BCBtoolkit

BCBtoolkit quantifies the impact of focal brain lesions on structural and functional connectivity to identify direct and indirect disconnections and relate them to cortical thickness and cognitive performance.

Key Features:

• Assessment of Direct and Indirect Disconnections: Identifies regions directly disconnected by focal lesions and regions indirectly affected via network disruptions.
• Integration of Structural and Functional Connectivity: Combines structural connectivity and functional connectivity measures to map lesion effects on neural networks.
• Cortical Thickness Correlation Analysis: Correlates cortical thickness estimates with cognitive performance metrics such as category fluency.
• Focus on Functional Networks: Detects and analyzes specific functional networks, including the left ventral fronto-parietal network, in relation to task performance.

Scientific Applications:

• Impact of Focal Lesions on Cognition and Behavior: Analyzes how focal brain lesions affect cognitive and behavioral measures, exemplified by category fluency performance.
• Network-level Disconnection Studies: Elucidates interactions between brain areas and network disconnections relevant to neuropsychology and neurology.

Methodology:

Applied to patient data (study of 37 patients with focal frontal brain lesions) using structural and functional connectivity data and cortical thickness estimates to identify directly and indirectly disconnected regions and assess their association with category fluency.