Developmental decorrelation of local cortical activity through adolescence supports high-dimensional encoding and
Finnegan J Calabro1, Dylan LeCroy2, Will Foran3
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
|March 14, 2025
Summary
During adolescence, brain circuits become more specialized, leading to improved cognitive control and working memory. This study reveals how brain activity changes to support adult-like cognitive functions.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Adolescence is critical for cognitive control development and cortical refinement.
- Understanding how local functional dynamics change to support cognition during this period is incomplete.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate changes in local functional connectivity across the cortex during adolescence.
- To link these changes to cognitive development, specifically working memory stabilization.
- To explore the computational implications of altered functional specialization.
Main Methods:
- Utilized longitudinal resting-state fMRI data from 134 adolescents (ages 10-31).
- Computed surface-based regional homogeneity (ReHo) as a measure of local functional connectivity.
- Analyzed the relationship between ReHo, network localization, working memory, and coding dimensionality.
Main Results:
- Observed widespread decreases in ReHo, indicating increased functional circuit specialization.
- Found spatial overlap of ReHo decreases with sensorimotor and cingulo-opercular networks.
- Associated ReHo decreases with working memory stabilization and higher intrinsic coding dimensionality.
Conclusions:
- Adolescent cortical activity undergoes remodeling, with local circuits becoming more specialized and higher-dimensional.
- This specialization enhances the brain's capacity for information encoding, supporting adult cognitive functioning.
- Findings provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive maturation during adolescence.
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