Functional corticostriatal connection topographies predict goal directed behaviour in humans

Abstract

Anatomical tracing studies in non-human primates have suggested that corticostriatal connectivity is topographically organized: nearby locations in striatum are connected with nearby locations in cortex. The topographic organization of corticostriatal connectivity is thought to underpin many goal-directed behaviours, but these topographies have not been completely characterised in humans and their relationship to uniquely human behaviours remains to be fully determined. Instead, the dominant approach employs parcellations that cannot model the continuous nature of the topography, nor accommodate overlapping cortical projections in the striatum. Here, we employ a different approach to studying human corticostriatal circuitry: we estimate smoothly-varying and spatially overlapping connection topographies from resting state fMRI. These correspond exceptionally well with and extend the topographies predicted from primate tracing studies. We show that striatal topography is preserved in regions not previously known to have topographic connections with the striatum and that many goal-directed behaviours can be mapped precisely onto individual variations in the spatial layout of striatal connectivity.