharper hippocampal local field potential, which would mean more temporally synchronous synaptic drive into the hippocampus.

What are the neural mechanisms of seizure-induced treatments for depression? (paper)

  • In collaboration with UCSD’s Department of Psychiatry and the Toronto Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, we analyzed EEG data of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or magnetic seizure therapy (MST).
  • Instead of relying on canonical bandpower analyses, we used specparam/fooof to isolate aperiodic from periodic neural activity.
  • We found an increase in aperiodic activity (steeper PSD slope, which has been linked to greater neural inhibition) suggestive of a potential shared neural mechanism of action across both treatments.