Karbasforoushan Haleh, Tian Runfeng, Baker James
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.
Brain Commun. 2022 Feb 22;4(2):fcac047. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac047. eCollection 2022.
Of the three largest outputs of the cerebral cortex, two have been extensively studied and mapped. Topographic maps of cortico-thalamic and cortico-striatal functional connectivity in humans are well established. However, for the third largest cerebral output, to the pontine nuclei, which connect the cerebrum to the cerebellum, the existence of such an organized connectivity pattern in humans is unknown. Here, using high-resolution functional MRI and a large sample size, we found a topographically organized pattern of functional connectivity between the human cerebral cortex and pons. Our results indicate a rostral-caudal topography; rostral (frontal) cerebral cortex shows connectivity to the rostral pons, and the more caudal cortical areas (i.e. the sensorimotor cortices) show functional connectivity more caudally in the pons, with the occipital lobe connectivity being most caudal. While prefrontal, sensorimotor and occipital cortices have a connectivity to the medial pontine nuclei, posterior parietal cortex and temporal lobe correlate with lateral pontine nuclei. Topography is sufficiently detailed to identify distinct connectivity for leg, trunk, hand and face areas of the motor cortex. These findings reveal the existence of a topographic organization in human cortico-pontine connectivity and provide the topographic map for future studies of cortico-ponto-cerebellum pathway in a variety of disorders.
在大脑皮层的三大主要输出中，其中两个已经得到了广泛研究并绘制了图谱。人类皮质-丘脑和皮质-纹状体功能连接的地形图已经确立。然而，对于大脑的第三大输出——连接大脑与小脑的脑桥核，人类中是否存在这样一种有组织的连接模式尚不清楚。在这里，我们使用高分辨率功能磁共振成像和大样本量，发现了人类大脑皮层与脑桥之间功能连接的拓扑组织模式。我们的结果表明存在一种头-尾拓扑结构；额叶（前部）大脑皮层与脑桥前部相连，而更靠后的皮质区域（即感觉运动皮层）与脑桥中更靠后的部位显示出功能连接，枕叶的连接最为靠后。虽然前额叶、感觉运动和枕叶皮层与脑桥内侧核相连，但顶叶后部皮层和颞叶与脑桥外侧核相关。这种拓扑结构足够详细，能够识别运动皮层中腿部、躯干、手部和面部区域的不同连接。这些发现揭示了人类皮质-脑桥连接中拓扑组织的存在，并为未来研究各种疾病中的皮质-脑桥-小脑通路提供了拓扑图谱。
