Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.10.28.359943v1?rss=1 Authors: Deco, G., Aquino, K. M., Arnatkeviciute, A., Oldham, S., Sabaroedin, K., Rogasch, N. C., Kringelbach, M. L., Fornito, A. Abstract: Brain regions vary in their molecular and cellular composition, but how this heterogeneity shapes neuronal dynamics is unclear. Here, we investigate the dynamical consequences of regional heterogeneity using a biophysical model of whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dynamics in humans. We show that models in which transcriptional variations in excitatory and inhibitory receptor (E:I) gene expression constrain regional heterogeneity more accurately reproduce the spatiotemporal structure of empirical functional connectivity estimates than do models constrained by global gene expression profiles and MRI-derived estimates of myeloarchitecture. We further show that regional heterogeneity is essential for yielding both ignition-like dynamics, which are thought to support conscious processing, and a wide variance of regional activity timescales, which supports a broad dynamical range. We thus identify a key role for E:I heterogeneity in generating complex neuronal dynamics and demonstrate the viability of using transcriptional data to constrain models of large-scale brain function. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info