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Multiscale Brain Connectivity

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Definition

Multiscale brain connectivity refers to physical and functional connection patterns between a set of brain units on multiple levels of spatial extent. For large, complex systems such as the human brain, units may be defined as, e.g., single neurons (MRI, EEG/MEG), voxels, or brain areas on a microscopic, mesoscopic, or macroscopic scale, respectively. Connectivity between these units may be measured in terms of anatomical/structural connectivity (SC; Hagmann et al. 2010), the statistical relations between their functional states (functional connectivity, FC), or their inferred causal interactions (effective connectivity, EC; Friston 1994). Brain connectivity underlies signal propagation in neural networks and is thus crucial to understanding cognition and the brain’s information and activity flow in health and disease.

Detailed Description

Aspects of Brain Connectivity

In general, the term “connectivity” may refer to related but distinct concepts. In principle, all...

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Further Reading

  • More information on current developments of the two large European and U.S. research project on mapping and simulating the whole human brain as completely as possible, down to single-neuron scales, can be obtained from the projects websites of the Human Connectome Project, and the Human Brain Project. Additionally, a brain connectivity workshop (http://brain-connectivity-workshop.org/) is held annually to discuss major progresses in the field

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computational Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Tristan Nakagawa & Prof. Dr. Gustavo Deco

Authors
  1. Tristan Nakagawa
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  2. Prof. Dr. Gustavo Deco
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tristan Nakagawa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Nakagawa, T., Deco, G. (2014). Multiscale Brain Connectivity. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_535-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_535-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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