Functional connectivity of intrinsic cognitive networks during resting state and task performance in preadolescent children

Abstract

Earlier studies on adults have shown that functional connectivity (FC) of brain networks can vary depending on the brain state and cognitive challenge. Network connectivity has been investigated quite extensively in children in resting state, much less during tasks and is largely unexplored between these brain states. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and independent component analysis to investigate the functional architecture of large-scale brain networks in 16 children (aged 7–11 years, 11 males) and 16 young adults (aged 22–29 years, 10 males) during resting state and visual working memory tasks. We identified the major neurocognitive intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) in both groups. Children had stronger FC than adults within the cingulo-opercular network in resting state, during task performance, and after controlling for performance differences. During tasks, children had stronger FC than adults also within the default mode (DMN) and right frontoparietal (rFPN) networks, and between the anterior DMN and the frontopolar network, whereas adults had stronger coupling between the anterior DMN and rFPN. Furthermore, children compared to adults modulated the FC strength regarding the rFPN differently between the brain states. The FC within the anterior DMN correlated with age and performance in children so that the younger they were, the stronger was the FC, and the stronger the FC within this network, the slower they performed the tasks. The group differences in the network connectivity reported here, and the observed correlations with task performance, provide insight into the normative development of the preadolescent brain and link maturation of functional connectivity with improving cognitive performance.

Functional ultrasound imaging reveals an aberrant developmental trajectory of functional connectivity in a mouse model of the 15q13.3 copy number variant microdeletion

“…3). While there is less data from animal models regarding this phenomenon, these results are in line with longitudinal and cross-sectional studies in humans that show decreases in network functional connectivity from adolescence to adulthood, especially in within network connectivity (Fair et al, 2009; Jolles et al, 2011; Marek et al, 2015; Jiang et al, 2018). These studies found that this was mostly due to decreased segregation and increased integration between networks thought to come about due to synaptic pruning, increased myelination, and an increase in inhibitory signaling (Fair et al, 2007; Supekar et al, 2009).…”

Functional connectivity abnormalities underlying mood disturbances in male abstinent methamphetamine abusers

“…(See Figure S1). The naming of the networks in the current study was based on previous reports (Huang et al, 2015;Jiang et al, 2018) and on the correlation analysis with other reported brain networks in Shirer et al, 2012 and. The obtained brain networks were used as spatial templates for subsequent analyses.…”

Neurodevelopmental differences in task-evoked number network connectivity: Comparing symbolic and nonsymbolic number discrimination in children and adults

“…It should be noted that such differences are not fully attributable to basic decision-making abilities in general, as the results of these analyses control for functional connectivity elicited by the basic letter case discrimination task. Differences in functional connectivity between children and adults may still be at least partially modulated by number-independent domain-general cognitive mechanisms, as evidenced by research indicating greater functional connectivity in children’s cingulo-opercular network during rest, as well as within their default mode and right frontoparietal networks during visual working memory task performance ( Jiang et al, 2018 ). Future research should attempt to replicate the current results using additional cognitive-behavioral control measures of, minimally, visuospatial attention, working memory, and language ability (cf.…”