Mapping the structural and functional organisation of the human brain via in vivo neuroimaging and complex network analysis

项目描述：(最多4,000个字符)请确保此描述清楚地说明项目如何位于BBSRC的职权范围内，它如何实现新的工作方式，以及它如何与DTP主题(世界级支撑生物科学、工业生物技术和生物能源或农业和粮食安全)保持一致。如果你已经获得了活体技能补充，请概述学生在项目中将学到的活体技能。包括记忆、说话、决策和计划在内的广泛认知任务的执行依赖于广泛分布的大脑区域的复杂网络的相互作用。为了增加我们对大脑如何执行这些任务的了解，重要的是不仅要了解大脑的哪些区域参与其中，而且要了解这些区域是如何相互通信的，即它们的连接。网络连通性最近通过两种先进技术进行了探索，一种是研究信息流动所沿的解剖白质通路(结构连通性)，另一种是研究共同执行任务组成部分的大脑区域(功能连通性)。然而，不同类型的连接如何相互联系是复杂的，要充分了解认知过程是如何发生的，理解这种关系以及大脑的解剖结构如何影响功能是至关重要的。重要的是，这些知识不仅对了解正常的表现至关重要，而且对于了解其在整个生命周期中的变化，以及在不同神经疾病中观察到的损伤都是至关重要的。为了提高我们对正常和受损大脑网络的组织和功能的理解，研究人员已经开始使用复杂网络分析(CNA)对大脑进行建模。CNA是一种统计学方法，可以用来提供衡量特定大脑网络不同属性的方法，例如信息在整个网络中传递的效率，以及网络对破坏的弹性。当前的项目旨在使用CNA来绘制和描述大脑认知网络的组织，并了解行为表现与网络结构和功能之间的关系。为了实现这一目标，将使用CNA来探索结构和功能连接数据之间的关系，以及它们对行为表现的影响。该项目将利用神经科学和实验心理学分部提供的广泛的行为和神经成像数据。这包括一系列复杂的成像方法，包括扩散成像(能够识别大脑的结构连通性)和功能磁共振(能够识别功能连通性)，覆盖了一系列人群，包括健康的个人和有一系列神经损伤的人。目前的项目利用创新成像和定量计算/分析技术相结合的新方法来分析大脑结构和功能连通性的活体测量。在这样做的过程中，它将发展和提供数学和数据分析等核心生物科学技能方面的培训，以配合支撑生物科学的世界级主题。更高级的大脑皮质功能需要大脑区域网络的协调行动。要改变我们对解剖结构和大脑功能之间关系的理解，就需要开发和应用探索全脑网络组织和相互作用的技术。这项拟议的研究将调整和发展结构和功能连接信息的复杂网络分析，以揭示支撑专门的、更高级的皮质功能的神经网络。这种新的支撑技术随后可以应用于一系列人群，从而实现创新

Project Description: (maximum of 4,000 characters)Please make sure this description clearly indicates how the project sits within the BBSRC remit, how it enables new ways of working and how it aligns with the DTP themes (World Class Underpinning Biosciences, Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy or Agriculture and Food Security). If you have been awarded an in vivo skills supplement, please outline the in vivo skills the student will learn during the project. The performance of the wide range of cognitive tasks including remembering, speaking, deciding and planning depends upon the interaction of complex networks of widely distributed brain regions. In order to increase our understanding of how the brain performs these tasks, it is important to understand not only what brain regions are involved but how these regions communicate with each other, that is, their connectivity. Network connectivity has recently been explored by two advanced techniques, one which examines the anatomical white matter pathways along which information flows (structural connectivity), and another which examines the brain regions which function together to perform components of a task (functional connectivity). However, how the different types of connectivity relate to each other is complex, and to fully understand how cognitive processes occur, an understanding of this relationship, and how the brain's anatomical structure influences functioning is crucial. Importantly, this knowledge is not only essential in understanding normal performance, but also its change across the lifespan, and observed impairments in different neurological diseases.In order to improve our understanding of the organization and function of normal and impaired brain networks, researchers have begun to model the brain using complex network analysis (CNA). CNA is a statistical approach which can be used to provide measures to characterise different properties of particular brain networks, such as the efficiency with which information can be communicated throughout the network, and how resilient the network is to damage.The current project aims to use CNA to map and describe the organisation of the brain's cognitive networks, and understand the relationship between behavioural performance and network architecture and functioning. In order to achieve this, CNA will be used to explore the relationship between structural and functional connectivity data, and their impact on behavioural performance. The project will utilise the wide range of behavioural and neuroimaging data available within the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology. This includes a range of sophisticated imaging methodologies, including diffusion imaging (capable of identifying the brain's structural connectivity), and functional MRI (capable of identifying functional connectivity), across a range of populations including both healthy individuals and those with a range of neurological impairment.The current project exploits new ways of combining of innovative imaging and quantitative computational/analysis technologies for analysing in vivo measures of structural and functional brain connectivity. In doing so, it will develop and provide training in the core bioscience skills of mathematics and data analysis, aligning with the theme of World Class Underpinning Bioscience. Higher cortical brain function requires the coordinated action of a network of brain regions. A step change in our understanding of the relationship between anatomical structure and brain function requires the development and application of techniques that probe brain-wide network organisation and interactions. The proposed research will align and develop complex network analysis of structural and functional connectivity information to reveal the neural networks that underpin specialised, higher cortical functions. This novel underpinning technology can then be applied to a range of populations, enabling innovatio