RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Maturational networks of fetal brain activity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.06.14.495883
DO 10.1101/2022.06.14.495883
A1 VR Karolis
A1 SP Fitzgibbon
A1 L Cordero-Grande
A1 SR Farahibozorg
A1 AN Price
A1 EJ Hughes
A1 AE Fetit
A1 V Kyriakopoulou
A1 M Pietsch
A1 MA Rutherford
A1 D Rueckert
A1 JV Hajnal
A1 AD Edwards
A1 J O’Muircheartaigh
A1 EP Duff
A1 T Arichi
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/28/2022.06.14.495883.abstract
AB A key feature of the fetal period is the rapid emergence of organised patterns of spontaneous brain activity. However, characterising this process in utero using functional MRI is inherently challenging and requires analytical methods which can capture the constituent developmental transformations. Here, we introduce a novel analytical framework, termed “maturational networks”, that achieves this by conceptualising functional networks as an emerging property of the developing brain. Compared to standard network analysis methods that assume consistent patterns of connectivity across development, our method incorporates age-related changes in connectivity directly into network estimation. This enables us to reveal the richness of emerging functional connections and the hierarchy of their maturational relationships in the in-utero brain with unprecedented anatomical specificity. We show that the associative areas play a central role within prenatal functional architecture, therefore indicating that functional connections supporting high-level human cognition start emerging even prior to exposure to the extra-utero environment.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.