Personalized functional brain network topography is associated with individual differences in youth cognition

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Individual differences in childhood cognition impact long-term social, physical, and mental health.
• Cortical surface development reflects functional brain prioritization, suggesting network topography variation is key to understanding cognitive differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if variations in functional brain network topography relate to individual differences in cognition among children.
• To define personalized functional networks (PFNs) accounting for interindividual differences in brain network organization.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study (ABCD Study) with large discovery and replication samples (n≈3500 each).
• Defined personalized functional networks (PFNs) to capture individual variations in functional brain network topography in 9-10 year olds.
• Employed cross-validated ridge regressions to assess the predictive power of PFN topography on cognitive performance.

Main Results:

• The total cortical representation of fronto-parietal PFNs showed a positive correlation with general cognition.
• PFN topography successfully predicted cognitive abilities across different domains in unseen data.
• Prediction accuracy for cognition increased along the sensorimotor-to-association cortical organizational axis.

Conclusions:

• Heterogeneity in functional network topography is associated with individual differences in cognition in pre-adolescent children.
• Personalized functional networks offer a valuable tool for understanding the neural basis of cognitive variation.
• These findings highlight the importance of brain network organization for cognitive development prior to adolescence.