Three-Dimensional Mean-Shift Edge Bundling for the Visualization of Functional Connectivity in the Brain

Abstract

Functional connectivity, a flourishing new area of research in human neuroscience, carries a substantial challenge for visualization: while the end points of connectivity are known, the precise path between them is not. Although a large body of work already exists on the visualization of anatomical connectivity, the functional counterpart lacks similar development. To optimize the clarity of whole-brain and complex connectivity patterns in three-dimensional brain space, we develop mean-shift edge bundling, which reveals the multitude of connections as derived from correlations in the brain activity of cortical regions.