Abstract
Author SummaryThe disruption of normal brain organization in humans is believed to underlie a number of behavioral conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To gain insight into how normal brain organization develops, we mapped functional brain connectivity in children and young adults, and used a network analysis to characterize and compare the organization of brain networks. Comparison of network properties revealed that while children and young adults' brains have similar organization at the global level, there were several key differences in connectivity. For example, children's brains had less of a hierarchical organization than young-adults. Most importantly, we show that the dynamic process of over-connectivity followed by pruning, which rewires connectivity at the neuronal level, also operates at the systems level, reconfiguring and rebalancing subcortical and paralimbic connectivity in the developing brain. Our findings demonstrate the utility of using network analyses of multimodal brain connectivity to study maturation of brain circuits, and suggest new avenues for future research on neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD and ADHD.
Highlights
Understanding the development of human brain organization is critical for gaining insight into brain organization and functions in adulthood as well as for investigating disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), where normal developmental processes are disrupted
Our findings demonstrate the utility of using network analyses of multimodal brain connectivity to study maturation of brain circuits, and suggest new avenues for future research on neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD and ADHD
Our findings suggest that large-scale brain networks derived from task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have a robust functional organization in 7–9y-old children
Summary
Understanding the development of human brain organization is critical for gaining insight into brain organization and functions in adulthood as well as for investigating disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), where normal developmental processes are disrupted. Neuroimaging studies of development have primarily focused on structural changes from childhood, to adolescence, and into adulthood These studies have reported age-related changes in (1) overall brain volumes [1,2], (2) volumes of individual brain areas [3,4], (3) regional cortical thickness [5,6], as well as (4) regional and global grey-matter and white-matter densities [7,8,9]. These studies have suggested that the human brain undergoes vast developmental changes in grey and white matter structure between childhood and adulthood. In spite of growing evidence from these studies for patterned brain development, the functional organization of the human brain in childhood is not well understood and it is not clear how the above structural changes translate to differences in functional brain organization between children and adults
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