Advances of high-order interactions in the human brain: Applications in aging and neurodegeneration.

Abstract

The human brain generates a large repertoire of spatio-temporal patterns, which supporta wide variety of motor, cognitive, and behavioral functions. The most acceptedhypothesis in modern neuroscience is that each of these representations is encoded indifferent brain networks. From MRI, networks can be defined anatomically (¿structuralconnectivity¿-SC) or functionally (¿functional connectivity¿-FC). Interestingly, while SCis by definition pairwise (white matter fibers project from one region to another), FC isnot. In this thesis we have focused on the study of high-order interactions (HOI) that occur in functional networks, beyond the existing statistical relationships in pairs of regions.When evaluating the interacting n-plets, from triplets to order n, a novel type of statistical interdependencies appear, namely the synergistic and redundant interactions,which are inaccessible when evaluating interacting pairs. The study of these HOI inthe human brain in aging and neurodegeneration is the purpose of this thesis.