Neuroimaging signature of neuropsychiatric disorders

This review focuses on new findings related to structural and functional changes in large-scale brain networks (i.e., pathoconnectomics) that occur in neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Many neuropsychiatric disorders involve dysfunction in neuronal regions that are defined as hubs; these regions are pivotal regions of information transfer in large-scale brain networks. In neuropsychiatric disorders with neurodevelopmental mechanisms, the common connectivity profiles remain unclear as both hyper- and hypoconnectivity profiles have been reported. Neurodegenerative neuropsychiatric disorders are commonly characterized by a diminished local and global efficiency of large-scale brain networks.

The connectome, which is largely underpinned by the network science and graph theoretical approaches, is relevant to the field of neuropsychiatry and could be successfully used for the differential diagnosis for neuropsychiatric disorders and for predicting the progression of such disorders. The analysis of large-scale brain network dynamics generates new insights into the mechanisms of action of invasive and noninvasive brain stimulation and guides further investigations of new therapeutic targets.