Structural insight into the individual variability architecture of the functional brain connectome

Abstract

Human cognition and behaviors depend upon the brain's functional connectomes, which vary remarkably across individuals. However, whether and how the functional connectome individual variability architecture is structurally constrained remains largely unknown. Using tractography- and morphometry-based network models, we observed the spatial convergence of structural and functional connectome individual variability, with higher variability in heteromodal association regions and lower variability in primary regions. We demonstrated that functional variability is significantly predicted by a unifying structural variability pattern and that this prediction follows a primary-to-heteromodal hierarchical axis, with higher prediction accuracy in primary regions and lower accuracy in heteromodal regions. We also decomposed group-level connectome variability patterns into individual unique contributions and uncovered the structural-functional correspondence that is associated with individual cognitive traits. These results advance our understanding of the structural basis of individual functional variability and suggest the importance of integrating multimodal connectome signatures for individual differences in cognition and behaviors.

Individual Variability in the Structural Connectivity Architecture of the Human Brain

“…The spatial distribution of IVSC we observed was moderately different from previous studies although they all showed lowest variability in visual and somatomotor network 12–14 . The reason of inconsistent findings may mainly result from selection bias.…”

“…Nevertheless, the studies about individual variability in structural connectivity (IVSC) are scarce and their findings are also discordant. Two studies using the same public dataset, Human Connectome Project (HCP) showed a similar pattern of IVSC with inferior parietal, temporal, lateral prefrontal cortex and precuneus showing high variability 12,13 . But a study using a different dataset reported a different spatial distribution of IVSC that higher variability was localized near language areas, as well as in the medial frontal lobe, and in the superior frontal gyrus 14 .…”