Additionally, our connectome efforts include the acquisition of high resolution neuroimaging data in a small subset of ex vivo whole brain specimens, as well as detailed chemo- and cyto-architectonic analysis and planar polarimetry of these specimens, will allow us examine correlation between cytoarchitecture and the connectome (Burgel et al., 2006), as well as help validate our in vivo results.
Concurrently, we are working to refine and optimize the spatial and functional resolution of our connectome neuroimaging techniques, then bring the results of both goals to bear in the acquisition of the optimized HCP data, to be shared with the community as the data are acquired. These rich data will also allow us to quantify genetic (Chiang et al., 2009) and behavioral variation of white matter fiber pathways and functional correlations for analysis by the entire community, and help define an optimized methodology for collection of a definitive connectome dataset using DSI (V. First, we have begun amassing data for the release of a very large, existing connectomic, behavioral and genomic dataset, including a large sample study in MZ/DZ twin pairs, will encourage broad participation in the HCP by the larger research community.
The HCP is leveraging key scientific domains that together yield a steady release of increasingly detailed connectomics data and tools. To read an overview of the consortia, see the NIH Blueprint Human Connectome. The Human Connectome Project is a five-year project sponsored by sixteen components of the National Institutes of Health, split between two consortia of research institutions. Funding for the Harvard/MGH-USC consortium is provided through the grant award U01-MH93765. Louis, we will provide rich data, essential imaging protocols, and sophisticated connectivity analysis tools for the neuroscience community. Working with the HCP consortium based at Washington University in St. Through a collaboration between the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, the HCP is being developed to employ advanced neuroimaging methods, and to construct an extensive informatics infrastructure to link these data and connectivity models to detailed phenomic and genomic data, building upon existing multidisciplinary and collaborative efforts currently underway. Human Connectome Project Pamphlet (web-resolution) USC-Harvard Consortium The HCP represents the first large-scale attempt to collect and share data of a scope and detail sufficient to begin the process of addressing deeply fundamental questions about human connectional anatomy and variation.
The Human Connectome Project (HCP) is a project to construct a map of the complete structural and functional neural connections in vivo within and across individuals. To do this they will combine several imaging tools including something called diffusion MRI, which maps the structure of the white matter that insulates the “wires” of the brain, and also resting-state MRI, which measures how brain regions oscillate in unison as a result of shared connections.Įven this should produce a more complex structural anatomy of the brain than anything ever seen before, and provide tantalising insights into how personality, memory and even consciousness are formed.Mapping of the human connectome offers a unique opportunity to understand the complete details of neural connectivity (Sporns et al., 2005, Wedeen et al., 2008, Hagmann et al., 2007). The HCP will tackle the lowest hanging fruit first: charting the major highways between different brain regions, and showing how these connections vary between individuals. With 100 billion neurons, each with around 10,000 connections, mapping the human brain will be no easy feat, and charting every single connection could take decades. The HCP aims to map the large-scale connections of 1200 human brains and is expected to start delivering the goods in late 2012. “You’re missing huge amounts of information if you don’t know which regions are connected to other regions,” says Tim Behrens of the University of Oxford, who is a member of the Human Connectome Project.