Work

Introducing Structural Reliance: A New Method to Assess Structure–Function Coupling in the Brain

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The relationship between the structural connectome and functional activity in the brain is highly complex, and understanding of the connection between the two is limited. Previous work has shown a marginal reliance of functional brain activity on underlying structural connections, indicating significant flexibility of neural communication. Here, we introduce a new method to quantify structure-function coupling and compare it with a standard coupling technique by evaluating the structure-function relationship across numerous fMRI task paradigms. Through this comparison, we investigate how structure-function relationships change during different cognitive demands and we evaluate how they relate to behavior. The new method introduced here, structural reliance, exhibits different structure-function correspondence patterns throughout the brain, and it generally outperforms the standard coupling measure in coupling-based behavioral measure predictions.

Source: Human Brain Mapping

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.70499

Authors: Derek Madden, Paul J. Laurienti, Heather M. Shappell, Mohsen Bahrami

Institutions: Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering & Sciences, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Wake Forest University, Virginia Tech

Language: English

Topic: Functional Brain Connectivity Studies

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,520

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging