PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Judit Ciarrusta
AU  - Daan Christiaens
AU  - Sean P. Fitzgibbon
AU  - Ralica Dimitrova
AU  - Jana Hutter
AU  - Emer Hughes
AU  - Eugene Duff
AU  - Anthony N Price
AU  - Lucilio Cordero-Grande
AU  - J-Donald Tournier
AU  - Daniel Rueckert
AU  - Joseph V Hajnal
AU  - Tomoki Arichi
AU  - Grainne McAlonan
AU  - A David Edwards
AU  - Dafnis Batalle
TI  - The developing brain structural and functional connectome fingerprint
AID  - 10.1101/2021.03.08.434357
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.03.08.434357
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/17/2021.03.08.434357.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/17/2021.03.08.434357.full
AB  - In the mature brain, structural and functional connectivity ‘fingerprints’ can be used to identify the uniqueness of an individual. However, whether the characteristics that make a brain distinguishable from others already exist at birth remains unknown. Here, we used neuroimaging data of preterm born neonates who were scanned twice during the perinatal period to assess the developing brain fingerprint. We found that 62% of the participants could be identified based on the congruence of the later structural connectome to the initial connectivity matrix derived from the earlier timepoint. In contrast, similarity between functional connectomes only allowed to identify 12% of the participants. These suggests that structural connectivity is more stable in early life and can represent a potential connectome fingerprint. Thus, a relatively stable structural connectome appears to support a changing functional connectome at a time when neonates must rapidly acquire new skills to adapt to their new environment.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.