Investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain and the cerebral cortex have long been an active area of exploration and provide the foundation of several modern neuroscience principals. Nobel laureates Golgi & Cajal demonstrated that the cortex has rich variation in the cyto-, myelo-, and receptor-architectonics as seen in histological studies, which formed the basis of the functional localization and the neuron doctrine. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has made it possible to study the human brain in-vivo in a non-invasive fashion. This enables examination of the living human brain and provides an avenue to understand the complicated relationship between architectonic and cognitive faculties in the same individual, which is extremely difficult with postmortem studies. Further, because of its non-invasive nature, MRI also enables large population studies that can allow studying inter-subject variability and can reveal important relationships to demographics and environment.
Exploration of structure-function relationship in the brain is an active subject. Analysis of the human brain connectome, via functional and structural connectivity, enables the articulation of links between features of neuronal networks and the spectrum of cortical functions. However, as cellular cytoarchitectonic features do not frequently follow macro cortical folding boundaries, large-range brain connectome studies by themselves do not provide a comprehensive picture of the structure-function relationship. Recent advances in MRI and image analysis provide an opportunity to explore structure-function relationship at cytoarchitectonic level in in-vivo studies. Although the typical voxel resolution of MRI images is in the range of a few millimeters, MRI signal is sensitive to changes in the tissue environment at the micrometer range (µm), which allows probing a variety of architectonic features including cyto-, myelo-, and receptor-architectonics. However, the precise relationship between microscopic structures and observed MRI signal is quite complicated, which is further convoluted by limited spatial resolution and other imaging artifacts. So, attempts to quantify microscopic details from the observed MRI signals are challenging and require modeling tissue architectonics and understanding and validating their MRI signal effects.
The goal of this Research Topic is to gather experts in acquisition, analysis, and experiment strategies to expand the understanding of relationship between structure-function with in-vivo MRI. In particular, the topic discusses the challenges, gaps, and recent technical advances to study complementary information about brain microstructure and function with a variety of MRI techniques like relaxometry, diffusion weighting, functional imaging, etc. The topic includes, but is not limited to, new acquisition approaches that reveal architectonic information; image analysis and machine-learning methods to better quantify architectonic features and improve functional imaging; approaches for architectonic-inspired tissue modeling; correction of artifacts and removal of other physiological nuisances from the data; development of frameworks enabling connectome study at population and individual level; and most importantly application of novel approaches to gain insight into brain disorders as well as to explore basic neuroscience questions.
Conflict of Interest: Dr. Chitresh Bhushan is employed by GE Research, which is part of the General Electric company.
Investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain and the cerebral cortex have long been an active area of exploration and provide the foundation of several modern neuroscience principals. Nobel laureates Golgi & Cajal demonstrated that the cortex has rich variation in the cyto-, myelo-, and receptor-architectonics as seen in histological studies, which formed the basis of the functional localization and the neuron doctrine. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has made it possible to study the human brain in-vivo in a non-invasive fashion. This enables examination of the living human brain and provides an avenue to understand the complicated relationship between architectonic and cognitive faculties in the same individual, which is extremely difficult with postmortem studies. Further, because of its non-invasive nature, MRI also enables large population studies that can allow studying inter-subject variability and can reveal important relationships to demographics and environment.
Exploration of structure-function relationship in the brain is an active subject. Analysis of the human brain connectome, via functional and structural connectivity, enables the articulation of links between features of neuronal networks and the spectrum of cortical functions. However, as cellular cytoarchitectonic features do not frequently follow macro cortical folding boundaries, large-range brain connectome studies by themselves do not provide a comprehensive picture of the structure-function relationship. Recent advances in MRI and image analysis provide an opportunity to explore structure-function relationship at cytoarchitectonic level in in-vivo studies. Although the typical voxel resolution of MRI images is in the range of a few millimeters, MRI signal is sensitive to changes in the tissue environment at the micrometer range (µm), which allows probing a variety of architectonic features including cyto-, myelo-, and receptor-architectonics. However, the precise relationship between microscopic structures and observed MRI signal is quite complicated, which is further convoluted by limited spatial resolution and other imaging artifacts. So, attempts to quantify microscopic details from the observed MRI signals are challenging and require modeling tissue architectonics and understanding and validating their MRI signal effects.
The goal of this Research Topic is to gather experts in acquisition, analysis, and experiment strategies to expand the understanding of relationship between structure-function with in-vivo MRI. In particular, the topic discusses the challenges, gaps, and recent technical advances to study complementary information about brain microstructure and function with a variety of MRI techniques like relaxometry, diffusion weighting, functional imaging, etc. The topic includes, but is not limited to, new acquisition approaches that reveal architectonic information; image analysis and machine-learning methods to better quantify architectonic features and improve functional imaging; approaches for architectonic-inspired tissue modeling; correction of artifacts and removal of other physiological nuisances from the data; development of frameworks enabling connectome study at population and individual level; and most importantly application of novel approaches to gain insight into brain disorders as well as to explore basic neuroscience questions.
Conflict of Interest: Dr. Chitresh Bhushan is employed by GE Research, which is part of the General Electric company.
