Lyu Wenjiao, Thung Kim-Han, Huynh Khoi Minh, Wang Li, Lin Weili, Ahmad Sahar, Yap Pew-Thian
Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 27:2024.10.12.617938. doi: 10.1101/2024.10.12.617938.
Despite the cerebellum's crucial role in brain functions, its early development, particularly in relation to the cerebrum, remains poorly understood. Here, we examine cerebellocortical connectivity using over 1,000 high-quality resting-state functional MRI scans of children from birth to 60 months. By mapping cerebellar topography with fine temporal detail for the first time, we show the hierarchical organization of cerebellocortical functional connectivity from infancy. We observe dynamic shifts in cerebellar network gradients, which become more focal with age while generally maintaining stable anchor points similar to adults, highlighting the cerebellum's evolving yet stable role in functional integration during early development. Our findings provide the first evidence of cerebellar connections to higher-order networks at birth, which generally strengthen with age, emphasizing the cerebellum's early role in cognitive processing beyond sensory and motor functions. Our study provides insights into early cerebellocortical interactions, reveals functional asymmetry and sex-specific patterns in cerebellar development, and lays the groundwork for future research on cerebellum-related disorders in children.
尽管小脑在脑功能中起着至关重要的作用，但其早期发育，尤其是与大脑相关的早期发育，仍知之甚少。在此，我们使用1000多份从出生到60个月大儿童的高质量静息态功能磁共振成像扫描数据，研究小脑皮质连接性。通过首次以精细的时间细节绘制小脑地形图，我们展示了婴儿期小脑皮质功能连接的层级组织。我们观察到小脑网络梯度的动态变化，随着年龄增长，这些变化变得更加集中，同时总体上保持与成年人相似的稳定锚点，突出了小脑在早期发育过程中功能整合中不断演变但稳定的作用。我们的研究结果首次证明了出生时小脑与高阶网络的连接，这种连接通常会随着年龄增长而加强，强调了小脑在超出感觉和运动功能的认知加工中的早期作用。我们的研究为早期小脑皮质相互作用提供了见解，揭示了小脑发育中的功能不对称和性别特异性模式，并为未来儿童小脑相关疾病的研究奠定了基础。
