Scientists Identify the Brain’s Activity Hub

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In the study, a collaboration that included the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Harvard and Indiana University, researchers studied the brains of five healthy male volunteers using a new technique called diffusion spectrum imaging. The technique allows scientists to estimate the density and orientation of the connections running through specific brain locations. Using a computer analysis of the results, the researchers ranked the busiest spots on the cortex in order, by the number of connections they had. Finally, they plotted those spots back onto the brain maps of the five volunteers. The hubs clustered in each man’s brain, in a region about the size of a palm, were centered atop the cortex like a small skullcap.