Community detection in network neuroscience

Many real-world networks, including nervous systems, exhibit meso-scale structure. This means that their elements can be grouped into meaningful sub-networks. In general, these sub-networks are unknown ahead of time and must be “discovered” algorithmically using community detection methods. In this article, we review evidence that nervous systems exhibit meso-scale structure in the form of communities, clusters, and modules. We also provide a set of guidelines to assist users in applying community detection methods to their own network data. These guidelines focus on the method of modularity maximization but, in many cases, are general and applicable to other techniques.