Aug 20, 2018 08:05 PM
https://www.quantamagazine.org/functiona...-20180816/
EXCERPT: . . . The physical links between brain regions, collectively known as the “connectome,” are part of what distinguish humans cognitively from other species. But they also differentiate us from one another. Scientists are now combining neuroimaging approaches with machine learning to understand the commonalities and differences in brain structure and function across individuals, with the goal of predicting how a given brain will change over time because of genetic and environmental influences.
The lab where Cordova works, headed by associate professor Damien Fair, is concerned with the functional connectome, the map of brain regions that coordinate to carry out specific tasks and to influence behavior. Fair has a special name for a person’s distinct neural connections: the functional fingerprint. Like the fingerprints on the tips of our digits, a functional fingerprint is specific to each of us and can serve as a unique identifier.
“I could take a fingerprint from my five-year-old, and I’d still be able to know that fingerprint is hers when she’s 25,” Fair said. Even though her finger might get bigger and go through other changes with age and experience, “still the core features are all there.” In the same way, work from Fair’s lab and others hints that the essence of someone’s functional connectome might be identifiably fixed and that normal changes over a lifetime are largely predictable....
MORE: https://www.quantamagazine.org/functiona...-20180816/
EXCERPT: . . . The physical links between brain regions, collectively known as the “connectome,” are part of what distinguish humans cognitively from other species. But they also differentiate us from one another. Scientists are now combining neuroimaging approaches with machine learning to understand the commonalities and differences in brain structure and function across individuals, with the goal of predicting how a given brain will change over time because of genetic and environmental influences.
The lab where Cordova works, headed by associate professor Damien Fair, is concerned with the functional connectome, the map of brain regions that coordinate to carry out specific tasks and to influence behavior. Fair has a special name for a person’s distinct neural connections: the functional fingerprint. Like the fingerprints on the tips of our digits, a functional fingerprint is specific to each of us and can serve as a unique identifier.
“I could take a fingerprint from my five-year-old, and I’d still be able to know that fingerprint is hers when she’s 25,” Fair said. Even though her finger might get bigger and go through other changes with age and experience, “still the core features are all there.” In the same way, work from Fair’s lab and others hints that the essence of someone’s functional connectome might be identifiably fixed and that normal changes over a lifetime are largely predictable....
MORE: https://www.quantamagazine.org/functiona...-20180816/