Specific regions of the brain associated with brain functions can be mapped by looking at the changes in BOLD signal (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent). Activated regions of the brain will exhibit a significant increase in the BOLD signal when performing cognitive functions.

Often described as the "baseline state" of the human brain, the discovery of the default mode has also uncovered many different brain networks which display connectivity during the default mode.





We are able to map other networks within the default mode by extracting the time series of a specific region of interest (ROI) and comparing the low frequency oscillation with other voxels within the brain. We can then determine the correlation of the BOLD signals. Regions with high levels of correlation are determined to be part of the same network.

Current Research has already shown the degradation of known brain networks, such as the DMN, in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The next step in this area of research is to target specific underlying networks associated with these diseases and compare and explore connectivity of these networks.


Since these changes in brain connectivity are progressive, we aim to use these changes features we aim to classify or diagnose patient subjects and determine disease severity.