Fig. 1: Characterizing neural heterogeneity at the level of brain regions, functional circuits and extended networks.

A schematic showing how neural heterogeneity can be characterized at different scales. Nodes represent different brain regions, edges represent functional coupling (FC) between nodes and colored areas correspond to different functional networks of the brain. At the regional level (left), deviations from normative model predictions are localized to specific brain regions in each individual. Red nodes show the locations of such deviations mapped in two different people. A circuit-level analysis (middle) reveals areas that are functionally coupled to the deviant loci. In this work, we define a functional circuit as the set of regions that show significant FC with a specific deviant region (orange). In this example, the two deviant areas are coupled to a common region (black arrow) despite being located in different areas themselves. These circuits can be embedded within extended networks (right) that include regions that may not be directly coupled to the deviant regions, but which nonetheless participate within the same functional system (yellow).