Individual Variability in the Structural Connectivity Architecture of the Human Brain

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience Vol. 45; no. 5; p. e2139232024
• Main Authors: Huang (黄伟杰), Weijie, Chen (陈豪杰), Haojie, Liu (刘桢钊), Zhenzhao, Dong (董心怡), Xinyi, Feng (冯国政), Guozheng, Liu (刘广芳), Guangfang, Yang (杨奡偲), Aocai, Zhang (张占军), Zhanjun, Shmuel, Amir, Su (苏里), Li, Ma (马国林), Guolin, Shu (舒妮), Ni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Society for Neuroscience 29.01.2025
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age composition; Aged; Brain; Brain - anatomy & histology; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Brain architecture; Brain Mapping; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; Female; Functional anatomy; Humans; Individuality; Male; Middle Aged; Myelination; Nerve Net - anatomy & histology; Nerve Net - physiology; Neural networks; Neural Pathways - anatomy & histology; Neural Pathways - physiology; Neuroimaging; Regression models; Sensorimotor system; Spatial distribution; Structure-function relationships; Temporal lobe; Variability; Young Adult; structural connectivity; individual variability; transcription; machine learning; dMRI
• ISSN: 0270-6474; 1529-2401; 1529-2401
• DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2139-23.2024

The human brain exhibits a high degree of individual variability in both its structure and function, which underlies intersubject differences in cognition and behavior. It was previously shown that functional connectivity is more variable in the heteromodal association cortex but less variable in the unimodal cortices. Structural connectivity (SC) is the anatomical substrate of functional connectivity, but the spatial and temporal patterns of individual variability in SC (IVSC) remain largely unknown. In the present study, we discovered a detailed and robust chart of IVSC obtained by applying diffusion MRI and tractography techniques to 1,724 adults (770 males and 954 females) from multiple imaging datasets. Our results showed that the SC exhibited the highest and lowest variability in the limbic regions and the unimodal sensorimotor regions, respectively. With increased age, higher IVSC was observed across most brain regions. Moreover, the specific spatial distribution of IVSC is related to the cortical laminar differentiation and myelination content. Finally, we proposed a modified ridge regression model to predict individual cognition and generated idiographic brain mapping, which was significantly correlated with the spatial pattern of IVSC. Overall, our findings further contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of individual variability in brain SC and link to the prediction of individual cognitive function in adult subjects.