Topological gene expression networks recapitulate brain anatomy and function

• DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00094
• Publication Date: 2019-05-03T13:36:43Z
• Authors: Alice Patania; Pierluigi Selvaggi; Mattia Veronese; Ottavia Dipasquale; Paul Expert; Giovanni Petri
• Keywords: Expression (computer science)

Understanding how gene expression translates to and affects human behavior is one of the ultimate goals neuroscience. In this paper, we present a pipeline based on Mapper, topological simplification tool, analyze co-expression data. We first validate method by reproducing key results from literature Allen Human Brain Atlas correlations between resting-state fMRI maps. then dopamine-related set find that networks produced Mapper return structure matches well-known anatomy dopaminergic pathway. Our suggest network descriptions can be powerful tool explore relationships genetic pathways their association with brain function its perturbation due illness and/or pharmacological challenges.