New approaches for exploring anatomical and functional connectivity in the human brain.
Information processing in the primate brain is based on the complementary principles of modular and distributed information processing. The former emphasizes the specialization of functions within different brain areas. The latter emphasizes the massively parallel nature of brain networks and the fact that function also emerges from the flow of information between brain areas. The localization of function to specific brain areas ("functional segregation") is the commonest approach to investigating function; however, an emerging, complementary approach ("functional integration") describes function in terms of the information flow across networks of areas. Here, we highlight recent advances in neuroimaging methodology that have made it possible to investigate the anatomical architecture of networks in the living human brain with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We also highlight recent thinking on the ways in which functional imaging can be used to characterize information transmission across networks in the human brain (functional and effective connectivity).
Ramnani
Narender
N
Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford, Headley Way, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom.
Behrens
Timothy E J
TE
Penny
Will
W
Matthews
Paul M
PM
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*