Assessment of resting state structural-functional relationships in perisylvian region during the early weeks after birth

Abstract

This study investigates the structural-functional (S-F) relationships of perisylvian region in the first weeks after birth during rest. Previous joint S-F studies of the perisylvian development were mainly conducted on individual structural and functional features and outperformed non-joint studies. By using a weighted combination of features, a joint S-F study can advance understanding of the perisylvian development in neonates, thereby offering valuable markers for predicting neurodevelopmental disorders. To this purpose, we used 390 structural and 89 functional features for each region of interest (ROI) in perisylvian. Structural features include morphological and myelination features of cortical regions, and functional features include functional connectivity (FC) between each ROI and other brain regions. Subsequently, the S-F hybrid marker for each ROI is produced using the sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA). In addition, the significance and consistency of the contribution of each structural and functional feature in the hybrid marker are examined using statistical tests. The findings indicated the correlation between the FC of each ROI with other brain regions, and the myelination of that ROI or other brain regions, while no correlation was observed between the FC and the morphological features of the cortical regions. Furthermore, in the hybrid markers, auditory regions show greater contributions of FC and myelination compared to higher-order regions such as Broca area, suggesting their early development in infants. Additionally, regions such as insula and cingulate gyrus have not only FC but also jointly S-F relationships with most of the perisylvian sub-regions. Therefore, the hybrid markers outperform individual joint markers by introducing additional S-F relationships for characterizing the normal development of the perisylvian region in neonates.