1. Characterising group-level brain connectivity: A framework using Bayesian exponential random graph models.
- Author
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Lehmann BCL, Henson RN, Geerligs L, Cam-Can, and White SR
- Subjects
- Brain Mapping methods, Humans, Individuality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Models, Statistical, Neural Pathways, Bayes Theorem, Brain physiology, Models, Neurological, Nerve Net physiology
- Abstract
The brain can be modelled as a network with nodes and edges derived from a range of imaging modalities: the nodes correspond to spatially distinct regions and the edges to the interactions between them. Whole-brain connectivity studies typically seek to determine how network properties change with a given categorical phenotype such as age-group, disease condition or mental state. To do so reliably, it is necessary to determine the features of the connectivity structure that are common across a group of brain scans. Given the complex interdependencies inherent in network data, this is not a straightforward task. Some studies construct a group-representative network (GRN), ignoring individual differences, while other studies analyse networks for each individual independently, ignoring information that is shared across individuals. We propose a Bayesian framework based on exponential random graph models (ERGM) extended to multiple networks to characterise the distribution of an entire population of networks. Using resting-state fMRI data from the Cam-CAN project, a study on healthy ageing, we demonstrate how our method can be used to characterise and compare the brain's functional connectivity structure across a group of young individuals and a group of old individuals., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they do not have any financial or nonfinancial conflict of interests, (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2021
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