Modern Methods for Interrogating the Human Connectome

Abstract

Objective Connectionist theories of brain function took hold with the seminal contributions of Norman Geschwind a half century ago. Modern neuroimaging techniques have expanded the scientific interest in the study of brain connectivity to include the intact as well as disordered brain. Method In this review, we describe the most common techniques used to measure functional and structural connectivity, including resting state functional MRI, diffusion MRI, and electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography coherence. We also review the most common analytical approaches used for examining brain interconnectivity associated with these various imaging methods. Results This review presents a critical analysis of the assumptions, as well as methodological limitations, of each imaging and analysis approach. Conclusions The overall goal of this review is to provide the reader with an introduction to evaluating the scientific methods underlying investigations that probe the human connectome.

The emergence of functional architecture during early brain development

“…Many techniques are currently available to study functional brain connectivity, including EEG, magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and task-related functional MRI Farroni et al, 2013;Omidvarnia et al, 2014) (see for review of the most commonly employed techniques (Lowe et al, 2016)); however this review will primarily address resting state functional connectivity studies. Resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) employs spontaneous fluctuations in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal at low frequencies (0.01-0.1 Hz) across the entire brain at a millimeters' resolution.…”

Challenges in the analysis of complex systems: introduction and overview

“…At the same time, advanced MRI techniques (functional MRI (fMRI), functional connectivity MRI and diffusion MRI imaging)) have been used to study brain function as well as structure (cf. the review [122]), though it is likely that only the interplay between structure and dynamics gives rise to function [123]. A connectivity analysis of the default mode network of the brain in a resting state found that its activity was attenuated during cognitive processing [124].…”

Pediatric Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Clinical Applications

“…Other correlated and anticorrelated brain networks can be identified depending on the robustness of the dataset, which increases with scan time and decreases with patient motion. 32,33 Statistical postprocessing of rs-fMRI is required to filter out noise over the temporal dataset, including low-level fluctuations related to physiological cardiac and respiratory variation. 34,35…”