Skip to main content
. 2022 Jan 14;12:732. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-04462-7

Table 2.

Graph theory metrics.

Term Description Computation
Clustering coefficient A fraction of a node’s neighbors that are also neighbours of each other; a measure of clustered connectivity around individual nodes C=1ninCi=1nin2tiki(ki-1)
In the context of CT networks, it reflects uniformity of CT with respect to individual nodes n = the total number of nodes
Ci = the clustering coefficient of node i
ki = the degree of node i
Ci = 0 for ki < 2
Normalized clustering coefficient Ratio of the mean clustering coefficient C and normalization factor Crnad computed as the mean clustering coefficient of 10 random networks (see below) with the same number of nodes and edges as the tested input network Cnorm=CCrand
Characteristic pathlength A measure of network integration representing the number of edges typically required to connect pairs of nodes in the network L=1niNLi=1niNjN·jidij-1n-1
In the context of CT networks, path length represents the number of required indirect correlations surpassing the sparsity threshold Li = the average distance between node i and all other nodes
dij = the distance from node i to node j
Normalized pathlength The ratio of characteristic path length L and a normalization factor Lrnad based on 10 random networks, as described above Lnorm=LLrand
Small-world index Describes a topology featuring numerous short-range connections with an admixture of few long-range connections; balances specialized and distributed processing while minimizing wiring costs. Small-world networks lie on a continuum between regular networks, in which each node has the same number of edges, and random networks, in which nodes are connected to other nodes with a random probability S=CnormLnorm