Node persistence from topological data analysis reveals changes in brain functional connectivity.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42028403.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.patter.2025.101427 and PMC identifier 13100682.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Large-scale analyses of brain functional connectivity can uncover disruptions in regional activity and connectivity that are commonly associated with neurological disorders or cognitive decline associated with healthy aging. In our study, we employ persistent homology (PH), a prominent tool in topological data analysis, to investigate changes in resting-state functional connectivity in healthy aging and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We analyze functional connectivity changes across three distinct scales: (1) global scale (brain-wide changes), (2) mesoscopic scale (resting-state-network-level changes), and (3) local scale (region-level changes). At the local scale, we introduce node persistence, a scalable PH-based measure that detects brain regions with significant differences in healthy aging or ASD. Notably, these regions overlap with regions whose non-invasive stimulation improves motor function in the elderly or alleviates ASD symptoms, suggesting the utility of node persistence in identifying clinically relevant brain regions affected by aging and ASD.