# Reconstructions and Representations of Cerebral Cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $618,537

## Abstract

Project Summary
This project will generate extensive new findings about cortical organization and connectivity in
humans and nonhuman primates using high quality, multimodal datasets provided by our
collaborators and by the young adult Human Connectome Project (YA-HCP). It will accelerate
progress by freely sharing the resulting tools and experimental data with the scientific
community. The first aim will provide a critically needed evaluation of non-invasive connectivity
measures in relation to invasive anatomical tracers in macaque monkeys. Different methods for
estimating fMRI-derived functional connectivity will be evaluated in order to determine which
approach best correlates with `ground truth' tracer-based anatomical connectivity. This aim will
also generate new insights about cortical evolution by comparing areal organization across
humans, macaques, and marmosets using a novel approach in which areal features (myelin
maps, resting-state networks, and identified homologous areas) constrain the registration
between species. The second aim will focus on cortical organization in individual subjects using
refined HCP-style analysis tools. It will optimize and evaluate intersubject alignment (using a
recently developed Multimodal Surface Matching method) and individual-subject parcellation
(using a machine learning based areal classifier). An important outcome will be
recommendations of `best practice' for other projects that acquire less fMRI data than in the YA-
HCP. These data will also be used to characterize individual variability of human cortical areas.
For each of 180 areas, individual differences in size and topology (neighborhood relationships)
will be examined for heritability and for symmetry across the two hemispheres. Additional
analyses will reveal whether some areas are reproducibly absent in some individuals and
whether `novel' areas are present in some subjects. The third aim is to enhance the capabilities
of the Connectome Workbench visualization and analysis platform and the BALSA database
that were introduced during previous grant periods. Enhancements to Connectome Workbench
will: (i) enable non-invasive electrophysiological (MEG/EEG) and invasive neurophysiological
data to be integrated with MRI data and atlas-based connectivity data (ii) facilitate
interoperability across different atlases, (iii) improve interactive `HCP-style' analysis capabilities,
and (iv) enable cortical layer-based analyses. Enhancements to the BALSA database include:
(i) a WebGL-based web-viewer for interactive online visualization with special focus on the
unique data generated by this project, (ii) an online spatial localization tool and (iii) support for
uploading scene files to BALSA from 5 other software platforms besides Workbench.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10132393
- **Project number:** 5R01MH060974-27
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID C VAN ESSEN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $618,537
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1999-09-30 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10132393

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10132393, Reconstructions and Representations of Cerebral Cortex (5R01MH060974-27). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10132393. Licensed CC0.

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