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Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain

Since the discovery of small-world and scale-free networks the study of complex systems from a network perspective has taken an enormous flight. In recent years many important properties of complex networks have been delineated. In particular, significant progress has been made in understanding the...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stam, Cornelis J, Reijneveld, Jaap C
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1976403/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17908336
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1753-4631-1-3
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author Stam, Cornelis J
Reijneveld, Jaap C
author_facet Stam, Cornelis J
Reijneveld, Jaap C
author_sort Stam, Cornelis J
collection PubMed
description Since the discovery of small-world and scale-free networks the study of complex systems from a network perspective has taken an enormous flight. In recent years many important properties of complex networks have been delineated. In particular, significant progress has been made in understanding the relationship between the structural properties of networks and the nature of dynamics taking place on these networks. For instance, the 'synchronizability' of complex networks of coupled oscillators can be determined by graph spectral analysis. These developments in the theory of complex networks have inspired new applications in the field of neuroscience. Graph analysis has been used in the study of models of neural networks, anatomical connectivity, and functional connectivity based upon fMRI, EEG and MEG. These studies suggest that the human brain can be modelled as a complex network, and may have a small-world structure both at the level of anatomical as well as functional connectivity. This small-world structure is hypothesized to reflect an optimal situation associated with rapid synchronization and information transfer, minimal wiring costs, as well as a balance between local processing and global integration. The topological structure of functional networks is probably restrained by genetic and anatomical factors, but can be modified during tasks. There is also increasing evidence that various types of brain disease such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, brain tumours and epilepsy may be associated with deviations of the functional network topology from the optimal small-world pattern.
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spelling pubmed-19764032007-09-18 Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain Stam, Cornelis J Reijneveld, Jaap C Nonlinear Biomed Phys Review Since the discovery of small-world and scale-free networks the study of complex systems from a network perspective has taken an enormous flight. In recent years many important properties of complex networks have been delineated. In particular, significant progress has been made in understanding the relationship between the structural properties of networks and the nature of dynamics taking place on these networks. For instance, the 'synchronizability' of complex networks of coupled oscillators can be determined by graph spectral analysis. These developments in the theory of complex networks have inspired new applications in the field of neuroscience. Graph analysis has been used in the study of models of neural networks, anatomical connectivity, and functional connectivity based upon fMRI, EEG and MEG. These studies suggest that the human brain can be modelled as a complex network, and may have a small-world structure both at the level of anatomical as well as functional connectivity. This small-world structure is hypothesized to reflect an optimal situation associated with rapid synchronization and information transfer, minimal wiring costs, as well as a balance between local processing and global integration. The topological structure of functional networks is probably restrained by genetic and anatomical factors, but can be modified during tasks. There is also increasing evidence that various types of brain disease such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, brain tumours and epilepsy may be associated with deviations of the functional network topology from the optimal small-world pattern. BioMed Central 2007-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC1976403/ /pubmed/17908336 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1753-4631-1-3 Text en Copyright © 2007 Stam and Reijneveld; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Stam, Cornelis J
Reijneveld, Jaap C
Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
title Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
title_full Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
title_fullStr Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
title_full_unstemmed Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
title_short Graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
title_sort graph theoretical analysis of complex networks in the brain
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1976403/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17908336
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1753-4631-1-3
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