Structure-Function Relationships behind the Phenomenon of Cognitive Resilience in Neurology: Insights for Neuroscience and Medicine

Figure 10

Addressing the challenges of quantifying resilience. Schema of a multimodal framework that distinguishes functional and anatomical parameters for key neuroimaging and electrical modalities. One approach is to compute matrices of connectivity based on neuroimaging signals, and then compute their Laplacian in order to obtain matrices that are semi-definite positive. Eigenvector decompositions of the matrices enable the analysis of their topological properties within multidimensional (MD) vector spaces with well-defined bases. Relations between modalities as well as the effect of structural perturbations can be measured in these spaces (see also Figure 4). Resilience can then be studied, modeled, and measured by computing parameters over these spaces and by comparing structural and functional modalities. In the framework discussed in this paper, one working hypothesis would be that resilient patients will demonstrate functional parameters that better resist damage (perturbation), in reference to normative atlases, than corresponding structural parameters.