大脑皮层沟回褶皱的形成和功能分工理论

项目名称： 大脑皮层沟回褶皱的形成和功能分工理论

项目编号： No.61273362

项目类型： 面上项目

立项/批准年度： 2013

项目学科： 自动化技术、计算机技术

项目作者： 郭雷

作者单位： 西北工业大学

项目金额： 83万元

中文摘要： 《科学发现引出的研究课题》 2009年我们通过磁共振成像数据发现了人类大脑皮层神经轴突的沟回连接分布模式：突触主要连接在大脑皮层的脑回而非脑沟上，而且发现这种连接分布模式在猴子、猩猩和老鼠的大脑中也同样一致。我们这个重要的科学发现发表在脑神经科学国际主流学术期刊Cerebral Cortex上。同时，这个重要发现也引出了2个新的重大科学问题：1、它将挑战和推翻传统的大脑皮层褶皱发育形成理论（拉理论）；2、它预示着脑沟和脑回在脑功能上有重要的分工。为此我们提出了新的推理论，并且已经利用多模态MRI数据、生物力学实验、力学建模和计算机仿真验证了神经轴突的轴向推挤模型。本项目在这两个方面开展更深入研究：研究神经轴突切向的推挤理论，以及脑回脑沟的功能分工理论。我们的目标是能够系统地解释皮层褶皱形成机理、轴突纤维连接分布、脑沟和脑回的功能分工之间的内在关系，为大脑功能结构的研究提供一个新的理论框架。

中文关键词： 脑成像；皮层褶皱机制；轴突纤维束推挤；沟回功能分工；

英文摘要： Our recent research found a significant fact: the axonal fibers in the brain concentrate on cortical gyri, instead of sulci. This finding has been replicated in a variety of primate brains including human, chimpanzee and monkey. This significant finding was published in the prestigious international journal Cerebral Cortex. Meanwhile, there are two fundamental questions raised by our finding: 1) our finding will challenge the main stream theory of cortical folding: the axonal pulling theory developed by David Van Essen. 2) Our result suggests that the cortical gyri and sulci will have different functional roles due to their different axonal connection patterns. In this project, we will focus on two aspects. First, we will further collect data and evidence to support our axonal pushing theory published in Cerebral Cortex. Our experiments include biomechanical simulations, DTI data analysis, HARDI data analysis, and image analysis in chimpanzee and monkey brains. Second, we will perform large-scale functional connectivity analysis to support this hypothesized theory of functional roles of cortical gyri and sulci: gyri are the global functional integration centers and sulci are the local functional units. We envision that our work in this project will fundamentally advanced our understanding of human brain archite

英文关键词： Brain imaging；Cortical folding mechanism；Axonal fibers pushing；Sulci/gyri Functional division；