Network analysis of the human structural connectome including the brainstem
Salma Salhi, Youssef Kora, Gisu Ham, H. Haghighi, C. Simon
bioRxiv July 22, 2022 preprint DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272688 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Computational graph-theoretical study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 100 |
| Population | Healthy adult subjects |
| Key points | The brainstem ranks highest across degree, eigenvector, and betweenness centrality metrics in the averaged structural connectome. |
Abstract
The underlying anatomical structure is fundamental to the study of brain networks and is likely to play a key role in the generation of conscious experience. We conduct a computational and graph-theoretical study of the human structural connectome incorporating a variety of subcortical structures including the brainstem, which is typically not considered in similar studies. Our computational scheme involves the use of Python DIPY and Nibabel libraries to develop an averaged structural connectome comprised of 100 healthy adult subjects. We then compute degree, eigenvector, and betweenness centralities to identify several highly connected structures and find that the brainstem ranks highest across all examined metrics. Our results highlight the importance of including the brainstem in structural network analyses. We suggest that structural network-based methods can inform theories of consciousness, such as global workspace theory (GWT), integrated information theory (IIT), and the thalamocortical loop theory.