The spatial layout of antagonistic brain regions is explicable based on geometric principles

TY - JOUR

T1 - The spatial layout of antagonistic brain regions is explicable based on geometric principles

AU - Leech, Robert

AU - Braga, Rodrigo M

AU - Haydock, David

AU - Vowles, Nicholas

AU - Jefferies, Elizabeth

AU - Bernhardt, Boris

AU - Turkheimer, Federico

AU - Alberti, Francesco

AU - Margulies, Daniel

AU - Sherwood, Oliver

AU - Jones, Emily Jh

AU - Smallwood, Jonathan

AU - Váša, František

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.

PY - 2025/6/7

Y1 - 2025/6/7

N2 - Brain activity emerges in a dynamic landscape of regional increases and decreases that span the cortex. Increases in activity during a cognitive task are often assumed to reflect the processing of task-relevant information, while reductions can be interpreted as suppression of irrelevant activity to facilitate task goals. Here, we explore the relationship between task-induced increases and decreases in activity from a geometric perspective. Using a technique known as kriging, developed in earth sciences, we examined whether the spatial organisation of brain regions showing positive activity could be predicted based on the spatial layout of regions showing activity decreases (and vice versa). Consistent with this hypothesis we established the spatial distribution of regions showing reductions in activity could predict (i) regions showing task-relevant increases in activity in both groups of humans and single individuals; (ii) patterns of neural activity captured by calcium imaging in mice; and, (iii) showed a high degree of generalisability across task contexts. Our analysis, therefore, establishes that antagonistic relationships between brain regions are topographically determined, a spatial analog for the well documented anti-correlation between brain systems over time.

AB - Brain activity emerges in a dynamic landscape of regional increases and decreases that span the cortex. Increases in activity during a cognitive task are often assumed to reflect the processing of task-relevant information, while reductions can be interpreted as suppression of irrelevant activity to facilitate task goals. Here, we explore the relationship between task-induced increases and decreases in activity from a geometric perspective. Using a technique known as kriging, developed in earth sciences, we examined whether the spatial organisation of brain regions showing positive activity could be predicted based on the spatial layout of regions showing activity decreases (and vice versa). Consistent with this hypothesis we established the spatial distribution of regions showing reductions in activity could predict (i) regions showing task-relevant increases in activity in both groups of humans and single individuals; (ii) patterns of neural activity captured by calcium imaging in mice; and, (iii) showed a high degree of generalisability across task contexts. Our analysis, therefore, establishes that antagonistic relationships between brain regions are topographically determined, a spatial analog for the well documented anti-correlation between brain systems over time.

KW - Animals

KW - Humans

KW - Brain/physiology

KW - Male

KW - Brain Mapping/methods

KW - Mice

KW - Female

KW - Adult

KW - Cognition/physiology

KW - Young Adult

KW - Magnetic Resonance Imaging

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105007467298

U2 - 10.1038/s42003-025-08295-2

DO - 10.1038/s42003-025-08295-2

M3 - Article

C2 - 40483283

SN - 2399-3642

VL - 8

JO - Communications Biology

JF - Communications Biology

IS - 1

M1 - 889

ER -