Temporal lobe anatomical connectivity

大脑功能利用处理网络来执行特定的任务。这些网络需要轴突连接(大脑的“连线”)，以便在皮质和皮质下区域(进行信息处理的区域)之间进行信息传输。因此，对加工区域和“连线模式”的了解对于充分理解大脑功能至关重要。然而，尽管一个多世纪以来一直是一个活跃的研究领域，但关于人脑内部解剖连接的知识却令人惊讶地贫乏。这种不确定性的一个重要原因是，大多数可用于建立解剖连接信息的方法都是侵入性的，因此不可能应用于活的人脑。虽然一些解剖方法适合于尸检，但它们具有破坏性，为研究给定大脑中的多个区域提供了有限的机会，使得它们非常耗费时间和资源。另一种识别解剖结构相互联系的非侵入性方法是通过解释损伤(如多发性硬化症或中风造成的损伤)造成的功能和结构损伤的影响。然而，当依靠临床病变数据时，系统的连通性研究是非常困难的。扩散加权磁共振成像(MRI)提供了对人脑白质束进行非侵入性系统分析的手段-一种称为脑束成像的过程。这种方法是在过去五年中发展起来的，目前已被应用于提供有关人脑解剖连接的新信息，因此正在帮助我们建立大脑的“连接模式”。这个项目将使用纤维束造影术来建立颞叶内的连接模式。颞叶是一个重要的研究目标，因为它们参与了使人类物种独一无二的许多信息处理能力--例如，它们与语言的理解有关。我们将研究一组健康的个体，以确定颞叶连接的可变性，并评估一个半球支配另一个半球的证据。我们将把这些结果与动物模型中已有的测量结果进行比较，以确定颞叶连接的哪些方面是人脑独有的。我们将在一个在线数据库上提供结果，使科学界能够免费访问这一新的、有价值的信息存储。

Brain function utilises processing networks to perform specific tasks. These networks require axonal connections (the brain's 'wiring') to allow information transfer between cortical and subcortical areas (the regions where information processing occurs). Knowledge of both the processing regions and the 'wiring pattern' is therefore crucial to allow full understanding of brain function. However, the knowledge of anatomical connections within the human brain is surprisingly poor, despite being an area of active research for over a century. An important reason for this uncertainty is that most methods available for establishing anatomical connection information are invasive and therefore impossible to apply in the living human brain. Whilst some dissection methods are suitable for postmortem investigation they are destructive and provide limited opportunity for the study of multiple tracts in a given brain, making them extremely costly in time and resources. An alternative non-invasive approach to identifying anatomical interconnections is via interpreting the effects of the functional and structural damage caused by lesions (such as those caused by multiple sclerosis or stroke). However, systematic connectivity studies are very difficult when relying on clinical lesion data. Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides the means for non-invasive systematic analysis of the white matter tracts of the human brain - a process termed tractography. This methodology has been developed over the last half decade to the point where it is being applied to provide new information regarding human brain anatomical connectivity and is therefore helping us establish the brain's 'wiring pattern'. This project will use tractography to establish the patterns of connection within the temporal lobes. The temporal lobes are an important study target as they are involved in much of the information processing capabilities that make the human species unique - for example, they are implicated in the understanding of language. We will study a group of healthy individuals to determine the variability of temporal lobe connections and to assess evidence for dominance of one hemisphere over the other. We will compare these results with established measurements in animal models to define which aspects of temporal lobe connectivity are unique to the human brain. We will make the results available on an online database that will allow the scientific community free access to this new and valuable store of information.