TY - JOUR
T1 - Structural network maturation of the preterm human brain
AU - Zhao, Tengda
AU - Mishra, Virendra
AU - Jeon, Tina
AU - Ouyang, Minhui
AU - Peng, Qinmu
AU - Chalak, Lina
AU - Wisnowski, Jessica Lee
AU - Heyne, Roy
AU - Rollins, Nancy
AU - Shu, Ni
AU - Huang, Hao
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was sponsored by NIH (Grant Nos. MH092535 , MH092535-S1 and HD086984 , HH ),the 973 program (Grant No. 2013CB837300 , NS ), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81471732 , 81671761 , NS; 81628009 , HH), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2017XTCX04 , NS), and the Interdisciplinary Research Funds of Beijing Normal University . The authors thank Michelle Slinger at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for her contribution to writing.
Funding Information:
This study was sponsored by NIH (Grant Nos. MH092535, MH092535-S1 and HD086984, HH),the 973 program (Grant No. 2013CB837300, NS), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81471732, 81671761, NS; 81628009, HH), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2017XTCX04, NS), and the Interdisciplinary Research Funds of Beijing Normal University. The authors thank Michelle Slinger at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for her contribution to writing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2019/1/15
Y1 - 2019/1/15
N2 - During the 3rd trimester, large-scale neural circuits are formed in the human brain, resulting in a highly efficient and segregated connectome at birth. Despite recent findings identifying important preterm human brain network properties such as rich-club organization, how the structural network develops differentially across brain regions and among different types of connections in this period is not yet known. Here, using high resolution diffusion MRI of 77 preterm-born and full-term neonates scanned at 31.9–41.7 postmenstrual weeks (PMW), we constructed structural connectivity matrices and performed graph-theory-based analyses. Faster increases of nodal efficiency were mainly located at the brain hubs distributed in primary sensorimotor regions, superior-middle frontal, and precuneus regions during 31.9–41.7PMW. Higher rates of edge strength increases were found in the rich-club and within-module connections, compared to other connections. The edge strength of short-range connections increased faster than that of long-range connections. Nodal efficiencies of the hubs predicted individual postmenstrual ages more accurately than those of non-hubs. Collectively, these findings revealed more rapid efficiency increases of the hub and rich-club connections as well as higher developmental rates of edge strength in short-range and within-module connections. These jointly underlie network segregation and differentiated emergence of brain functions.
AB - During the 3rd trimester, large-scale neural circuits are formed in the human brain, resulting in a highly efficient and segregated connectome at birth. Despite recent findings identifying important preterm human brain network properties such as rich-club organization, how the structural network develops differentially across brain regions and among different types of connections in this period is not yet known. Here, using high resolution diffusion MRI of 77 preterm-born and full-term neonates scanned at 31.9–41.7 postmenstrual weeks (PMW), we constructed structural connectivity matrices and performed graph-theory-based analyses. Faster increases of nodal efficiency were mainly located at the brain hubs distributed in primary sensorimotor regions, superior-middle frontal, and precuneus regions during 31.9–41.7PMW. Higher rates of edge strength increases were found in the rich-club and within-module connections, compared to other connections. The edge strength of short-range connections increased faster than that of long-range connections. Nodal efficiencies of the hubs predicted individual postmenstrual ages more accurately than those of non-hubs. Collectively, these findings revealed more rapid efficiency increases of the hub and rich-club connections as well as higher developmental rates of edge strength in short-range and within-module connections. These jointly underlie network segregation and differentiated emergence of brain functions.
KW - Baby connectome
KW - Brain network
KW - Differentiated maturation
KW - Diffusion MRI
KW - Segregation
KW - Structural connectivity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.06.047
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.06.047
M3 - Article
C2 - 29913282
AN - SCOPUS:85048836543
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 185
SP - 699
EP - 710
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
ER -