Understanding the human brain is one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st century. The Human Connectome Project (HCP) represents a concerted attack on a key aspect of this challenge: elucidating the neural pathways that underlie brain function. Deciphering this amazingly complex wiring diagram will reveal much about what makes us uniquely human and what makes every person different from all others.
The HCP will comprehensively map human brain circuitry in 1,200 healthy adults using cutting-edge methods of noninvasive neuroimaging. It will yield invaluable information about brain connectivity, its relationship to behavior, and the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in brain circuitry.
Results will be made freely available to the scientific community via the ConnectomeDB database and the Connectome Workbench visualization platform. This will include unprecedented ‘fly-through’ capabilities for navigating brain pathways and identifying neural circuits associated with different behavioral capacities.
Successful charting of the human connectome in normal adults will be enormously informative. Even more importantly, it will pave the way for studies that reveal how brain circuitry changes during development and aging and how it differs in numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders. In short, it will transform our understanding of the human brain in health and disease.
