Mapping and Modelling Network Hubs of the Human Connectome

This thesis aims to better understand highly connected regions of the human brain, termed network hubs, which are essential for coordinated brain function. Using a combination of brain imaging and mathematical modelling, the findings of the thesis show the way in which network hubs are defined can depend on methods used for data processing and quantification, and that simple network wiring rules are sufficient to account for the emergence of hubs in brain networks, but not their spatial location. This work identifies optimum methods for brain network mapping and sheds new light on how network hubs develop.