Department of Neuroscience

Research Abstract

My laboratory studies the structure, function, connectivity, development, and evolution of cerebral cortex in humans and nonhuman primates. We use neuroimaging and neuroanatomical data extensively for these studies, acquired mainly through collaborative efforts with colleagues at Washington University and other institutions. A major emphasis within my lab is on the development and utilization of methods for computerized brain mapping as well as neuroinformatics tools that facilitate data analysis and data mining. I have served as a Principal Investigator for the Human Connectome Project (HCP), a large-scale effort to acquire, analyze, and freely share high-quality neuroimaging data from 1200 healthy adults, in order to enable exploration of brain connectivity and its relationship to behavior. We are particularly interested in using HCP and other high-quality datasets to better understand cortical parcellation and connectivity in humans and nonhuman primates.

Selected Publications

• Van Essen, D.C. (2020) A 2020 View of Tension-Based Cortical Morphogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2020 Dec 15:202016830. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2016830117. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33323481
• Van Essen, D.C., Donahue, C.J., Coalson, T., Kennedy, H., Hayashi, T., Glaser, M.F. (2019) Cerebral cortical folding, parcellation, and connectivity in human, nonhuman primates, and mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci 116:26173-80. doi: 10.1073/pnas. 1902299116
• Van Essen, D.C. and Glasser, M.F. (2018) Parcellating cerebral cortex: How invasive animal studies inform non-invasive map-making in humans. Neuron 99:640-663.
• Coalson, T., D.C. Van Essen, and M.F. Glasser. (2018) Lost in space: The impact of traditional neuroimaging methods on the spatial localization of cortical areas. Proc Natl Acad Sci 115: E6356-E6365
• Glasser, M.F., Smith, S.M., Marcus, D.S., Andersson, J. Auerbach, E.J., Behrens, T.E.J., Coalson, T.S., Harms, M.P., Jenkinson, M. Moeller, S., Robinson, E.C., Sotiropoulos, S.N., Xu, J, Yacoub, E., Ugurbil, K., and Van Essen, D.C. (2016) The Human Connectome Project's neuroimaging approach.  Nature Neuroscience 19: 1175-1187 (doi:10.1038/nn.4361). PMID: 27571196
• Glasser, M.F., T.S. Coalson, E.C. Robinson, C.D. Hacker, J. Harwell, E. Yacoub, K. Ugurbil, J. Andersson, C.F. Beckmann, M. Jenkinson, S.M. Smith, and D.C. Van Essen. (2016) A multi-modal parcellation of human cerebral cortex. Nature 536: 171-178.  (doi: 10.1038/nature18933). PMID: 27437579
• Markov, N.T., Ercsey-Ravasz, M.M., Ribeiro Gomes, A.R., Lamy, C., Magrou, L., Vezoli, J., Misery, P., Falchier, A., Quilodran, R., Gariel, M.A., Sallet, J., Gamanut, R., Huissoud, C., Clavagnier, S., Giroud, P., Sappey-Marinier, D., Barone, P., Dehay, C., Toroczkai, Z., Knoblauch, K., Van Essen, D.C., and Kennedy, H. A weighted and directed interareal connectivity matrix for macaque cerebral cortex. Cereb Cortex. (2014) 24:17-36. Epub 2012/09/27.  PMID: 23010748
• Felleman DJ and Van Essen DC. (1991) Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cereb Cortex. (1991) 1:1-47. doi: 10.1093/cercor/1.1.1.PMID: 1822724

For a complete list of Dr. Van Essen's publications, click here.