Functional connectivity and magnetoencephalography

Abstract

This century is about brain. Not surprisingly, two megaprojects, the “Brain Activity Map Project” (USA) and the “Human Brain Project” (EU) with a total budget over a few billions euros, have been initiated across the Atlantic and mobilized many of the best and most renowned neuroscientists. They both aims to answer open questions for Neuroscience, such as: Is there an underlying functional architecture to the brain’s networks?, What is the functional connectivity diagram of a circuit?, What are the long-range interactions that underlie cognitive functions and behaviour? or What are the paths of information flow?. Such questions are related to the so-called “functional connectivity”, it reflects the statistical interdependencies between two physiological signals, providing information about functional interactions between the corresponding brain regions. Over the last years it has been increasingly used in neuroscience. Specifically, in the study of electrophysiological recordings such as Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Electroencephalography (EEG).