BCCT: A GUI Toolkit for Brain Structural Covariance Connectivity Analysis on MATLAB

Abstract

Brain structural covariance network (SCN) can delineate the brain synchronized alterations in a long-range time period. It has been used in the research of cognition or neuropsychiatric disorders. Recently, causal analysis of structural covariance network (CaSCN), winner-take-all and cortex–subcortex covariance network (WTA-CSSCN), and modulation analysis of structural covariance network (MOD-SCN) have expended the technology breadth of SCN. However, the lack of user-friendly software limited the further application of SCN for the research. In this work, we developed the graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit of brain structural covariance connectivity based on MATLAB platform. The software contained the analysis of SCN, CaSCN, MOD-SCN, and WTA-CSSCN. Also, the group comparison and result-showing modules were included in the software. Furthermore, a simple showing of demo dataset was presented in the work. We hope that the toolkit could help the researchers, especially clinical researchers, to do the brain covariance connectivity analysis in further work more easily.