The organization of the human striatum estimated by intrinsic functional connectivity

The striatum is connected to the cerebral cortex through multiple anatomical loops that process sensory, limbic, and heteromodal information. Tract-tracing studies in the monkey reveal that these corticostriatal connections form stereotyped patterns in the striatum. Here the organization of the striatum was explored in the human with resting-state functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI). Data from 1,000 subjects were registered with nonlinear deformation of the striatum in combination with surface-based alignment of the cerebral cortex. fcMRI maps derived from seed regions placed in the foot and tongue representations of the motor cortex yielded the expected inverted somatotopy in the putamen. fcMRI maps derived…