Exploring folding patterns of infant cerebral cortex based on multi-view curvature features: Methods and applications

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Computational Anatomy

Background:

• Human brain cortical folding is complex and varies individually.
• Understanding early cortical folding is crucial for neuroimaging studies.
• Neonatal brains offer a unique window into early cortical development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for exploring representative regional folding patterns in infant brains.
• To characterize early postnatal cortical folding patterns.
• To identify potential sex and hemispheric differences in neonatal cortical folding.

Main Methods:

• Constructing multi-view curvature features to describe cortical folding.
• Computing similarity matrices for regional folding patterns between subjects.
• Employing similarity network fusion to integrate multiple feature views.
• Utilizing hierarchical affinity propagation clustering to group subjects and identify patterns.

Main Results:

• Discovered representative cortical folding patterns in neonates within regions like the superior temporal gyrus (STG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), precuneus, and cingulate cortex.
• Revealed significant sex differences in folding patterns of the STG, IFG, and cingulate cortex.
• Identified hemispheric asymmetries in cortical folding patterns of the STG and cingulate cortex.
• Validated that major adult cortical folding patterns are established by term birth.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively identifies representative cortical folding patterns in neonates.
• Cortical folding patterns exhibit significant sex and hemispheric variations early in development.
• Key aspects of adult cortical folding patterns are present at birth, highlighting the importance of early developmental stages.