Hierarchy of Connectivity–Function Relationship of the Human Cortex Revealed through Predicting Activity across Functional Domains

Many studies showed that anatomical connectivity supports both anatomical and functional hierarchies that span across the primary and association cortices in the cerebral cortex. Even though a structure–function relationship has been indicated to uncouple in the association cortex, it is still unknown whether anatomical connectivity can predict functional activations to the same degree throughout the cortex, and it remains unclear whether a hierarchy of this connectivity–function relationship (CFR) exists across the human cortex. We first addressed whether anatomical connectivity could be used to predict functional activations across different functional domains using multilinear regression models. Then, we characterized the CFR by predicting activity from anatomical connectivity throughout the cortex. We found that there is a hierarchy of CFR between sensory–motor and association cortices. Moreover, this CFR hierarchy was correlated to the functional and anatomical hierarchies, respectively, reflected in functional flexibility and the myelin map. Our results suggest a shared hierarchical mechanism in the cortex, a finding which provides important insights into the anatomical and functional organizations of the human brain.