Current brain mapping methods highly depend on the regularity, or commonality, of anatomical structure, by forcing the same atlas to be matched to different brains. As a result, individualized structural information can be overlooked. Recently, we conceptualized a new type of cortical folding pattern called the 3-hinge gyrus (3HG), which is defined as the conjunction of gyri coming from three directions. Many studies have confirmed that 3HGs are not only widely existing on different brains, but also possess both common and individual patterns. In this work, we put further effort, based on the identified 3HGs, to establish the correspondences of individual 3HGs. We developed a learning-based embedding framework to encode individual cortical folding patterns into a group of anatomically meaningful embedding vectors (cortex2vector). Each 3HG can be represented as a combination of these embedding vectors via a set of individual specific combining coefficients. In this way, the regularity of folding pattern is encoded into the embedding vectors, while the individual variations are preserved by the multi-hop combination coefficients. Results show that the learned embeddings can simultaneously encode the commonality and individuality of cortical folding patterns, as well as robustly infer the complicated many-to-many anatomical correspondences among different brains.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2011369
- PAR ID:
- 10384800
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Cerebral Cortex
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 1047-3211
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 5851-5862
- Size(s):
- p. 5851-5862
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
Information that is shared across brains is encoded in idiosyncratic fine-scale functional topographies. Hyperalignment captures shared information by projecting pattern vectors for neural responses and connectivities into a common, high-dimensional information space, rather than by aligning topographies in a canonical anatomical space. Individual transformation matrices project information from individual anatomical spaces into the common model information space, preserving the geometry of pairwise dissimilarities between pattern vectors, and model cortical topography as mixtures of overlapping, individual-specific topographic basis functions, rather than as contiguous functional areas. The fundamental property of brain function that is preserved across brains is information content, rather than the functional properties of local features that support that content. In this Perspective, we present the conceptual framework that motivates hyperalignment, its computational underpinnings for joint modeling of a common information space and idiosyncratic cortical topographies, and discuss implications for understanding the structure of cortical functional architecture.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract The cortical thickness is a characteristic biomarker for a wide variety of neurological disorders. While the structural organization of the cerebral cortex is tightly regulated and evolutionarily preserved, its thickness varies widely between 1.5 and 4.5 mm across the healthy adult human brain. It remains unclear whether these thickness variations are a cause or consequence of cortical development. Recent studies suggest that cortical thickness variations are primarily a result of genetic effects. Previous studies showed that a simple homogeneous bilayered system with a growing layer on an elastic substrate undergoes a unique symmetry breaking into a spatially heterogeneous system with discrete gyri and sulci. Here, we expand on that work to explore the evolution of cortical thickness variations over time to support our finding that cortical pattern formation and thickness variations can be explained – at least in part – by the physical forces that emerge during cortical folding. Strikingly, as growth progresses, the developing gyri universally thicken and the sulci thin, even in the complete absence of regional information. Using magnetic resonance images, we demonstrate that these naturally emerging thickness variations agree with the cortical folding pattern in n = 9 healthy adult human brains, in n = 564 healthy human brains ages 7–64, and in n = 73 infant brains scanned at birth, and at ages one and two. Additionally, we show that cortical organoids develop similar patterns throughout their growth. Our results suggest that genetic, geometric, and physical events during brain development are closely interrelated. Understanding regional and temporal variations in cortical thickness can provide insight into the evolution and causative factors of neurological disorders, inform the diagnosis of neurological conditions, and assess the efficacy of treatment options.more » « less
-
Abstract The important mechanical parameters and their hierarchy in the growth and folding of the human brain have not been thoroughly understood. In this study, we developed a multiscale mechanical model to investigate how the interplay between initial geometrical undulations, differential tangential growth in the cortical plate, and axonal connectivity form and regulate the folding patterns of the human brain in a hierarchical order. To do so, different growth scenarios with bilayer spherical models that features initial undulations on the cortex and uniform or heterogeneous distribution of axonal fibers in the white matter were developed, statistically analyzed, and validated by the imaging observations. The results showed that the differential tangential growth is the inducer of cortical folding, and in a hierarchal order, high-amplitude initial undulations on the surface and axonal fibers in the substrate regulate the folding patterns and determine the location of gyri and sulci. The locations with dense axonal fibers after folding settle in gyri rather than sulci. The statistical results also indicated that there is a strong correlation between the location of positive (outward) and negative (inward) initial undulations and the locations of gyri and sulci after folding, respectively. In addition, the locations of 3-hinge gyral folds are strongly correlated with the initial positive undulations and locations of dense axonal fibers. As another finding, it was revealed that there is a correlation between the density of axonal fibers and local gyrification index, which has been observed in imaging studies but not yet fundamentally explained. This study is the first step in understanding the linkage between abnormal gyrification (surface morphology) and disruption in connectivity that has been observed in some brain disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. Moreover, the findings of the study directly contribute to the concept of the regularity and variability of folding patterns in individual human brains.
-
Abstract Neuroimaging data analysis relies on normalization to standard anatomical templates to resolve macroanatomical differences across brains. Existing human cortical surface templates sample locations unevenly because of distortions introduced by inflation of the folded cortex into a standard shape. Here we present the onavg template, which affords uniform sampling of the cortex. We created the onavg template based on openly available high-quality structural scans of 1,031 brains—25 times more than existing cortical templates. We optimized the vertex locations based on cortical anatomy, achieving an even distribution. We observed consistently higher multivariate pattern classification accuracies and representational geometry inter-participant correlations based on onavg than on other templates, and onavg only needs three-quarters as much data to achieve the same performance compared with other templates. The optimized sampling also reduces CPU time across algorithms by 1.3–22.4% due to less variation in the number of vertices in each searchlight.
-
The retina and primary visual cortex (V1) both exhibit diverse neural populations sensitive to diverse visual features. Yet it remains unclear how neural populations in each area partition stimulus space to span these features. One possibility is that neural populations are organized into discrete groups of neurons, with each group signaling a particular constellation of features. Alternatively, neurons could be continuously distributed across feature-encoding space. To distinguish these possibilities, we presented a battery of visual stimuli to the mouse retina and V1 while measuring neural responses with multi-electrode arrays. Using machine learning approaches, we developed a manifold embedding technique that captures how neural populations partition feature space and how visual responses correlate with physiological and anatomical properties of individual neurons. We show that retinal populations discretely encode features, while V1 populations provide a more continuous representation. Applying the same analysis approach to convolutional neural networks that model visual processing, we demonstrate that they partition features much more similarly to the retina, indicating they are more like big retinas than little brains.