Anatomical Connectivity Constrains Dynamic Functional Connectivity among Neural Systems: Implications for Cognition and Behavior.

Abstract

Leslie Ungerleider had a tremendous impact across many different areas of cognitive neuroscience. Her ideas and her approach, as well as her findings, will continue to impact the field for generations to come. One of the most impactful aspects of her approach was her focus on the ways that anatomical connections constrain functional communications among brain regions. Furthermore, she emphasized that changes in these functional communications, whether from lesions to the anatomical connections or temporary modulations of the efficacy of information transmission resulting from selective attention, have consequences for cognition and behavior. By necessity, this short review cannot cover the vast amount of research that contributed to or benefited from Leslie's work. Rather, we focus on one line of research that grew directly from some of Leslie's early work and her mentoring on these important concepts. This research and the many other lines of research that arose from these same origins has helped develop our understanding of the visual system, and cognitive systems more generally, as collections of highly organized, specialized, dynamic, and interacting subsystems.