Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Specialization: the connections have it

Brain regions exhibit specialization for different functions, but such functions are constrained by anatomical connections to other brain regions. A study now finds that, by measuring these connections, we can predict complex functional responses before the subject has even performed the task.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Schematic of the approach in Saygin et al.3.

References

  1. Passingham, R.E., Stephan, K.E. & Kotter, R. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3, 606–616 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Conturo, T.E. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 10422–10427 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Saygin, Z.M. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 15, 321–327 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Behrens, T.E. & Johansen-Berg, H. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 360, 903–911 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Johansen-Berg, H. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 13335–13340 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Anwander, A., Tittgemeyer, M., von Cramon, D.Y., Friederici, A.D. & Knosche, T.R. Cereb. Cortex 17, 816–825 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Desimone, R., Albright, T.D., Gross, C.G. & Bruce, C. J. Neurosci. 4, 2051–2062 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Haxby, J.V. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 1621–1625 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kanwisher, N. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 11163–11170 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Markov, N.T. et al. Cereb. Cortex 21, 1254–1272 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Cohen, L. et al. Brain 125, 1054–1069 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Haxby, J.V. et al. Science 293, 2425–2430 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J. & Chun, M.M. J. Neurosci. 17, 4302–4311 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Price, C.J. & Devlin, J.T. Neuroimage 19, 473–481 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Elias, W.J., Zheng, Z.A., Domer, P., Quigg, M. & Pouratian, N. Neuroimage published online, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.10.049 (20 October 2011).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Saad Jbabdi or Timothy E J Behrens.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jbabdi, S., Behrens, T. Specialization: the connections have it. Nat Neurosci 15, 171–172 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3031

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3031

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing