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Chapter 9
The Human Brain Network
Olaf Sporns
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, USA
This article summarizes recent empirical findings and modeling approaches
aimed at unraveling the structure of the human brain network. The physical
structure of the human brain is still only partially mapped and how structural
brain connectivity gives rise to functional brain dynamics is only incompletely
understood. Initial mapping studies indicate that the human brain forms a small-
world architecture that is structurally organized into modules interlinked by hub
regions. This connectivity structure shapes endogenous dynamics as well as
responses of the brain to external perturbations. Thus, the topology of the
human brain network may be an important ingredient in brain function. We will
briefly discuss how complex brain networks may shape human cognition in the
healthy and the diseased brain.
9.1. Introduction
Modern neuroscience allows the simultaneous recording and analysis of large
numbers of neurons, and even of neural activity across the entire human brain -
yet our understanding of how the brain functions as an integrated system
organized into a complex biological network is still in its infancy. Nevertheless,
the material presented in this chapter argues that complex network approaches
(Strogatz, 2001; Amaral and Ottino, 2004; Boccaletti et al ., 2006) may provide a
fundamental basis for our understanding of brain function (see also Sporns et al .,
2004; Sporns and Tononi, 2007). In recent years network science approaches
have offered significant new insights into how the structure of the brain shapes
its dynamics and how the elements of a neural network can make different
contributions to brain function on the basis of how they are interconnected. The
dichotomy between brain structure and dynamics presents unique challenges to
network approaches. A comprehensive analysis of brain networks needs to
address the central issue of how functional brain networks (represented as
dynamic linkages between parts of the brain that are transient in nature) can
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