Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
Neuroimage. 2012 Nov 15;63(3):1223-36. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.08.021. Epub 2012 Aug 11.
Greater expertise for faces in adults than in children may be achieved by a dynamic interplay of functional segregation and integration of brain regions throughout development. The present study examined developmental changes in face network functional connectivity in children (5-12 years) and adults (18-43 years) during face-viewing using a graph-theory approach. A face-specific developmental change involved connectivity of the right occipital face area. During childhood, this node increased in strength and within-module clustering based on positive connectivity. These changes reflect an important role of the ROFA in segregation of function during childhood. In addition, strength and diversity of connections within a module that included primary visual areas (left and right calcarine) and limbic regions (left hippocampus and right inferior orbitofrontal cortex) increased from childhood to adulthood, reflecting increased visuo-limbic integration. This integration was pronounced for faces but also emerged for natural objects. Taken together, the primary face-specific developmental changes involved segregation of a posterior visual module during childhood, possibly implicated in early stage perceptual face processing, and greater integration of visuo-limbic connections from childhood to adulthood, which may reflect processing related to development of perceptual expertise for individuation of faces and other visually homogenous categories.
成年人在面孔处理方面的专业知识可能优于儿童,这可能是由于大脑区域在整个发育过程中功能分离和整合的动态相互作用所致。本研究使用图论方法,考察了儿童(5-12 岁)和成人(18-43 岁)在观看面孔时面孔网络功能连接的发育变化。面孔特异性的发育变化涉及到右侧枕面区的连接。在儿童期,这个节点的强度和基于正连接的模块内聚类增加。这些变化反映了 ROFA 在儿童期功能分离中的重要作用。此外,包括初级视觉区域(左右距状裂)和边缘区域(左海马体和右下眶额皮质)的模块内连接的强度和多样性从儿童期到成年期增加,反映了视觉-边缘的整合增加。这种整合在面孔上表现明显,但在自然物体上也出现。总的来说,主要的面孔特异性发育变化涉及到儿童期后期一个后视觉模块的分离,可能与早期的感知面孔处理有关,以及从儿童期到成年期视觉-边缘连接的更大整合,这可能反映了与感知专长发展相关的处理,用于个体识别面孔和其他视觉同质类别。