AUTHOR=Kaiser Marcus TITLE=Connectomes: from a sparsity of networks to large-scale databases JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroinformatics VOLUME=Volume 17 - 2023 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroinformatics/articles/10.3389/fninf.2023.1170337 DOI=10.3389/fninf.2023.1170337 ISSN=1662-5196 ABSTRACT=

The analysis of whole brain networks started in the 1980s when only a handful of connectomes were available. In these early days, information about the human connectome was absent and one could only dream about having information about connectivity in a single human subject. Thanks to non-invasive methods such as diffusion imaging, we now know about connectivity in many species and, for some species, in many individuals. To illustrate the rapid change in availability of connectome data, the UK Biobank is on track to record structural and functional connectivity in 100,000 human subjects. Moreover, connectome data from a range of species is now available: from Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruit fly to pigeons, rodents, cats, non-human primates, and humans. This review will give a brief overview of what structural connectivity data is now available, how connectomes are organized, and how their organization shows common features across species. Finally, I will outline some of the current challenges and potential future work in making use of connectome information.