Fractal dimension of cortical functional connectivity networks & severity of disorders of consciousness.

ABSTRACT: Recent evidence suggests that the quantity and quality of conscious experience may be a function of the complexity of activity in the brain and that consciousness emerges in a critical zone between low and high-entropy states. We propose fractal shapes as a measure of proximity to this critical point, as fractal dimension encodes information about complexity beyond simple entropy or randomness, and fractal structures are known to emerge in systems nearing a critical point. To validate this, we tested several measures of fractal dimension on the brain activity from healthy volunteers and patients with disorders of consciousness of varying severity. We used a Compact Box Burning algorithm to compute the fractal dimension of cortical functional connectivity networks as well as computing the f

SUBMITTER: Varley TF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7017993 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature