Disrupted small-world brain network in children with Down Syndrome

Abstract

To explore how the global organization or topology of the functional brain connectivity (FBC) is affected in Down Syndrome (DS). As the brain is a highly complex network including numerous nonlinearly interacted neuronal areas, the FBCs of typically developing (TD) children and DS patients were computed using a nonlinear synchronization method. Then the differences in global organization of the obtained FBCs of the two groups were analyzed, in all electroencephalogram (EEG) frequency bands, in the framework of Small-Worldness Network (a network with optimum balance between segregation and integration of information). The topology of the functional connectivity of DS patients is disrupted in the whole brain in alpha and theta bands, and especially in the left intra-hemispheric brain networks in upper alpha band. The global organization of the DS brain does not resemble a Small-World network, but it works as a random network. It is the first study on global organization of the FBC in DS.