Brain Connectivity and Applications to Neuropsychology: Introduction to the Special Issue of Neuropsychology Review

Excerpt

In recent years, understanding of human brain functioning has dramatically been enhanced by neuroimaging techniques. While the field of neuropsychology was once largely informed by postmortem and lesion studies, which provided insight into specific focal brain and behavioral relationships, it is now better appreciated that regions of the brain do not operate in isolation but rather function as parts of rich integrated networks. The work that has most recently contributed to our understanding of network level brain functioning is that using analytic techniques to exploit temporal correlations in the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response across the brain, otherwise known as functional connectivity. This analysis can be performed while engaged in a task or while at rest. The latter is less bound by the limitations imposed by traditional task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, in that it does not rely on a particular level or comparability of task performance and is relatively easy and fast to collect. The amenability of the resting state paradigm to creative study of a variety of patient populations, even those with dementing disorders, has enabled unprecedented expansion of knowledge regarding the underlying neurobiology of many disease states. …