Bar-Haim, Y. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Evolution and Human Neural Individuality

Individuality is a defining feature of human biology. The functional network architecture of the human brain harbors person-specific qualities and forms individualized connectivity profiles that function as a neural fingerprint, both stable and unique across time. Here, using fMRI data from 431 Human Connectome Project participants, we examined whether neural individuality is more strongly exhibited in brain regions bearing signatures of recent human evolution. We calculated region-wise fingerprinting accuracy and associated it with four properties of evolutionary cortical organization: cortical expansion, myelin content estimate (T1w/T2w), human-specific gene-expression profiles, and functional homology to other primates. Across all four measures, neural individuality was strongest in cortical areas showing greater evolutionary novelty in humans, particularly frontoparietal control and default mode networks, and weaker in more conserved primary regions. Our findings connect evolutionary variation across species with stable functional variation among individuals.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Effective psychological treatment for PTSD changes the dynamics of specific large-scale brain networks

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWVery little is known about the role of effective cognitive therapy in reversing imbalances in brain activity after trauma. We hypothesised that exaggerated threat perception characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and subsequent recovery from this disorder, are underpinned by changes in the dynamics of large-scale brain networks. Here, we use a novel data-driven approach with high temporal precision to find recurring brain networks from fMRI data and estimate when these networks become active during exposure to either trauma reminders or neutral pictures. We found that PTSD patients spend less time in two default mode sub-networks in contrast to trauma-exposed healthy controls, and that PTSD symptom severity correlates positively with time spent in the salience network during exposure to trauma reminders. The former are important for different aspects of self-referential processing and the latter for detection of threat. Importantly, the decreased time in the default mode sub-networks is rebalanced after successful cognitive therapy for PTSD. Our results show that remittance of PTSD through trauma-focused cognitive therapy is associated with the successful reinstatement of a healthy balance in self-referential and threat detection brain networks.

neuroscience↗