GyralNet Subnetwork Partitioning via Differentiable Spectral Modularity Optimization

Understanding the structural and functional organization of the human brain requires a detailed examination of cortical folding patterns, among which the three-hinge gyrus (3HG) has been identified as a key structural landmark. GyralNet, a network representation of cortical folding, models 3HGs as nodes and gyral crests as edges, highlighting their role as critical hubs in cortico-cortical connectivity. However, existing methods for analyzing 3HGs face significant challenges, including the sub-voxel scale of 3HGs at typical neuroimaging resolutions, the computational complexity of establishing cross-subject correspondences, and the oversimplification of treating 3HGs as independent nodes without considering their community-level relationships. To address these limitations, we propose a fully differentiable subnetwork partitioning framework that employs a spectral modularity maximization optimization strategy to modularize the organization of 3HGs within GyralNet. By incorporating topological structural similarity and DTI-derived connectivity patterns as attribute features, our approach provides a biologically meaningful representation of cortical organization. Extensive experiments on the Human Connectome Project (HCP) dataset demonstrate that our method effectively partitions GyralNet at the individual level while preserving the community-level consistency of 3HGs across subjects, offering a robust foundation for understanding brain connectivity.

@article{zhuang2025_2503.19823,
  title={ GyralNet Subnetwork Partitioning via Differentiable Spectral Modularity Optimization },
  author={ Yan Zhuang and Minheng Chen and Chao Cao and Tong Chen and Jing Zhang and Xiaowei Yu and Yanjun Lyu and Lu Zhang and Tianming Liu and Dajiang Zhu },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.19823},
  year={ 2025 }
}