Age-associated reorganization of metabolic brain connectivity in Chinese children
Qi Huang1,2, Jian Zhang3,4, Tianhao Zhang2,5
1PET Center, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200235, China.
Insights
Brain network connectivity and global efficiency increase with age, showing significant reorganization from childhood to adolescence. These findings illuminate the developmental trajectory of human brain functional integration and segregation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Human brain development is rapid from infancy to adolescence, influencing cognition, behavior, and emotions.
- Understanding the brain's developmental trajectory is crucial for evaluating neuropsychiatric disorder risks.
- While 18F-FDG PET studies glucose metabolism, its role in brain segregation and integration during development is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of human brain functional segregation and integration using 18F-FDG PET.
- To analyze changes in metabolic brain network connectivity and global efficiency across different age groups from infancy to adolescence.
- To characterize the modular architecture and hub rewiring in the developing brain.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective enrollment of 201 Chinese child patients with extracranial malignancy as surrogates for healthy children.
- Spatial normalization of 18F-FDG PET images to a pediatric brain template (MNI space).
- Construction of group-level metabolic brain networks using Pearson correlation coefficients for infants, children, early adolescents, and adolescents; calculation of global efficiency and modular architecture.
Main Results:
- Metabolic brain network connectivity and global efficiency showed an increase with age.
- Brain network modularity changed across age groups (4, 6, 4, and 4 modules from infant to adolescent).
- Significant modular architecture reorganization occurred from childhood to early adolescence, with spatiotemporal hub rewiring and a changing ratio of connector to provincial hubs.
Conclusions:
- The topological properties and modular reorganization of the human brain network undergo dramatic age-related changes, particularly between childhood and early adolescence.
- These findings contribute to understanding the Chinese developmental trajectory of human brain functional integration and segregation.
- The study provides insights into the evolving structural and functional organization of the brain during development.
Purpose:
The human brain develops rapidly from infant to adolescent. Establishment of the brain developmental trajectory is important to understand cognition, behavior, and emotions, as well to evaluate the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. 18F-FDG PET has been widely used to study brain glucose metabolism, but functional brain segregation and integration based on 18F-FDG PET remains largely unknown.
Methods:
Two hundred one Chinese child patients with extracranial malignancy were retrospectively enrolled as surrogates to healthy children. All images were spatially normalized into MNI space using pediatric brain template, and the 18F-FDG uptakes were calculated for 90 regions using AAL atlas. The group-level metabolic brain network was constructed by measuring Pearson correlation coefficients between each pair of brain regions in an inter-subject manner for infant (1 to 4 years), childhood (5 to 8 years), early adolescent (9 to 12 years), and adolescent (13 to 18 years) group, respectively. Global efficiency of each group was calculated, and the modular architectures were detected by a greedy algorithm.
Results:
Both metabolic brain network connectivity and global efficiency increased with aging. Brain network was grouped into 4, 6, 4, and 4 modules from infant to adolescent, respectively. The modular architecture dramatically reorganized from childhood to early adolescent. The hubs spatiotemporally rewired. The ratio of the connector hub to the provincial hub increased from infant to early adolescent, but decreased during the adolescent period.
Conclusions:
The topological properties and modular reorganization of human brain network dramatically changed with age, especially from childhood to early adolescence. These findings would help understand the Chinese developmental trajectory of human brain functional integration and segregation.
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