toimintavirrankeskinäisyyttä

Toimintavirrankeskinäisyyttä, often translated as functional connectivity, refers to the temporal correlation or statistical dependency between the activity of different brain regions. It is a concept used in neuroscience to understand how various parts of the brain work together to perform cognitive tasks. Unlike structural connectivity, which describes the physical pathways between neurons, functional connectivity focuses on the statistical relationships of neural activity over time.

This connectivity is typically measured using neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or electroencephalography (EEG). When two or more brain regions consistently show similar patterns of activation or deactivation during specific tasks or even during rest, they are considered to be functionally connected. This implies that these regions are likely involved in a shared neural process.

Functional connectivity can be dynamic, meaning that the relationships between brain regions can change over time depending on the cognitive demands. For example, during a visual task, areas involved in visual processing might become highly functionally connected, whereas during a motor task, different networks would exhibit strong functional coupling. Studying functional connectivity helps researchers map brain networks and understand how these networks contribute to complex behaviors, cognition, and how they might be altered in neurological or psychiatric disorders.