connectopathy

English

Etymology

From connect +‎ -o- +‎ -pathy.

Noun

connectopathy (plural connectopathies)

1. (neurology) An atypical presentation or functioning of neural connections within the human brain.
   • 2012, Sebastian Seung, Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are‎^[1], page 295:

     Any initial abnormality in connectivity might also lead to abnormal activity patterns, which could cause further development of abnormal connectivity. Connectopathy would accompany schizophrenia, but it would be difficult to say which is cause and which is effect.

   • 2017, Takao Yamasaki, Toshihiko Maekawa, Takako Fujita, & Shozo Tobimatsu, "Connectopathy in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of Evidence from Visual Evoked Potentials and Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging", Frontiers in Neuroscience, Volume 11 (link):

     Recent data have suggested that the atypical visual perception observed in ASD is caused by altered connectivity within parallel visual pathways and attention networks, thereby contributing to the impaired social communication observed in ASD. Therefore, we conclude that the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of ASD constitutes a “connectopathy.”

   • 2023, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Malady of the Mind: Schizophrenia and the Path to Prevention‎^[2], page 128:

     If the latter, then schizophrenia was, in neurobiological parlance, a connectopathy— a disease rooted in how cells communicate with one another—and thus not readily discernable in slices or sections of postmortem brain tissue.