The relationship between spatial configuration and functional connectivity of brain regions revisited

Abstract
Data availability
Article and author information
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Abstract

In our previous paper (Bijsterbosch et al., 2018), we showed that network-based modelling of brain connectivity interacts strongly with the shape and exact location of brain regions, such that cross-subject variations in the spatial configuration of functional brain regions are being interpreted as changes in functional connectivity. Here we show that these spatial effects on connectivity estimates actually occur as a result of spatial overlap between brain networks. This is shown to systematically bias connectivity estimates obtained from group spatial ICA followed by dual regression. We introduce an extended method that addresses the bias and achieves more accurate connectivity estimates.

Data availability

Simulation analysis scripts are available on git.Source data files for Figures 1 and 5 will be made available on BALSA (https://balsa.wustl.edu/) upon acceptance.

The following previously published data sets were used

1. Van Essen D
2. Ugurbil K
(2017) Human Connectome Project: WU-Minn HCP consortium
Young Adult, S1200.

https://www.humanconnectome.org/

Article and author information

Author details

Janine Diane Bijsterbosch

Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

For correspondence
janine.bijsterbosch@wustl.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1385-9178
Christian F Beckmann

Donders Institute, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Mark W Woolrich

Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), Wellcome Centre for Integrative NeuroImaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Stephen M Smith

Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Samuel J Harrison

Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5886-2389

Funding

Wellcome (098369/Z/12/Z)

Stephen M Smith

Wellcome (091509/Z/10/Z)

Stephen M Smith

Wellcome (203139/Z/16/Z)

Stephen M Smith

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: HCP data were acquired using protocols approved by the Washington University institutional review board (Mapping the Human Connectome: Structure, Function, and Heritability; IRB # 201204036). Informed consent was obtained from subjects. Anonymised data are publicly available from ConnectomeDB (db.humanconnectome.org; Hodge et al., 2016). Certain parts of the dataset used in this study, such as the age of the subjects, are available subject to restricted data usage terms, requiring researchers to ensure that the anonymity of subjects is protected (Van Essen et al., 2013).

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.