Fig. 5: Two modes of neural dynamics underlying DoC recovery.
From: A shared central thalamus mechanism underlying diverse recoveries in disorders of consciousness
a Illustration of residual input to central thalamus (CeTh) neurons. Left: Input stability manipulation through “OFF periods”, with afferent stability (affStab) ranging from 10 (90% of spikes muted during “OFF periods”) to 100% (no suppression) while afferent magnitude (affMag) remains constant. Right: three examples of Poisson spike trains with varying discharge probabilities. AffMag ranges from 0.5 to 4%, with affStab consistently at 100%. b–e State transitions from a quiescent state (Stage Ⅱ) to a rhythmic state (Stage Ⅲ), illustrating the effects of varied afferent conditions on CeTh neurons. Data are presented as mean values ± standard deviation (N = 100 independent simulation runs). “Varied afferent conditions” encompass variations in both magnitude (affMag) and stability (affStab) of residual inputs to CeTh. b, e Assess transitions under varied affMag, while c, d focus on transitions under varied affStab. For each subplot, the top panels display theta band power (pow-θ) of the CeTh and the bottom panels show the stability in the theta band (stab-θ). Recovery Mode A corresponds to (b, c) and Recovery Mode B corresponds to (d, e). f Depiction of two recovery modes of CeTh neural dynamics in the feature space of the theta rhythm. Fine lines represent average trajectories from ten simulation runs each, and the thick line indicates the overall average across all simulation runs (N = 100). Four circled areas denote distinct states of CeTh corresponding to different combinations of stab-θ and pow-θ levels (low/high), as indicated by their positions in the feature space. Insets show theta rhythm profiles from four simulated CeTh examples at each corner. g Diagram illustrating two recovery modes as CeTh transitions from Stage Ⅱ to Stage Ⅲ. Five afferent conditions affecting the CeTh are considered. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
