Improvements in the knowledge of the brain white matter are important milestones in modern neurosciences and are closely related to the history of neurosurgery. Due to the rapid development of new techniques and technologies, the human brain anatomy study shifted from a grey-matter centered approach to a more integrative study of functional white matter connections.
“Localizationists” as Auburtin, Bouillaud, and Broca posed their fundamental studies on brain functions related to specific cortical regions, whereas “connectionists” as Wernicke, Liepmann, and Dejerine, advocated the connections between different cortical areas as the keys of brain behavior understanding. Afterwards, Geschwind, as a “disconnectionist”, developed a network theory where multiple and simultaneous transmission of information represent the backbone of brain function.
The last decade showed the shift from the traditional surgical selection and planning strategy focused on pure lesional topography towards a meta-network perspective and newer network-based circuitopathies. Such parallel pathways model the brain as a unique ensemble of complex networks that continually form and reshape to dynamically process information. This paradigmatic shift has enhanced restorative neurosurgery to perform extensive resections in supposedly "inoperable" regions to favor the elaboration of tailored programs of neurological, cognitive and behavioral rehabilitation, with the purpose to preserve the patient’s quality of life. Brain functions emerge from the synchronization between different cortical epicenters (topos), by connections between ‘hubs’ constructed through bundles of white matter (hodos), to ensure dynamic interactions between parallel delocalized subnetworks, with different levels of subcircuit recruitment.
The chance to non-invasively examine the human brain connections and the integration of multiple imaging approaches will experimentally provide new indices and metrics to characterize and scale the functional organization of nervous system into the neurosurgical applications.
The present Research Topic has the goal to collect the current advancement on human brain white matter anatomy and function in preoperative and intraoperatively planning target and postoperative stage to tailor cognitive rehabilitation according to the patient preservation of quality of life.
Authors are welcome to submit original articles, narrative and systematic reviews, opinions, perspectives, and case reports focusing on the current state-of-art and perspectives of brain white matter functional anatomy through structural and functional connectivity applied to neurosurgery.
• Advanced techniques of brain mapping, such as pre-operative and post-operative imaging (such as DTI, DSI, fMRI, resting-state fMRI, MEG, TMS) or direct cortical stimulation and other intraoperative neurophysiological techniques to disclose brain network in neurosurgical patients.
• Integrative neuropsychology and imaging correlation in neurosurgical patients elucidating the role of specific white matter tracts.
• Dissection techniques of human brain white matter.
We would like to acknowledge that Dr.Edgar Ordóñez-Rubiano, Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, San Jose, has acted as a coordinator and has contributed to the preparation of the proposal for this Research Topic.
Improvements in the knowledge of the brain white matter are important milestones in modern neurosciences and are closely related to the history of neurosurgery. Due to the rapid development of new techniques and technologies, the human brain anatomy study shifted from a grey-matter centered approach to a more integrative study of functional white matter connections.
“Localizationists” as Auburtin, Bouillaud, and Broca posed their fundamental studies on brain functions related to specific cortical regions, whereas “connectionists” as Wernicke, Liepmann, and Dejerine, advocated the connections between different cortical areas as the keys of brain behavior understanding. Afterwards, Geschwind, as a “disconnectionist”, developed a network theory where multiple and simultaneous transmission of information represent the backbone of brain function.
The last decade showed the shift from the traditional surgical selection and planning strategy focused on pure lesional topography towards a meta-network perspective and newer network-based circuitopathies. Such parallel pathways model the brain as a unique ensemble of complex networks that continually form and reshape to dynamically process information. This paradigmatic shift has enhanced restorative neurosurgery to perform extensive resections in supposedly "inoperable" regions to favor the elaboration of tailored programs of neurological, cognitive and behavioral rehabilitation, with the purpose to preserve the patient’s quality of life. Brain functions emerge from the synchronization between different cortical epicenters (topos), by connections between ‘hubs’ constructed through bundles of white matter (hodos), to ensure dynamic interactions between parallel delocalized subnetworks, with different levels of subcircuit recruitment.
The chance to non-invasively examine the human brain connections and the integration of multiple imaging approaches will experimentally provide new indices and metrics to characterize and scale the functional organization of nervous system into the neurosurgical applications.
The present Research Topic has the goal to collect the current advancement on human brain white matter anatomy and function in preoperative and intraoperatively planning target and postoperative stage to tailor cognitive rehabilitation according to the patient preservation of quality of life.
Authors are welcome to submit original articles, narrative and systematic reviews, opinions, perspectives, and case reports focusing on the current state-of-art and perspectives of brain white matter functional anatomy through structural and functional connectivity applied to neurosurgery.
• Advanced techniques of brain mapping, such as pre-operative and post-operative imaging (such as DTI, DSI, fMRI, resting-state fMRI, MEG, TMS) or direct cortical stimulation and other intraoperative neurophysiological techniques to disclose brain network in neurosurgical patients.
• Integrative neuropsychology and imaging correlation in neurosurgical patients elucidating the role of specific white matter tracts.
• Dissection techniques of human brain white matter.
We would like to acknowledge that Dr.Edgar Ordóñez-Rubiano, Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, San Jose, has acted as a coordinator and has contributed to the preparation of the proposal for this Research Topic.
