Abstract:
Despite the staggering complexity of the human brain, there exists fundamental biophysical and molecular principles of brain organization which ebb and flow across the lifespan. An empirical outcome of these processes is the non-linear growth of brain as a whole, as well as the variability in these trajectories across the constituent tissue classes and regions. Moreover, myriad neuroimaging studies have shown that the resultant brain network topology, morphological composition, functional specialization, and individual variation of these features show variegated patterns across brain regions. This has led to the advent and widespread implementation of scientific (e.g., “connectivity gradients”) and statistical (e.g., “spin test”) methods in a wide range of neuroscientific contexts with diverse neuroimaging modalities. Here, I will discuss the value of integrating morphological features in the study of brain networks, and will discuss the overarching theoretical and practical limitations of observing in vivo patterns of spatial covariation.
