Authors: Wei Gao Sarael Alcauter J Keith Smith John H Gilmore Weili Lin
Publish Date: 2014/01/28
Volume: 220, Issue: 2, Pages: 1173-1186
Abstract
The brain’s mature functional network architecture has been extensively studied but the early emergence of the brain’s network organization remains largely unknown In this study leveraging a large sample 143 subjects with longitudinal rsfMRI scans 333 datasets we aimed to characterize the important developmental process of the brain’s functional network architecture during the first 2 years of life Based on spatial independent component analysis and longitudinal linear mixed effect modeling our results unveiled the detailed topology and growth trajectories of nine cortical functional networks Within networks our findings clearly separated the brains networks into two categories primary networks were topologically adultlike in neonates while higherorder networks were topologically incomplete and isolated in neonates but demonstrated consistent synchronization during the first 2 years of life connectivity increases 013–035 Between networks our results demonstrated both networklevel connectivity decreases −002 to −064 and increases 005–018 but decreasing connections n = 14 dominated increasing ones n = 5 Finally significant sex differences were observed with boys demonstrating faster networklevel connectivity increases among the two frontoparietal networks growth rate was 163e4 per day for girls and 269e4 per day for boys p 1e4 Overall our study delineated the development of the whole brain functional architecture during the first 2 years of life featuring significant changes of both within and betweennetwork interactions
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