ABSTRACT
Understanding complex systems such as the human brain requires characterization of the system’s architecture across multiple levels of organization—from neurons, to local circuits, to brain regions, and ultimately large-scale brain networks. Here we focus on characterizing the human brain’s comprehensive large-scale network organization, as it provides an overall framework for the organization of all other levels. We leveraged the Human Connectome Project dataset to identify network communities across cortical regions, replicating well-known networks and revealing several novel but robust networks, including a left-lateralized language network. We expanded these cortical networks to subcortex, revealing 288 highly-organized subcortical segments that take part in forming whole-brain functional networks. This whole-brain network atlas—released as an open resource for the neuroscience community—places all brain structures across both cortex and subcortex in a single large-scale functional framework, substantially advancing existing atlases to provide a brain-wide functional network characterization in humans.
Author Contributions (using CRediT Taxonomy, http://www.cell.com/pb/assets/raw/shared/guidelines/CRediT-taxonomy.pdf)
Conceptualization, K.K., A.A., M.W.C.; Methodology, M.S., J.L.J., K.K., G.R., A.A., M.W.C.; Formal Analysis, M.S., J.L.J., K.K.; Data Curation, J.L.J., K.K.; Visualization, M.S., J.L.J.; Writing – Original Draft, M.S., J.L.J., A.A., M.W.C.; Writing – Review & Editing, M.S., J.L.J., G.R., A.A., M.W.C.; supervision, A.A., M.W.C.
Acknowledgements
Data were provided by the Human Connectome Project, WU-Minn Consortium (Principal Investigators: David Van Essen and Kamil Ugurbil; 1U54MH091657) funded by the 16 NIH Institutes and Centers that support the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; and by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University. This work was supported by the NIH via awards K99/R00-MH096801 (Cole), DP5-OD012109 (Anticevic), R01-MH109520 (Cole), R01-MH108590 (Anticevic), R01-AG055556 (Cole), and R01-MH112189 (Anticevic), as well as the Brain and Behavior Foundation (NARSAD) Independent Investigator grant (Anticevic) and ARRS J7-6829 (Repovs).