Bayesian brain mapping: a population-informed framework for personalized functional network topography and connectivity

TL;DR

Bayesian Brain Mapping (BBM) is a flexible, population-informed Bayesian framework for estimating personalized brain network topography and connectivity from noisy fMRI data, suitable for clinical use.

Contribution

The paper introduces BBM, a novel Bayesian method that leverages population priors for accurate, individualized brain network estimation without extensive scanning.

Findings

BBM effectively incorporates population priors to improve individual brain network estimation.

The method is computationally efficient and adaptable to different data sources.

A demo and code are provided for practical implementation.

Abstract

The spatial topography of functional brain organization is increasingly recognized to play an important role in cognition and disease. Accounting for individual differences in functional topography is also crucial for accurately distinguishing spatial and temporal aspects of functional brain connectivity. Yet, accurate estimation of personalized functional brain networks from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) without extensive scanning remains challenging due to high noise levels. Here, we describe Bayesian Brain Mapping (BBM), a technique for personalized functional topography and connectivity informed by population information. BBM relies on population-derived priors on both spatial topography of networks and between-network functional connectivity to guide subject-level estimation and combat noise. These priors are based on existing spatial templates, such as parcellations or continuous network maps, providing correspondence to those templates. Yet BBM is highly flexible, avoiding strong spatial or temporal constraints and allowing for overlap between networks and heterogeneous patterns of engagement. BBM is designed for single-subject analysis, making it computationally efficient and translatable to clinical settings. Here, we describe the BBM model and illustrate the use of the BayesBrainMap R package to construct population-derived priors, fit the model, and perform inference to identify engagements. A demo is provided in an accompanying Github repo. We also share priors derived from the Human Connectome Project and provide code to support the construction of priors from different data sources, lowering the barrier to adoption of BBM for studies of individual brain organization.