Kelly A M Clare, Di Martino Adriana, Uddin Lucina Q, Shehzad Zarrar, Gee Dylan G, Reiss Philip T, Margulies Daniel S, Castellanos F Xavier, Milham Michael P
Phyllis Green and Randolph Cōwen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience at the NYU Child Study Center, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2009 Mar;19(3):640-57. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhn117. Epub 2008 Jul 24.
Human cerebral development is remarkably protracted. Although microstructural processes of neuronal maturation remain accessible only to morphometric post-mortem studies, neuroimaging tools permit the examination of macrostructural aspects of brain development. The analysis of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) offers novel possibilities for the investigation of cerebral development. Using seed-based FC methods, we examined the development of 5 functionally distinct cingulate-based intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) in children (n = 14, 10.6 +/- 1.5 years), adolescents (n = 12, 15.4 +/- 1.2) and young adults (n=14, 22.4 +/- 1.2). Children demonstrated a more diffuse pattern of correlation with voxels proximal to the seed region of interest (ROI) ("local FC"), whereas adults exhibited more focal patterns of FC, as well as a greater number of significantly correlated voxels at long distances from the seed ROI. Adolescents exhibited intermediate patterns of FC. Consistent with evidence for different maturational time courses, ICNs associated with social and emotional functions exhibited the greatest developmental effects. Our findings demonstrate the utility of FC for the study of developing functional organization. Moreover, given that ICNs are thought to have an anatomical basis in neuronal connectivity, measures of FC may provide a quantitative index of brain maturation in healthy subjects and those with neurodevelopmental disorders.
人类大脑发育过程极为漫长。虽然神经元成熟的微观结构过程目前仅能通过形态学尸检研究来探究，但神经成像工具使我们能够对大脑发育的宏观结构方面进行检查。静息态功能连接（FC）分析为研究大脑发育提供了新的可能性。我们采用基于种子点的FC方法，对儿童（n = 14，10.6 ± 1.5岁）、青少年（n = 12，15.4 ± 1.2岁）和青年成年人（n = 14，22.4 ± 1.2岁）中5个功能不同的基于扣带回的固有连接网络（ICN）的发育情况进行了研究。儿童在与感兴趣种子区域（ROI）附近体素的相关性上呈现出更分散的模式（“局部FC”），而成年人则表现出更集中的FC模式，并且在距种子ROI较远的距离处有更多显著相关的体素。青少年呈现出FC的中间模式。与不同成熟时间进程的证据一致，与社会和情感功能相关的ICN表现出最大的发育效应。我们的研究结果证明了FC在研究发育中的功能组织方面的实用性。此外，鉴于ICN被认为在神经元连接方面具有解剖学基础，FC测量可能为健康受试者以及患有神经发育障碍的受试者提供大脑成熟度量化指标。
