While functional connectivity in the human cortex has been increasingly studied, its relationship to cortical representation of sensory features has not been documented as much. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to demonstrate that voxel-by-voxel intrinsic functional connectivity (FC) is selective to frequency preference of voxels in the human auditory cortex. Thus, FC was significantly higher for voxels with similar frequency tuning than for voxels with dissimilar tuning functions. Frequency-selective FC, measured via the correlation of residual hemodynamic activity, was not explained by generic FC that is dependent on spatial distance over the cortex. This pattern remained even when FC was computed using residual activity taken from resting epochs. Further analysis showed that voxels in the core fields in the right hemisphere have a higher frequency selectivity in within-area FC than their counterpart in the left hemisphere, or than in the noncore-fields in the same hemisphere. Frequency-selective FC is consistent with previous findings of topographically organized FC in the human visual and motor cortices. The high degree of frequency selectivity in the right core area is in line with findings and theoretical proposals regarding the asymmetry of human auditory cortex for spectral processing.
Bridging cytoarchitectonics and connectomics in human cerebral cortex→
/Interesting if true!
In this communication, we combined data from the detailed mappings of early twentieth century cytoarchitectonic pioneers Von Economo and Koskinas (1925) on the microscale cellular structure of the human cortex with data on macroscale connectome wiring as derived from high-resolution diffusion imaging data from the Human Connectome Project. In a cross-scale examination, we show evidence of a significant association between cytoarchitectonic features of human cortical organization—in particular the size of layer 3 neurons—and whole-brain corticocortical connectivity. Our findings suggest that aspects of microscale cytoarchitectonics and macroscale connectomics are related.
State and trait components of functional connectivity: Individual differences vary with mental state→
/Individual differences in functional connectivity seem to be all the rage this month.
In the present study, we examined the relative contribution of state and trait components in shaping an individual's functional architecture. We used fMRI data from a large, population-based human sample (N = 587, age 18–88 years), as part of the Cambridge Centre for Aging and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), which were collected in three mental states: resting, performing a sensorimotor task, and watching a movie. Whereas previous studies have shown commonalities across mental states in the average functional connectivity across individuals, we focused on the effects of states on the pattern of individual differences in functional connectivity. We found that state effects were as important as trait effects in shaping individual functional connectivity patterns, each explaining an approximately equal amount of variance. This was true when we looked at aging, as one specific dimension of individual differences, as well as when we looked at generic aspects of individual variation. These results show that individual differences in functional connectivity consist of state-dependent aspects, as well as more stable, trait-like characteristics.
The neonatal connectome during preterm brain development→
/Analysis of neonatal functional connectivity (FC) showed the early formation of resting-state networks, suggesting that functional networks are present in the preterm brain, albeit being in an immature state.
Functional connectivity of left IFG during context-dependent speech comprehension→
/PPI with seeds in BA44/45 shows angular gyrus (among other regions) differs in activity when pictures match a narrative or not.
