Special Topic : Mapping the connectome: Multi-level analysis of brain connectivity

Indiana University, USA & University of Oslo, Norway.

The brain contains vast numbers of interconnected neurons that constitute functional networks. Structural descriptions of neuronal network elements and connections make up ‘the connectome’ of the brain, and are important for understanding normal brain function and disease-related dysfunction. A long-standing ambition of the neuroscience community is to achieve complete connectome maps for the human brain as well as primate and rodent brains. Currently, a wide repertoire of experimental tools is available for neural connectivity mapping at multiple levels of scale, from tracing of major pathways and trajectories, mapping of axonal distribution patterns, to the identification of the molecular properties of individual synapses. But, despite numerous connectivity studies through many decades, we are still far from achieving comprehensive descriptions of the connectome.