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Large-scale network organization of EEG functional connectivity in newborn infants
Brigitta Tóth1, Gábor Urbán1,2, Gábor P Háden1
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
Insights
Newly born infant brain networks are highly organized and efficient. Researchers found these functional brain networks exhibit hierarchical and cost-efficient structures, with frontal and parietal regions acting as key hubs, linked to prenatal cortical maturation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Brain Network Analysis
Background:
- Functional brain networks undergo significant changes throughout the human lifespan.
- Understanding early brain development is crucial for identifying developmental trajectories and potential deviations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the organization of functional brain networks in healthy full-term infants shortly after birth.
- To investigate the relationship between early network topology and prenatal cortical maturation.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings during quiet sleep were used to measure neural synchrony in 139 healthy infants.
- Large-scale phase synchronization was quantified using the Phase Lag Index across six frequency bands.
- Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) graphs were constructed to analyze macroscopic network organization.
Main Results:
- Infant cortical networks demonstrated significantly higher hierarchical and cost-efficient organization compared to random networks, particularly in theta and alpha frequency bands.
- Frontal and parietal brain regions served as primary hubs within these networks.
- The topological characteristics of these networks were correlated with gestational age (GA).
Conclusions:
- Early infancy cortical networks exhibit a sophisticated, hierarchical, and efficient organization.
- Individual differences in network topology are associated with prenatal cortical maturation, indicating a shift from centralized to segregated configurations.
- These findings provide insights into the foundational principles of human brain network development.
Abstract:
The organization of functional brain networks changes across human lifespan. The present study analyzed functional brain networks in healthy full-term infants (N = 139) within 1-6 days from birth by measuring neural synchrony in EEG recordings during quiet sleep. Large-scale phase synchronization was measured in six frequency bands with the Phase Lag Index. Macroscopic network organization characteristics were quantified by constructing unweighted minimum spanning tree graphs. The cortical networks in early infancy were found to be significantly more hierarchical and had a more cost-efficient organization compared with MST of random control networks, more so in the theta and alpha than in other frequency bands. Frontal and parietal sites acted as the main hubs of these networks, the topological characteristics of which were associated with gestation age (GA). This suggests that individual differences in network topology are related to cortical maturation during the prenatal period, when functional networks shift from strictly centralized toward segregated configurations. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4019-4033, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
