A complex network perspective on brain disease

TL;DR

This paper explores how complex network theory can be applied to understand brain diseases, emphasizing the role of network structure in brain dysfunction and potential clinical implications.

Contribution

It discusses the application of complex network representation to characterize brain pathology and its implications for understanding vulnerability and recovery in brain diseases.

Findings

Network structure influences brain vulnerability to disease

Network properties relate to brain function and dysfunction

Potential for clinical applications in diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

If brain anatomy and dynamics have a genuine complex network structure as it has become standard to posit, it is also reasonable to assume that such a structure should play a key role not only in brain function but also in brain dysfunction. However, exactly how network structure is implicated in brain damage and whether at least some pathologies can be thought of as "network diseases" is not entirely clear. Here we discuss ways in which a complex network representation can help characterising brain pathology, but also subjects' vulnerability to and likelihood of recovery from disease. We show how the way disease is defined is related to the way function is defined and this, in turn, determines which network property may be functionally relevant to brain disease. Thus, addressing brain disease "networkness" may shed light not only on brain pathology, with potential clinical implications, but also on functional brain activity, and what is functional in it.