Cargando…
Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond
For over a century, researchers have examined the functional relevancy of white matter bundles. Consequently, many large-scale bundles spanning several centimeters have been associated in their entirety with specific brain functions, such as language or attention. However, these coarse structural–fu...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9046284/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34846595 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02423-4 |
_version_ | 1784695490224324608 |
---|---|
author | Grotheer, Mareike Kubota, Emily Grill-Spector, Kalanit |
author_facet | Grotheer, Mareike Kubota, Emily Grill-Spector, Kalanit |
author_sort | Grotheer, Mareike |
collection | PubMed |
description | For over a century, researchers have examined the functional relevancy of white matter bundles. Consequently, many large-scale bundles spanning several centimeters have been associated in their entirety with specific brain functions, such as language or attention. However, these coarse structural–functional relationships are at odds with modern understanding of the fine-grained functional organization of human cortex, such as the mosaic of category-selective regions in ventral temporal cortex. Here, we review a multimodal approach that combines fMRI to define functional regions of interest within individual’s brains with dMRI tractography to identify the white matter bundles of the same individual. Combining these data allows to determine which subsets of streamlines within a white matter bundle connect to specific functional regions in each individual. That is, this approach identifies the functionally defined white matter sub-bundles of the brain. We argue that this approach not only enhances the accuracy of interpreting the functional relevancy of white matter bundles, but also enables segmentation of these large-scale bundles into meaningful functional units, which can then be linked to behavior with enhanced precision. Importantly, this approach has the potential for making new discoveries of the fine-grained functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and the brain more broadly, akin to the flurry of research that has identified functional regions in cortex. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9046284 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90462842022-05-01 Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond Grotheer, Mareike Kubota, Emily Grill-Spector, Kalanit Brain Struct Funct Review For over a century, researchers have examined the functional relevancy of white matter bundles. Consequently, many large-scale bundles spanning several centimeters have been associated in their entirety with specific brain functions, such as language or attention. However, these coarse structural–functional relationships are at odds with modern understanding of the fine-grained functional organization of human cortex, such as the mosaic of category-selective regions in ventral temporal cortex. Here, we review a multimodal approach that combines fMRI to define functional regions of interest within individual’s brains with dMRI tractography to identify the white matter bundles of the same individual. Combining these data allows to determine which subsets of streamlines within a white matter bundle connect to specific functional regions in each individual. That is, this approach identifies the functionally defined white matter sub-bundles of the brain. We argue that this approach not only enhances the accuracy of interpreting the functional relevancy of white matter bundles, but also enables segmentation of these large-scale bundles into meaningful functional units, which can then be linked to behavior with enhanced precision. Importantly, this approach has the potential for making new discoveries of the fine-grained functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and the brain more broadly, akin to the flurry of research that has identified functional regions in cortex. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-11-30 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9046284/ /pubmed/34846595 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02423-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Review Grotheer, Mareike Kubota, Emily Grill-Spector, Kalanit Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
title | Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
title_full | Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
title_fullStr | Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
title_full_unstemmed | Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
title_short | Establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
title_sort | establishing the functional relevancy of white matter connections in the visual system and beyond |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9046284/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34846595 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02423-4 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT grotheermareike establishingthefunctionalrelevancyofwhitematterconnectionsinthevisualsystemandbeyond AT kubotaemily establishingthefunctionalrelevancyofwhitematterconnectionsinthevisualsystemandbeyond AT grillspectorkalanit establishingthefunctionalrelevancyofwhitematterconnectionsinthevisualsystemandbeyond |