There is an ongoing need for novel biomarkers in clinical neuroscience, as diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric disorders is hampered by the pronounced overlap of behavioral symptoms and other pathophysiological characteristics. The question that this Focus Feature puts center stage is whether network-based biomarkers may provide a viable tool for distinguishing between disordered populations or whether they may yield only limited differentiating power because of largely shared network characteristics across conditions.

Clinical network neuroscience, the study of brain network topology in neurological and psychiatric diseases, has become a mainstay field within clinical neuroscience. Being a multidisciplinary group of clinical network neuroscience experts based in The Netherlands, we often discuss the current state of the art and possible avenues for future investigations. These discussions revolve around questions like “How do dynamic processes alter the underlying structural network?” and “Can we use network neuroscience for disease classification?” This opinion paper is an incomplete overview of these discussions and expands on ten questions that may potentially advance the field. By no means intended as a review of the current state of the field, it is instead meant as a conversation starter and source of inspiration to others.