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“线路”）来允许信息在皮层和皮层下区域（信息处理发生的区域）之间传递。因此，了解处理区域和“线路模式”对于全面了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，但人类大脑内部解剖联系的知识却出奇地贫乏。造成这种不确定性的一个重要原因是，大多数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体人脑。虽然一些解剖方法适合于死后研究，但它们具有破坏性，并且为研究给定大脑中的多个神经束提供的机会有限，这使得它们在时间和资源上都非常昂贵。另一种非侵入性方法是通过解释由病变（如多发性硬化症或中风）引起的功能和结构损伤的影响来识别解剖上的相互联系。然而，依靠临床病变数据进行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，这一过程被称为脑束造影。在过去的五年里，这种方法得到了发展，并被应用于提供有关人类大脑解剖连接的新信息，从而帮助我们建立大脑的“线路模式”。这个项目将使用神经束造影来建立颞叶内的连接模式。颞叶是一个重要的研究目标，因为它们参与了许多使人类物种独特的信息处理能力——例如，它们与语言理解有关。我们将研究一组健康个体，以确定颞叶连接的可变性，并评估一个半球优于另一个半球的证据。我们将把这些结果与动物模型中已建立的测量结果进行比较，以确定颞叶连接的哪些方面是人类大脑所独有的。我们将把结果放在一个在线数据库上，使科学界能够免费访问这个新的、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.