Dissociable multi-scale patterns of development in personalized brain networks.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

• Brain functional networks are studied at single scales, neglecting multi-scale organization.
• Understanding developmental changes across network scales is crucial for mapping neurocognitive maturation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate multi-scale functional brain network organization and reorganization during youth.
• To identify how scale-specific network development relates to cognitive maturation, particularly executive function.

Main Methods:

• Derived personalized functional brain networks across 29 scales in 693 youths (ages 8-23).
• Analyzed developmental shifts in inter-network coupling and their relationship to network hierarchy.
• Examined scale-dependent effects in unimodal versus transmodal networks.

Main Results:

• Developmental shifts in inter-network coupling reinforce a functional hierarchy of cortical organization.
• Scale-dependent effects were observed in lower-order unimodal networks, but not higher-order transmodal networks.
• Maturation of unimodal and transmodal network coupling was dissociably linked to the emergence of executive function.

Conclusions:

• Functional brain network development aligns with and refines a hierarchical organization linked to cognition.
• Multi-scale analysis reveals distinct developmental trajectories for unimodal and transmodal networks.
• Network maturation across scales is behaviorally relevant, particularly for executive functions.