For more than a century, researchers have always believed that the brain activity patterns that define our experiences, hopes and dreams are determined by the way different brain regions communicate with each other through a complex network composed of trillions of cells.

A study led by researchers from Turner Institute of Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Australia, examined more than 65,438+100,000 different brain activity maps, and found that the overall shape of the human brain has far greater influence on thinking, feeling and behavior than its complex neuronal connections.

This study, published in the journal Nature on May 3rd1,integrates the methods of physics, neuroscience and psychology, overturns the century-old paradigm that emphasizes the importance of complex brain connections, and determines the previously neglected relationship between brain shape and activity.

Dr James Peng, a researcher at Turner Institute and Monash University School of Psychological Science, said that these findings are significant because they greatly simplify the methods of studying brain function, development and aging.

These findings increase the possibility of predicting brain function directly according to brain shape, and open up a new way to explore how the brain leads to individual behavioral differences and the risk of mental and neurological diseases.

The research team used magnetic resonance imaging to study eigenmodes, in which different parts of the system were excited at the same frequency. Eigenmodes are usually used to study physical systems in the fields of physics and engineering, and only recently have they been used to study the brain. The focus of this work is to develop the best method to effectively construct brain feature patterns.

Researchers say that just as the vibration frequency of violin strings is determined by its length, density and tension, the internal mode of the brain is also determined by its structure, namely physical, geometric and anatomical attributes, but which specific attributes are the most important remains a mystery.

The team compared the explanatory ability of feature patterns obtained from brain shape model and feature patterns obtained from brain connection model for different activity patterns. It is found that the characteristic patterns (contour and curvature) defined by brain geometry represent the strongest anatomical limitation of brain function, just as the shape of drum affects its sound.

Using mathematical models, the researchers confirmed the theoretical prediction that the close relationship between geometric shape and function is driven by wave-like activities that spread to the whole brain, and its principle is similar to the ripple formed by the shape of a pond affecting pebbles falling on the water surface.