Brain Structure-function Couplings (FY11)

Abstract : In FY11, a collaborative team of researchers began a new Director's Strategic Initiative (DSI) to examine brain structure-function couplings. The effort aims to develop a multidisciplinary, multiscale understanding of the relationship between the brain's physical structure, its dynamic electrochemical functioning, and human behavior. Here, brain structure refers to the architecture of the brain, namely, the grey matter regions in the brain and the white matter fiber tracts that connect them, and brain function indicates the neuron activity that enables communication between those regions. Combined, the individual variations in brain structure and function are thought to underlie and predict individual differences in task performance and human behavior. One of the broad, far-reaching goals of this initiative is to understand the set of circumstances under which individual differences in brain structure can be leveraged to account, predict, or enhance the measurement of brain function at varying time scales. The initiative has four main research areas--electrochemical modeling, biomechanical structural changes, electrochemical data collection and analysis, and time-evolving functional connectivity--and this year-end report captures some of the research highlights and accomplishments during the first year of the program.