Connectomics in Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Abstract

The human brain is an amazingly complex structure whose functionality, including high-order cognitive functions, is determined by intricate connectivity patterns between tens of billions of neurons (Azevedo et al. 2009). The signaling between neurons is deceivingly simple, using binary-like electrical impulses, such that the multitude of brain functions, that are often performed concurrently, are the result of connectivity patterns across various spatial scales (Bullock et al. 1977; Budd and Kisvarday 2012), that implement a mixed sequential, parallel or hierarchical architecture. The brain regulates breathing and heart rate, collects and processes sensory information, and controls all the voluntary and involuntary movements and actions. While some of these functions are performed by well-defined areas of the brain (i.e. visual stimuli are processed solely by the primary visual cortex), some higher level functions (i.e. speech production, problem solving, music performance) can only be accomplished by various brain areas working together in a serial or, more likely, in a parallel or distributed design (Sigman and Dehaene 2008).