A structural brain map -- the most detailed to date -- provides support for a controversial theory of a "default" state of brain activity, and could bring key insights into the physiological basis of illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers have identified a set of axonal pathways in the human cerebral cortex that forms structural "core" of the cortex -- a neuronal nexus that acts as the main relay station between disparate brain regions involved in cognition, they report in a linkurl:paper;http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060159 published today (July 1) in PLoS Biology. "We don't really have a very good connection map for the brain yet," said Olaf Sporns of Indiana University, the study's main author. Most studies on whole brain function have focused on functional activation with techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) or linkurl:functional MRI (fMRI).;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53137/ "I've always been interested in tying these activity patterns to underlying...

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