Department of
Psychological and Brain Sciences

• The topology of structural brain networks and its role in shaping patterns of functional connectivity.
• Models of inter-areal communication dynamics in large-scale brain networks.
• Principles of time-varying functional network reconfiguration and its relationship to ongoing cognitive processes.
• The role of spatial embedding in shaping structural network organization and the emergence of tradeoffs between wiring cost and adaptive functional features.
• Neurobiologically-constrained generative models of brain networks and applications to brain development.

My research program focuses on understanding the general organizational and functional principles of connectomes – network maps of the connectivity among neurons, neuronal populations, and large-scale brain areas. A deeper knowledge of these principles gives us insight the connectome's role in shaping human behavior and cognition and helps reveal how abnormal connectivity can lead to disease. This research involves network modeling and analysis using a diverse set of mathematical tools that includes elements of graph theory, information theory, and dynamical systems theory.

• Zamani Esfahlani, F., Faskowitz, J., Slack, J., Mišić, B., & Betzel, R. F. (2022). Local structure-function relationships in human brain networks across the lifespan. Nature communications, 13(1), 2053.
• Faskowitz, J., Esfahlani, F. Z., Jo, Y., Sporns, O., & Betzel, R. F. (2020). Edge-centric functional network representations of human cerebral cortex reveal overlapping system-level architecture. Nature neuroscience, 23(12), 1644-1654.
• Zamani Esfahlani, F., Jo, Y., Faskowitz, J., Byrge, L., Kennedy, D. P., Sporns, O., & Betzel, R. F. (2020). High-amplitude cofluctuations in cortical activity drive functional connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(45), 28393-28401.
• Betzel, R. F. (2020). Organizing principles of whole-brain functional connectivity in zebrafish larvae. Network Neuroscience, 4(1), 234-256.
• Betzel, R. F., Medaglia, J. D., Kahn, A. E., Soffer, J., Schonhaut, D. R., & Bassett, D. S. (2019). Structural, geometric and genetic factors predict interregional brain connectivity patterns probed by electrocorticography. Nature biomedical engineering, 3(11), 902-916.
• Betzel, R. F., & Bassett, D. S. (2018). Specificity and robustness of long-distance connections in weighted, interareal connectomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201720186.
• Betzel, R. F., Medaglia, J. D., & Bassett, D. S. (2018). Diversity of meso-scale architecture in human and non-human connectomes. Nature Communications, 9(1), 346.
• Betzel, R. F., Medaglia, J. D., Papadopoulos, L., Baum, G. L., Gur, R., Gur, R., ... & Bassett, D. S. (2017). The modular organization of human anatomical brain networks: Accounting for the cost of wiring. Network Neuroscience, 1(1), 42-68.
• Betzel, R. F., Gu, S., Medaglia, J. D., Pasqualetti, F., & Bassett, D. S. (2016). Optimally controlling the human connectome: the role of network topology. Scientific reports, 6, 30770.
• Betzel, R. F., Avena-Koenigsberger, A., Goñi, J., He, Y., De Reus, M. A., Griffa, A., ... & Van Den Heuvel, M. (2016). Generative models of the human connectome. Neuroimage, 124, 1054-1064.
• Betzel, R. F., Fukushima, M., He, Y., Zuo, X. N., & Sporns, O. (2016). Dynamic fluctuations coincide with periods of high and low modularity in resting-state functional brain networks. NeuroImage, 127, 287-297.