Experimental increase of blood glucose alters resting state EEG measures of excitation-inhibition balance

Abstract

New findings: What is the central question of this study? Glucose is the dominant energy source for the brain. However, little is known about how glucose metabolism impacts the coordination of network activity in the brain in healthy adults. What is the main finding and its importance? We demonstrate that both α oscillations and the aperiodic signal components of the resting EEG are modulated by experimentally elevated blood glucose concentrations. Our findings suggest that glucose increases measures associated with excitation-inhibition (E:I) balance, but that the effect on α oscillations might plateau. Understanding the relationship between glucose consumption and E:I balance is crucial to developing our understanding of how metabolism shapes human brain activity.

Abstract: Brain network oscillations can be divided broadly into periodic and aperiodic signal components, which are sensitive to state-dependent changes in network coordination and excitation-inhibition (E:I) balance. We sought to address whether the dominant energy source of the brain, glucose, is implicated in the regulation of network activity and excitability. We conducted an experimenter-blind, crossover study of the effect of blood glucose level (BGL) on the resting EEG frequency spectrum. Participants consumed a glucose drink (75 g glucose) or an equivalent volume of water on two separate visits. EEG data were sampled before and ≤3 h after the drink. We found that the experimentally induced changes in BGL exhibited an inverted U-shaped relationship, with changes in the individual α frequency peak, whereas the slope of the aperiodic signal component of the frequency spectrum showed a positive linear association suggestive of greater excitation. In contrast, peak α power, which is typically associated with top-down inhibitory processes, was negatively associated with changes in BGL. Collectively, these results suggest that high BGL alters brain network coordination in the form of α oscillations and measures associated with E:I balance.

Keywords: blood glucose; electroencephalography; excitation-inhibition balance.