Biology subjects

Beckmann, C. F.

Publications and source records attributed to Beckmann, C. F..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

The functional organisation of the hippocampus along its long axis is gradual and predicts recollection

Understanding the functional organisation of the hippocampus is crucial for understanding its role in cognition and disorders in which it is implicated. Different views have been proposed of how function is distributed along its long axis: one view suggests segregation, whereas the alternative view postulates a more gradual organisation. Here, we applied a novel connectopic mapping data-analysis approach to the resting-state fMRI data of participants of the Human Connectome Project, and demonstrate that the functional organisation of the hippocampal longitudinal axis is gradual rather than segregated into parcels. In addition, we show that inter-individual variations in this gradual organisation predicts variations in recollection memory better than a characterisation based on parcellation. These results present an important step forward in understanding the functional organisation of the human hippocampus and have important implications for translating between rodent and human research.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Inter-individual differences in human brain structure and morphometry link to population variation in demographics and behavior

We perform a comprehensive integrative analysis of multiple structural MR-based brain features and find strong evidence relating inter-individual structural variations to demographic and behavioral variates across a large cohort of healthy human volunteers. In particular, our findings shed some light on functional & structural integration, as we find a mode of structural variation that relates to and extends the positive-negative behavioral spectrum which was recently reported as being associated with variations in functional connectivity.\n\nSignificance statementThis work provides for the first-time strong evidence relating human brain structure variations to a wide range of demographic and behavioral measures. We show that several measures previously associated to variation in functional MRI connectivity are in fact already associated at the structural level, pointing towards structure-function integration.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Reproducible functional connectivity alterations are associated with autism spectrum disorder

Despite the high clinical burden little is known about pathophysiology underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) studies have found atypical synchronization of brain activity in ASD. However, no consensus has been reached on the nature and clinical relevance of these alterations. Here we address these questions in the most comprehensive, large-scale effort to date comprising evaluation of four large ASD cohorts. We followed a strict exploration and replication procedure to identify core rs-fMRI functional connectivity (degree centrality) alterations associated with ASD as compared to typically developing (TD) controls (ASD: N=841, TD: N=984). We then tested for associations of these imaging phenotypes with clinical and demographic factors such as age, sex, medication status and clinical symptom severity. We find reproducible patterns of ASD-associated functional hyper- and hypo-connectivity with hypo-connectivity being primarily restricted to sensory-motor regions and hyper-connectivity hubs being predominately located in prefrontal and parietal cortices. We establish shifts in between-network connectivity from outside to within the identified regions as a key driver of these abnormalities. The magnitude of these alterations is linked to core ASD symptoms related to communication and social interaction and is not affected by age, sex or medication status. The identified brain functional alterations provide a reproducible pathophysiological phenotype underlying the diagnosis of ASD reconciling previous divergent findings. The large effect sizes in standardized cohorts and the link to clinical symptoms emphasize the importance of the identified imaging alterations as potential treatment and stratification biomarkers for ASD.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

The relationship between spatial configuration and functional connectivity of brain regions

Brain connectivity is often considered in terms of the communication between functionally distinct brain regions. Many studies have investigated the extent to which patterns of coupling strength between multiple neural populations relates to behavior. For example, studies have used \"functional connectivity fingerprints\" to characterise individuals' brain activity. Here, we investigate the extent to which the exact spatial arrangement of cortical regions interacts with measures of brain connectivity. We find that the shape and exact location of brain regions interact strongly with the modelling of brain connectivity, and present evidence that the spatial arrangement of functional regions is strongly predictive of non-imaging measures of behaviour and lifestyle. We believe that, in many cases, cross-subject variations in the spatial configuration of functional brain regions are being interpreted as changes in functional connectivity. Therefore, a better understanding of these effects is important when interpreting the relationship between functional imaging data and cognitive traits.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Functional corticostriatal connection topographies predict goal directed behaviour in humans

Anatomical tracing studies in non-human primates have suggested that corticostriatal connectivity is topographically organized: nearby locations in striatum are connected with nearby locations in cortex. The topographic organization of corticostriatal connectivity is thought to underpin many goal-directed behaviours, but these topographies have not been completely characterised in humans and their relationship to uniquely human behaviours remains to be fully determined. Instead, the dominant approach employs parcellations that cannot model the continuous nature of the topography, nor accommodate overlapping cortical projections in the striatum. Here, we employ a different approach to studying human corticostriatal circuitry: we estimate smoothly-varying and spatially overlapping connection topographies from resting state fMRI. These correspond exceptionally well with and extend the topographies predicted from primate tracing studies. We show that striatal topography is preserved in regions not previously known to have topographic connections with the striatum and that many goal-directed behaviours can be mapped precisely onto individual variations in the spatial layout of striatal connectivity.

neuroscience↗