1LIAMA Center for Computational Medicine, National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
2Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
3The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

Abstract 

Increasing evidence shows that the human brain is a highly self-organized system that shows attributes of smallworldness, hierarchy and modularity. The “connectome” was conceived several years ago to identify the underpinning physical connectivities of brain networks. The need for an integration of multi-spatial and -temporal approaches is becoming apparent. Therefore, the “Brainnetome” (brain-net-ome) project was proposed. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is a non-invasive way to study the anatomy of brain networks. Here, we review the principles of dMRI, its methodologies, and some of its clinical applications for the Brainnetome. Future research in this field is discussed.

Keywords

brain mapping; neural networks; magnetic resonance imaging; imaging

[SpringerLink]