
==== Front
bioRxiv
BIORXIV
bioRxiv
2692-8205
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

10.1101/2024.08.27.609817
preprint
1
Article
Effects of connectivity hyperalignment (CHA) on estimated brain network properties: from coarse-scale to fine-scale
Farahani Farzad V. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3196-6759

Nebel Mary Beth http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0185-3382

Wager Tor D. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1936-5574

Lindquist Martin A. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2289-0828

28 8 2024
2024.08.27.609817https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2024.08.27.609817
nihpp-2024.08.27.609817.pdf
Abstract

Recent gains in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have been driven by increasingly sophisticated statistical and computational techniques and the ability to capture brain data at finer spatial and temporal resolution. These advances allow researchers to develop population-level models of the functional brain representations underlying behavior, performance, clinical status, and prognosis. However, even following conventional preprocessing pipelines, considerable inter-individual disparities in functional localization persist, posing a hurdle to performing compelling population-level inference. Persistent misalignment in functional topography after registration and spatial normalization will reduce power in developing predictive models and biomarkers, reduce the specificity of estimated brain responses and patterns, and provide misleading results on local neural representations and individual differences. This study aims to determine how connectivity hyperalignment (CHA)—an analytic approach for handling functional misalignment—can change estimated functional brain network topologies at various spatial scales from the coarsest set of parcels down to the vertex-level scale. The findings highlight the role of CHA in improving inter-subject similarities, while retaining individual-specific information and idiosyncrasies at finer spatial granularities. This highlights the potential for fine-grained connectivity analysis using this approach to reveal previously unexplored facets of brain structure and function.
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