The Neuroplasticity Lab, in collaboration with Michael Deem‘s group from Rice Bioengineering, has recently published two papers linking individual differences brain network organization to cognitive abilities.

The first, Brain Modularity Mediates the Relation between Task Complexity and Performance, published in the September issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience with Qiuhai Yue as the first author, demonstrates that individuals with highly modular brains perform better a single cognitive tasks, like attentional cueing, while individuals with less modular brains perform better on complex cognitive tasks, like complex working memory spans.

The second, Static and Dynamic Measures of Human Brain Connectivity Predict Complementary Aspects of Human Cognitive Performance, just published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience with Aurora Ramos Nuñez as the first author, demonstrates a strong relationship between two measures of individual brain networks (flexibility and modularity), while furthermore that each measures makes a unique contributions to explaining task performance.