Rich club analysis of structural brain connectivity at 7 tesla versus 3 tesla
The ‘rich club’ is a relatively new concept in brain connectivity analysis, which identifies a core of densely interconnected high-degree nodes. Establishing normative measures for rich club organization is vital, as is understanding how scanning parameters affect it.We compared the rich club organization in 23 subjects scanned at both 7 and 3 T, with 128-gradient high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI). The rich club coefficient (RCC) did not differ significantly between low and high field scans, but the field strength did affect which nodes were included in the rich club. We also examined 3 subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and 3 healthy elderly controls to see how field strength affected the statistical comparison. RCC did not differ with field strength, but again, which nodes differed between groups did. These results illustrate how one key parameter, scanner field strength, impacts rich club organization – a promising concept in brain connectomics research.
