Macroscale angioarchitectural properties of functional and structural networks

Motivation: Previous findings from fMRI and from structural microvascular observations link vascular activity or structural organisation with neuronal activity. Goal(s): To verify whether macrovascular properties are related to functional (FC) and structural connectivity (SC), as well as function-structure coupling (SDI). Approach: FC and SC node strength, SDI, and vascular density and distance were compared, using a venous atlas, the Human Connectome Project data, and one subject of the Natural Scene Dataset for which we obtained an arteries-dominated vascular map. Results: Correlations between veins-dominated vascular properties, FC, and SDI, suggest a link between density and proximity of venous structures and connectivity strength of an area. Impact: Cerebral angioarchitecture is often overlooked in integrated multimodal MRI modelling, but its properties can help understanding the nature of BOLD-fMRI-based “vascular” or “physiological” networks.