title: Mapping human whole-brain structural networks with diffusion MRI.
abstract: Understanding the large-scale structural network formed by neurons is a major challenge in system neuroscience. A detailed connectivity map covering the entire brain would therefore be of great value. Based on diffusion MRI, we propose an efficient methodology to generate large, comprehensive and individual white matter connectional datasets of the living or dead, human or animal brain. This non-invasive tool enables us to study the basic and potentially complex network properties of the entire brain. For two human subjects we find that their individual brain networks have an exponential node degree distribution and that their global organization is in the form of a small world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Signal Processing Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland. patric.hagmann@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Patric
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hagmann
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurant
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gigandet
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thiran
authors.forename: Van J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Wedeen
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meuli
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Thiran
mesh_terms: 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; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009929:Organ Size; D010487:Periaqueductal Gray / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000648:ultrastructure