The variability characterized here has important implications for cognitive neuroscience investigations, which often assume the functional equivalence of aligned brain regions across individuals.īrain systems, fMRI, functional connectivity, individual variability Introduction These effects were observed even after controlling for data quality and for the accuracy of anatomical registration.
Individual-specific systems also contained unique topological features not present in group average systems some of these features were consistent across a minority of individuals.
However, the size of system features varied across individuals in systematic ways, such that expansion of one feature of a given system predicted expansion of other parts of the system. In these individuals, we were able to identify brain systems that were similar to those described in the group average, and we observed that individuals had consistent topological arrangement of the system features present in the group average. Here, we characterized large-scale brain systems across two independent datasets of young adults. These systems are likely to vary spatially across individuals, even after anatomical alignment, but the characteristics of this variance are unknown. That experience was both humbling and energizing.Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging-based resting-state functional connectivity analyses of group average data have characterized large-scale systems that represent a high level in the organizational hierarchy of the human brain. From working on the OHBM blogs, I got a sense of history, of different perspectives, of how successful scientists can reinvent themselves and stay true to their passions. It is true that we all have to publish and propagate knowledge as researchers, but the reasons that we became researchers in the first place may be something different. As a PI, I find that all too often, PIs and trainees may get tunnel vision, being committed to certain research findings and to propagating certain theories. My favourites are: (1) the story of the first human fMRI experiment at the MGH (Mark Cohen interview) (2) finding out about the future of data sharing from David Van Essen (3) the chaotic but pseudo-stable nature of brain connectivity and (4) how stimulating the lateral prefrontal cortex makes people comply more with social norms. This year I met interesting people and learned interesting things through writing the blog posts. I look forward to ushering in 2018 with the OHBM community. I truly believe that OHBM draws its strength from its inherent diversity, an ingredient necessary to advance the understanding of the organization of the human brain. He touched on the themes of discovery, flexibility, and evolution in the field of human brain mapping, and the importance of taking a step back and drawing inspiration from the brilliant diversity that is OHBM – be it the various imaging modalities highlighted, the composition of OHBM’s membership, comprised of both trainee and established members, or multidisciplinary interactions such as the annual art and neuroscience exhibits. I found myself entranced by Marsel’s recap of the organization’s history.
I realized this while interviewing Marsel Mesulam, a longstanding academic inspiration of mine and a founding member of OHBM. As 2017 comes to an end, I think of the numerous ways that OHBM has promoted diversity since that first meeting in Paris, 22 years ago.