The Human Connectome Project: What have we learned and what lies ahead?
Summary Abstract:
The launching of the Human Connectome Project in 2010 initiated an explosion of research on the structure, function, and connectivity of the human brain. The HCP was associated with a set of ongoing methodological advances that enhance our ability to acquire, analyze, visualize, and share information about brain organization and circuitry. It has been succeeded by a growing number of large-scale neuroimaging projects devoted to particular age ranges or disease conditions. In aggregate, these efforts have led to many exciting discoveries and important insights, though these are coupled with sobering reminders of the extraordinary complexity of brain circuitry and by the fact that current in-vivo neuroimaging methods remain severely limited in important respects.
In this symposium, David Van Essen will focus on the cerebral cortex, with an emphasis on the HCP’s multi-modal cortical parcellation that includes 180 well-defined areas in each hemisphere. The ability to accurately identify cortical areas in individual subjects enables detailed exploration of individual variability in cortical functional organization, which is presumed to underly important differences in behavioral and cognitive capabilities. Such relationships have heretofore been obscured by the dramatic differences in cortical convolutions (folding patterns), which are only weakly correlated with cortical area location in higher cognitive regions. Future advances in this arena will benefit from the application of powerful transcriptomic methods for identifying cell classes based on gene expression patterns and distinguishing between regions based on their cell class profiles.
Deanna Barch will emphasize human development in relation to chronological age and puberty. The use of HCP’s multi-modal cortical parcellation organized into brain networks allowed for the examination of trajectories of cortical thickness and surface area development and subcortical volume related to pubertal status and hormones. This work demonstrates differences between thickness and surface area in relation to pubertal status versus hormones, suggesting a potentially unique role for pubertal hormones in shaping differences in surface area that emerge with age. Further, patterns of functional connectivity also vary as a function of chronological age, pubertal status and hormone level, with key differences across networks in terms of whether pubertal status or puberty hormone levels account for variance in differences in functional connectivity over and above age.
Leanne Williams will focus on HCP studies related to human disease (CRHD), specifically functional brain disorders of depression and anxiety. There is a need for novel markers that reflect the pathophysiological processes underlying these disorders and can untangle their heterogeneity. HCP resting and task-evoked sequence condition were used to identify subtypes of depression and anxiety. Activation and connectivity were quantified for multiple circuits implicated in depression and anxiety and their treatment. Data are integrated from CRHD studies across UPenn, Stanford and UCLA sites (N=501). The work demonstrates the feasibility of the DB-SCAN cluster approach, incorporating data reduction, to identify 8 cluster subtypes. This solution was not due to site differences. We show that cluster subtypes were separated by distinct symptom profiles, that cut across traditional diagnostic categories.
Number of Credit Hours: 1.5
Level of Instruction: Advanced
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify three characteristics of the HCP’s multimodal cortical parcellation that represent significant advances relative to other extant parcellations.
2. State one important finding relating brain structure and function to pubertal status and hormone levels during childhood development and another important finding about subtypes of depression and anxiety revealed using neuroimaging data.
3. Discuss how modern neuroimaging provides promising opportunities for diagnosing brain disorders yet must be analyzed critically to avoid over-interpretation of results.
Presenter(s):
David C Van Essen, PhD
Washington University in St Louis
David Van Essen is the Alumni Endowed Professor of Neuroscience at Washington University in St Louis. His laboratory has carried out pioneering studies of the structure, function, connectivity, development, and evolution of cerebral cortex in humans and nonhuman primates, including a human cortical parcellation of unprecedented detail and quality. In recent years, the lab has used neuroimaging and neuroanatomical data acquired mainly through collaborative efforts with colleagues at Washington University and other institutions. A major emphasis is on the development and utilization of methods for computerized brain mapping as well as neuroinformatics tools that facilitate data analysis and data mining. Dr. Van Essen served as a Principal Investigator for the Human Connectome Project (HCP), a large-scale effort that acquired, analyzed, and freely shared high-quality neuroimaging data from 1200 healthy adults. He currently is a co-PI of the Lifespan Human Connectome Projects in Development and in Aging. A major focus of the lab is to use HCP and other high-quality datasets to better understand cortical parcellation and connectivity in humans and nonhuman primates.
Dr. Van Essen received his undergraduate degree from Caltech and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He joined the Caltech faculty in 1976 and moved to Washington University in 1992, where he chaired the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology for two decades. He has served in many leadership positions, including President of the Society of Neuroscience and founding chair of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. He has received many awards and honors, including the Krieg Cortical Discoverer Award (Cajal Club), the Glass Brain Award (Organization for Human Brain Mapping), the George A. Miller Prize (Cognitive Neuroscience Society), and the Carl and Gerti Cori Faculty Achievement Award (Washington University School of Medicine). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Deanna Barch, PhD
Washington University
Deanna Barch is a clinical scientist whose research focuses on understanding normative patterns cognitive function and brain connectivity and the mechanisms that give rise to the challenges in behavior and cognition found in illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, utilizing psychological, neuroimaging and computational approaches across the lifespan. She is the Vice Dean of Research in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. She is also the Couch Professor of Psychiatry and a Professor of Radiology. She is Deputy Editor at Biological Psychiatry and Editor-in-Chief of Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. She is also the President of the Psychology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Barch is on the scientific boards of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the One Mind Foundation, and the Stanley Foundation. Dr. Barch was on the Executive Committee of the Association for Psychological Science and the Scientific Council of the National Institute of Mental Health. She is a Fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, a member of the Society for Experimental Psychology, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Leanne Williams, PhD
Stanford University School of Medicine
Leanne Williams, PhD, is the inaugural Vincent V.C. Woo Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Chair of Translational Neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness and of the Stanford PanLab for Personalized and Translational Neuroscience. She holds a joint appointment as Director of the Precision Medicine Core at the Palo Alto VA Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center.
Prior to joining the Stanford community, Dr. Williams was the Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and Director of the Brain Dynamics Center at Sydney Medical School.
Her PhD was completed with a British Council Scholarship for study at Oxford University.
She has developed a the first-of-its-kind technology to identify neuroscience-based biotypes of depression and anxiety. Her biotype approach integrates advanced neuroimaging and data sciences. Her treatment studies use biotypes to personalize to tailor interventions and promote wellness. Biotypes are applied in studies of pharmacotherapies, behavioral interventions, novel selective medicines, neuromodulation, and exploratory therapeutics. Dr. Williams' research programs are supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and foundations. She has published the first book on Precision Psychiatry and contributed over 375 scientific papers to the field.
