PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sol Lim
AU  - Filippo Radicchi
AU  - Martijn P van den Heuvel
AU  - Olaf Sporns
TI  - Discordant attributes of structural and functional connectivity in a two-layer multiplex network
AID  - 10.1101/273136
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 273136
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/28/273136.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/28/273136.full
AB  - Several studies have suggested that functional connectivity (FC) is constrained by the underlying structural connectivity (SC) and mutually correlated. However, not many studies have focused on differences in the network organization of SC and FC, and on how these differences may inform us about their mutual interaction. To explore this issue, we adopt a multi-layer framework, with SC and FC, constructed using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data from the Human Connectome Project, forming a two-layer multiplex network. In particular, we examine whether node strength assortativity within and between the SC and FC layer may confer increased robustness against structural failure. We find that, in general, SC is organized assortatively, indicating brain regions are on average connected to other brain regions with similar node strengths. On the other hand, FC shows disassortative mixing. This discrepancy is apparent also among individual resting-state networks within SC and FC. In addition, these patterns show lateralization, with disassortative mixing within FC subnetworks mainly driven from the left hemisphere. We discuss our findings in the context of robustness to structural failure, and we suggest that discordant and lateralized patterns of associativity in SC and FC may explain laterality of some neurological dysfunctions and recovery.