Progress and challenges in probing the human brain

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Abstract

Perhaps one of the greatest scientific challenges is to understand the human brain. Here we review current methods in human neuroscience, highlighting the ways that they have been used to study the neural bases of the human mind. We begin with a consideration of different levels of description relevant to human neuroscience, from molecules to large-scale networks, and then review the methods that probe these levels and the ability of these methods to test hypotheses about causal mechanisms. Functional MRI is considered in particular detail, as it has been responsible for much of the recent growth of human neuroscience research. We briefly review its inferential strengths and weaknesses and present examples of new analytic approaches that allow inferences beyond simple localization of psychological processes. Finally, we review the prospects for real-world applications and new scientific challenges for human neuroscience.

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Biological Insights From 108 Schizophrenia-Associated Genetic Loci

Stephan Ripke, Benjamin M. Neale, Aiden Corvin … (2015)

Summary Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disorder. Genetic risk is conferred by a large number of alleles, including common alleles of small effect that might be detected by genome-wide association studies. Here, we report a multi-stage schizophrenia genome-wide association study of up to 36,989 cases and 113,075 controls. We identify 128 independent associations spanning 108 conservatively defined loci that meet genome-wide significance, 83 of which have not been previously reported. Associations were enriched among genes expressed in brain providing biological plausibility for the findings. Many findings have the potential to provide entirely novel insights into aetiology, but associations at DRD2 and multiple genes involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission highlight molecules of known and potential therapeutic relevance to schizophrenia, and are consistent with leading pathophysiological hypotheses. Independent of genes expressed in brain, associations were enriched among genes expressed in tissues that play important roles in immunity, providing support for the hypothesized link between the immune system and schizophrenia.

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Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience.

Katherine S. Button, John Ioannidis, Claire Mokrysz … (2014)

A study with low statistical power has a reduced chance of detecting a true effect, but it is less well appreciated that low power also reduces the likelihood that a statistically significant result reflects a true effect. Here, we show that the average statistical power of studies in the neurosciences is very low. The consequences of this include overestimates of effect size and low reproducibility of results. There are also ethical dimensions to this problem, as unreliable research is inefficient and wasteful. Improving reproducibility in neuroscience is a key priority and requires attention to well-established but often ignored methodological principles.

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The WU-Minn Human Connectome Project: an overview.

David C. Van Essen, Stephen Smith, Deanna Barch … (2013)

The Human Connectome Project consortium led by Washington University, University of Minnesota, and Oxford University is undertaking a systematic effort to map macroscopic human brain circuits and their relationship to behavior in a large population of healthy adults. This overview article focuses on progress made during the first half of the 5-year project in refining the methods for data acquisition and analysis. Preliminary analyses based on a finalized set of acquisition and preprocessing protocols demonstrate the exceptionally high quality of the data from each modality. The first quarterly release of imaging and behavioral data via the ConnectomeDB database demonstrates the commitment to making HCP datasets freely accessible. Altogether, the progress to date provides grounds for optimism that the HCP datasets and associated methods and software will become increasingly valuable resources for characterizing human brain connectivity and function, their relationship to behavior, and their heritability and genetic underpinnings. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.