State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875 China; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875 China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875 China.
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875 China; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875 China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875 China.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 Apr;30:223-235. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.03.003. Epub 2018 Mar 8.
Early childhood (7-8 years old) and early adolescence (11-12 years old) constitute two landmark developmental stages that comprise considerable changes in neural cognition. However, very limited information from functional neuroimaging studies exists on the functional topological configuration of the human brain during specific developmental periods. In the present study, we utilized continuous resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (rs-fNIRS) imaging data to examine topological changes in network organization during development from early childhood and early adolescence to adulthood. Our results showed that the properties of small-worldness and modularity were not significantly different across development, demonstrating the developmental maturity of important functional brain organization in early childhood. Intriguingly, young children had a significantly lower global efficiency than early adolescents and adults, which revealed that the integration of the distributed networks strengthens across the developmental stages underlying cognitive development. Moreover, local efficiency of young children and adolescents was significantly lower than that of adults, while there was no difference between these two younger groups. This finding demonstrated that functional segregation remained relatively steady from early childhood to early adolescence, and the brain in these developmental periods possesses no optimal network configuration. Furthermore, we found heterogeneous developmental patterns in the regional nodal properties in various brain regions, such as linear increased nodal properties in the frontal cortex, indicating increasing cognitive capacity over development. Collectively, our results demonstrated that significant topological changes in functional network organization occurred during these two critical developmental stages, and provided a novel insight into elucidating subtle changes in brain functional networks across development.
早期儿童期（7-8 岁）和早期青春期（11-12 岁）是两个重要的发展阶段，在此期间大脑的神经认知会发生巨大变化。然而，目前关于特定发育阶段人类大脑功能拓扑结构的功能神经影像学研究信息非常有限。在本研究中，我们利用连续静息态近红外光谱功能成像(rs-fNIRS)数据，研究了从早期儿童期、早期青春期到成年期的大脑网络组织的拓扑结构变化。研究结果表明，小世界属性和模块性在发育过程中没有显著差异，这表明早期儿童期重要的大脑功能组织已经发育成熟。有趣的是，与青少年和成年人相比，幼儿的全局效率显著较低，这表明在认知发展的各个发展阶段，分布式网络的整合能力都在增强。此外，幼儿和青少年的局部效率明显低于成年人，而这两个年轻组之间没有差异。这一发现表明，从早期儿童期到早期青春期，功能分离保持相对稳定，而这些发育阶段的大脑没有最佳的网络配置。此外，我们还发现了不同脑区的区域节点属性的异质发育模式，例如额叶皮质中节点属性呈线性增加，这表明认知能力在发育过程中不断提高。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，在这两个关键的发育阶段，大脑功能网络组织发生了显著的拓扑变化，为阐明大脑功能网络在发育过程中的细微变化提供了新的视角。
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