超越白质拓扑：皮层几何塑造听觉剥夺后面孔加工可塑性的空间模式。

文献信息

中文摘要

人脑能够根据经验调整其功能，这种可塑性介导了个体经验对认知和行为的影响。传统观点提出，功能性脑可塑性主要由白质纤维网络的重路由驱动，即拓扑连接。然而，越来越多的证据表明内在几何特征约束神经动力学，这提示脑可塑性也可能受到皮层几何的塑造。然而，直接支持这一假设的实证证据仍然很少。在此，我们结合多变量分析框架与多模态神经影像，考察白质拓扑和皮层几何如何共同约束先天性听觉剥夺后面孔加工可塑性的群体水平空间模式。我们的结果表明，听觉剥夺诱导的功能可塑性主要表现为从既有面孔加工网络核心区域向外扩展的空间模式。白质拓扑和皮层几何均与该群体水平可塑性图的空间分布相关，其中皮层几何解释的空间方差比例虽不大但高于拓扑连接。全脑本征模式分析进一步显示，在中等空间尺度上，聋人参与者的面孔加工激活与几何本征模式的对齐程度更高，而连接组本征模式没有可比差异。此外，跨组预测分析表明，涉及拓扑和几何特性的结构-功能关联可以部分跨感觉经验泛化。综上所述，这些发现提示，皮层几何作为结构支架的一个组成部分，与白质拓扑一起参与群体水平功能可塑性的空间组织，这与其空间模式受到互补结构约束相一致。

英文摘要

The human brain can adapt its function in response to experience, and such plasticity mediates the influence of individual experience on cognition and behavior. Traditional accounts propose that functional brain plasticity is primarily driven by the rerouting of white matter fiber networks, that is, topological connectivity. However, accumulating evidence that intrinsic geometric features constrain neural dynamics raises the possibility that brain plasticity may also be shaped by cortical geometry. Yet, direct empirical support for this hypothesis remains scarce. Here, we combined a multivariate analytical framework with multimodal neuroimaging to examine how white matter topology and cortical geometry jointly constrain the group-level spatial pattern of face-processing plasticity following congenital auditory deprivation. Our results showed that auditory deprivation-induced functional plasticity primarily exhibited a spatial pattern of outward expansion from the core regions of the pre-existing face-processing network. Both white matter topology and cortical geometry were associated with the spatial distribution of this group-level plasticity map, with cortical geometry explaining a modest but greater portion of its spatial variance than topological connectivity. Whole-brain eigenmode analysis further showed greater alignment of face-processing activation with geometric eigenmodes in deaf participants at intermediate spatial scales, with no comparable differences for connectome eigenmodes. Moreover, cross-group predictive analyses indicated that structure-function associations involving topological and geometric properties can partially generalize across sensory experience. Taken together, these findings suggest that cortical geometry, as one component of the structural scaffold, contributes to the spatial organization of group-level functional plasticity alongside white matter topology, consistent with complementary structural constraints on its spatial pattern.