Dissecting whole-brain conduction delays through MRI microstructural measures

Mancini, Matteo, Tian, Qiyuan, Fan, Qiuyun, Cercignani, Mara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4550-2456 and Huang, Susie Y. 2021. Dissecting whole-brain conduction delays through MRI microstructural measures. Brain Structure and Function 226 , pp. 2651-2663. 10.1007/s00429-021-02358-w

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Abstract

Network models based on structural connectivity have been increasingly used as the blueprint for large-scale simulations of the human brain. As the nodes of this network are distributed through the cortex and interconnected by white matter pathways with different characteristics, modeling the associated conduction delays becomes important. The goal of this study is to estimate and characterize these delays directly from the brain structure. To achieve this, we leveraged microstructural measures from a combination of advanced magnetic resonance imaging acquisitions and computed the main determinants of conduction velocity, namely axonal diameter and myelin content. Using the model proposed by Rushton, we used these measures to calculate the conduction velocity and estimated the associated delays using tractography. We observed that both the axonal diameter and conduction velocity distributions presented a rather constant trend across different connection lengths, with resulting delays that scale linearly with the connection length. Relying on insights from graph theory and Kuramoto simulations, our results support the approximation of constant conduction velocity but also show path- and region-specific differences.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	1863-2653
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	31 August 2021
Date of Acceptance:	28 July 2021
Last Modified:	07 May 2023 04:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/143761

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