Ultrafast method for mapping local functional connectivity hubs in the human brain

Brain networks with energy-efficient hubs might support the high cognitive performance of humans and a better understanding of their organization is of relevance not only for studying normal brain development and plasticity but also neuropsychiatric disorders. Here we propose an ultra-fast method to map the distribution of the functional connectivity density (FCD) in the human brain. The method was tested in 972 subjects from a large repository of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) time series collected in resting conditions. Consistently across research sites, a region located in the ventral precuneus was the area with the highest FCD, which suggest that this is a prominent functional hub in the brain. In addition regions located in the paracentral lobule, cuneus, inferior parietal, and posterior cingulate cortices had localized high FCD, suggesting that these regions also include prominent functional connectivity hubs.