Precision Functional Mapping of Individual Human Brains

Neuron. 2017 Aug 16;95(4):791-807.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.07.011. Epub 2017 Jul 27.

Abstract

Human functional MRI (fMRI) research primarily focuses on analyzing data averaged across groups, which limits the detail, specificity, and clinical utility of fMRI resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and task-activation maps. To push our understanding of functional brain organization to the level of individual humans, we assembled a novel MRI dataset containing 5 hr of RSFC data, 6 hr of task fMRI, multiple structural MRIs, and neuropsychological tests from each of ten adults. Using these data, we generated ten high-fidelity, individual-specific functional connectomes. This individual-connectome approach revealed several new types of spatial and organizational variability in brain networks, including unique network features and topologies that corresponded with structural and task-derived brain features. We are releasing this highly sampled, individual-focused dataset as a resource for neuroscientists, and we propose precision individual connectomics as a model for future work examining the organization of healthy and diseased individual human brains.

Keywords: brain networks; fMRI; functional connectivity; individual variability; myelin mapping.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping*
  • Connectome
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Individuality*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Models, Neurological*
  • Myelin Sheath / physiology
  • Neural Pathways / diagnostic imaging
  • Neural Pathways / physiology*
  • Oxygen / blood
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Rest
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Oxygen