1 Biomedical Imaging Research Institute (BIRI), Department of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2 Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Neuroscientist. 2017 Apr;23(2):169-184. doi: 10.1177/1073858416635986. Epub 2016 Jul 7.
Infancy is a critical and immensely important period in human brain development. Subtle changes during this stage may be greatly amplified with the unfolding of different developmental processes, exerting far-reaching consequences. Studies of the structure and behavioral manifestations of the infant brain are fruitful. However, the specific functional brain mechanisms that enable the execution of different behaviors remained elusive until the advent of functional connectivity fMRI (fcMRI), which provides an unprecedented opportunity to probe the infant functional brain development in vivo. Since its inception, a burgeoning field of infant brain functional connectivity study has emerged and thrived during the past decade. In this review, we describe (1) findings of normal development of functional connectivity networks and their relationships to behaviors and (2) disruptions of the normative functional connectivity development due to identifiable genetic and/or environmental risk factors during the first 2 years of human life. Technical considerations of infant fcMRI are also provided. It is our hope to consolidate previous findings so that the field can move forward with a clearer picture toward the ultimate goal of fcMRI-based objective methods for early diagnosis/identification of risks and evaluation of early interventions to optimize developing functional connectivity networks in this critical developmental window.
婴儿期是人类大脑发育的关键和极其重要的时期。在此阶段，细微的变化可能会随着不同发育过程的展开而被大大放大，产生深远的影响。研究婴儿大脑的结构和行为表现是富有成效的。然而，直到功能连接磁共振成像（fcMRI）的出现，特定的功能性大脑机制才得以揭示，这些机制使不同行为的执行成为可能，为在体研究婴儿功能性大脑发育提供了前所未有的机会。自诞生以来，婴儿大脑功能连接研究领域蓬勃发展，在过去十年中取得了丰硕的成果。在这篇综述中，我们描述了（1）功能连接网络正常发育的发现及其与行为的关系，以及（2）在人类生命的头 2 年中，由于可识别的遗传和/或环境风险因素，正常功能连接发育的中断。还提供了婴儿 fcMRI 的技术考虑因素。我们希望将以前的发现整合起来，以便该领域能够朝着基于 fcMRI 的客观方法的最终目标前进，以便在这个关键的发育窗口中，对早期诊断/识别风险和评估早期干预措施进行优化，从而改善发育中的功能连接网络。
