Link Clustering to Explore Brain Dynamics Using Resting State Functional MRI

Quantitative network analysis of brain networks has been an important tool for characterizing brain function. Cognitive abilities emerge from coordinated activity of distributed brain regions that may participate in multiple networks at different times. However, neuroimaging has few available tools to model and quantify networks with spatially overlapping nodes that are active at different times. The dynamics of network reconfiguration may yield important insight into networks that are damaged with neurodegenerative disease. We describe here an approach that uses a graph analytic technique called link clustering, which identifies communities that have overlapping functional nodes, demonstrating its ability to highlight differences in the dynamic reorganization of networks between subjects with Alzheimer's dementia and normal controls.