Learning about Learning: Human Brain Sub-Network Biomarkers in fMRI Data

It has become increasingly popular to study the brain as a network due to the realization that functionality cannot be explained exclusively by independent activation of specialized regions. Instead, across a large spectrum of behaviors, function arises due to the dynamic interactions between brain regions. The existing literature on functional brain networks focuses mainly on a battery of network properties characterizing the "resting state" using for example the modularity, clustering, or path length among regions. In contrast, we seek to uncover subgraphs of functional connectivity that predict or drive individual differences in sensorimotor learning across subjects. We employ a principled approach for the discovery of significant subgraphs of functional connectivity, induced by brain activity (measured via fMRI imaging) while subjects perform a motor learning task. Our aim is to uncover patterns of functional connectivity that discriminate between high and low rates of learning among subjects. The discovery of such significant discriminative subgraphs promises a better data-driven understanding of the dynamic brain processes associated with brain plasticity.