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Wang Y, Zhu D, Zhao L, Wang X, Zhang Z, Hu B, Wu D, Zheng W. Profiling cortical morphometric similarity in perinatal brains: Insights from development, sex difference, and inter-individual variation. Neuroimage 2024; 295:120660. [PMID: 38815676 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2024] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024] Open
Abstract
The topological organization of the macroscopic cortical networks important for the development of complex brain functions. However, how the cortical morphometric organization develops during the third trimester and whether it demonstrates sexual and individual differences at this particular stage remain unclear. Here, we constructed the morphometric similarity network (MSN) based on morphological and microstructural features derived from multimodal MRI of two independent cohorts (cross-sectional and longitudinal) scanned at 30-44 postmenstrual weeks (PMW). Sex difference and inter-individual variations of the MSN were also examined on these cohorts. The cross-sectional analysis revealed that both network integration and segregation changed in a nonlinear biphasic trajectory, which was supported by the results obtained from longitudinal analysis. The community structure showed remarkable consistency between bilateral hemispheres and maintained stability across PMWs. Connectivity within the primary cortex strengthened faster than that within high-order communities. Compared to females, male neonates showed a significant reduction in the participation coefficient within prefrontal and parietal cortices, while their overall network organization and community architecture remained comparable. Furthermore, by using the morphometric similarity as features, we achieved over 65 % accuracy in identifying an individual at term-equivalent age from images acquired after birth, and vice versa. These findings provide comprehensive insights into the development of morphometric similarity throughout the perinatal cortex, enhancing our understanding of the establishment of neuroanatomical organization during early life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Wang
- Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Wearable Computing, School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Dalin Zhu
- Department of Medical Imaging Center, Gansu Provincial Maternity and Child-Care Hospital, Lanzhou, China
| | - Leilei Zhao
- Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Wearable Computing, School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Xiaomin Wang
- Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Wearable Computing, School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Zhe Zhang
- Institute of Brain Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China; School of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Bin Hu
- Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Wearable Computing, School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China; School of Medical Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
| | - Dan Wu
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
| | - Weihao Zheng
- Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Wearable Computing, School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
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Wen X, Zhao Y, Chen G, Zhang H, Zhang D. Constructing fine-grained spatiotemporal neonatal functional atlases with spectral functional network learning. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26718. [PMID: 38825985 PMCID: PMC11144955 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 05/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/04/2024] Open
Abstract
The early stages of human development are increasingly acknowledged as pivotal in laying the groundwork for subsequent behavioral and cognitive development. Spatiotemporal (4D) brain functional atlases are important in elucidating the development of human brain functions. However, the scarcity of such atlases for early life stages stems from two primary challenges: (1) the significant noise in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that complicates the generation of high-quality atlases for each age group, and (2) the rapid and complex changes in the early human brain that hinder the maintenance of temporal consistency in 4D atlases. This study tackles these challenges by integrating low-rank tensor learning with spectral embedding, thereby proposing a novel, data-driven 4D functional atlas generation framework based on spectral functional network learning (SFNL). This method utilizes low-rank tensor learning to capture common functional connectivity (FC) patterns across different ages, thus optimizing FCs for each age group to improve the temporal consistency of functional networks. Incorporating spectral embedding aids in mitigating potential noise in FC networks derived from fMRI data by reconstructing networks in the spectral space. Utilizing SFNL-generated functional networks enables the creation of consistent and highly qualified spatiotemporal functional atlases. The framework was applied to the developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP) dataset, generating the first neonatal 4D functional atlases with fine-grained temporal and spatial resolutions. Experimental evaluations focusing on functional homogeneity, reliability, and temporal consistency demonstrated the superiority of our framework compared to existing methods for constructing 4D atlases. Additionally, network analysis experiments, including individual identification, functional systems development, and local efficiency assessments, further corroborate the efficacy and robustness of the generated atlases. The 4D atlases and related codes will be made publicly accessible (https://github.com/zhaoyunxi/neonate-atlases).
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuyun Wen
- College of Computer Science and TechnologyNanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsNanjingChina
| | - Yunxi Zhao
- College of Computer Science and TechnologyNanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsNanjingChina
| | - Geng Chen
- School of Computer ScienceNorthwestern Polytechnical UniversityShanxiChina
| | - Han Zhang
- School of Biomedical EngineeringShanghaiTech UniversityShanghaiChina
| | - Daoqiang Zhang
- College of Computer Science and TechnologyNanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsNanjingChina
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3
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Jiménez-Sánchez L, Blesa Cábez M, Vaher K, Corrigan A, Thrippleton MJ, Bastin ME, Quigley AJ, Fletcher-Watson S, Boardman JP. Infant attachment does not depend on neonatal amygdala and hippocampal structure and connectivity. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 67:101387. [PMID: 38692007 PMCID: PMC11070590 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Infant attachment is an antecedent of later socioemotional abilities, which can be adversely affected by preterm birth. The structural integrity of amygdalae and hippocampi may subserve attachment in infancy. We aimed to investigate associations between neonatal amygdalae and hippocampi structure and their whole-brain connections and attachment behaviours at nine months of age in a sample of infants enriched for preterm birth. In 133 neonates (median gestational age 32 weeks, range 22.14-42.14), we calculated measures of amygdala and hippocampal structure (volume, fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, neurite dispersion index, orientation dispersion index) and structural connectivity, and coded attachment behaviours (distress, fretfulness, attentiveness to caregiver) from responses to the Still-Face Paradigm at nine months. After multiple comparisons correction, there were no significant associations between neonatal amygdala or hippocampal structure and structural connectivity and attachment behaviours: standardised β values - 0.23 to 0.18, adjusted p-values > 0.40. Findings indicate that the neural basis of infant attachment in term and preterm infants is not contingent on the structure or connectivity of the amygdalae and hippocampi in the neonatal period, which implies that it is more widely distributed in early life and or that network specialisation takes place in the months after hospital discharge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorena Jiménez-Sánchez
- Translational Neuroscience PhD Programme, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Manuel Blesa Cábez
- Centre for Reproductive Health, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Kadi Vaher
- Centre for Reproductive Health, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Amy Corrigan
- Centre for Reproductive Health, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | | | - Mark E Bastin
- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Alan J Quigley
- Department of Radiology, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Sue Fletcher-Watson
- Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - James P Boardman
- Centre for Reproductive Health, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
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4
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Turk-Browne NB, Aslin RN. Infant neuroscience: how to measure brain activity in the youngest minds. Trends Neurosci 2024; 47:338-354. [PMID: 38570212 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2024.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
The functional properties of the infant brain are poorly understood. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are opening new avenues for measuring brain activity in human infants. These include novel uses of existing technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), the availability of newer technologies including functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and optically pumped magnetometry (OPM), and innovative applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants during cognitive tasks. In this review article we catalog these available non-invasive methods, discuss the challenges and opportunities encountered when applying them to human infants, and highlight the potential they may ultimately hold for advancing our understanding of the youngest minds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas B Turk-Browne
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
| | - Richard N Aslin
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
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5
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Boerwinkle VL, Manjón I, Sussman BL, McGary A, Mirea L, Gillette K, Broman-Fulks J, Cediel EG, Arhin M, Hunter SE, Wyckoff SN, Allred K, Tom D. Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Network Association With Mortality, Epilepsy, Cognition, and Motor Two-Year Outcomes in Suspected Severe Neonatal Acute Brain Injury. Pediatr Neurol 2024; 152:41-55. [PMID: 38198979 DOI: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2023.12.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Revised: 11/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES In acute brain injury of neonates, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (RS) showed incremental association with consciousness, mortality, cognitive and motor development, and epilepsy, with correction for multiple comparisons, at six months postgestation in neonates with suspected acute brain injury (ABI). However, there are relatively few developmental milestones at six months to benchmark against, thus, we extended this cohort study to evaluate two-year outcomes. METHODS In 40 consecutive neonates with ABI and RS, ordinal scores of resting-state networks; MRI, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and electroencephalography; and up to 42-month outcomes of mortality, general and motor development, Pediatric Cerebral Performance Category Scale (PCPC), and epilepsy informed associations between tests and outcomes. RESULTS Mean gestational age was 37.8 weeks, 68% were male, and 60% had hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Three died in-hospital, four at six to 42 months, and five were lost to follow-up. Associations included basal ganglia network with PCPC (P = 0.0003), all-mortality (P = 0.005), and motor (P = 0.0004); language/frontoparietal network with developmental delay (P = 0.009), PCPC (P = 0.006), and all-mortality (P = 0.01); default mode network with developmental delay (P = 0.003), PCPC (P = 0.004), neonatal intensive care unit mortality (P = 0.01), and motor (P = 0.009); RS seizure onset zone with epilepsy (P = 0.01); and anatomic MRI with epilepsy (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION For the first time, at any age, resting state functional MRI in ABI is associated with long-term epilepsy and RSNs predicted mortality in neonates. Severity of RSN abnormality was associated with incrementally worsened neurodevelopment including cognition, language, and motor function over two years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Varina L Boerwinkle
- Division of Child Neurology, University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
| | - Iliana Manjón
- University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Bethany L Sussman
- Division of Neuroscience Research, Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
| | - Alyssa McGary
- Department of Clinical Research, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
| | - Lucia Mirea
- Department of Clinical Research, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
| | - Kirsten Gillette
- Division of Child Neurology, University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Jordan Broman-Fulks
- Division of Child Neurology, University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Emilio G Cediel
- Division of Child Neurology, University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Martin Arhin
- Division of Child Neurology, University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Senyene E Hunter
- Division of Child Neurology, University of North Carolina Medical School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Sarah N Wyckoff
- Division of Neuroscience Research, Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
| | - Kimberlee Allred
- Division of Neonatology, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
| | - Deborah Tom
- Division of Neonatology, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona
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6
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Yates TS, Ellis CT, Turk-Browne NB. Functional networks in the infant brain during sleep and wake states. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:10820-10835. [PMID: 37718160 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 08/18/2023] [Accepted: 08/20/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional brain networks are assessed differently earlier versus later in development: infants are almost universally scanned asleep, whereas adults are typically scanned awake. Observed differences between infant and adult functional networks may thus reflect differing states of consciousness rather than or in addition to developmental changes. We explore this question by comparing functional networks in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of infants during natural sleep and awake movie-watching. As a reference, we also scanned adults during awake rest and movie-watching. Whole-brain functional connectivity was more similar within the same state (sleep and movie in infants; rest and movie in adults) compared with across states. Indeed, a classifier trained on patterns of functional connectivity robustly decoded infant state and even generalized to adults; interestingly, a classifier trained on adult state did not generalize as well to infants. Moreover, overall similarity between infant and adult functional connectivity was modulated by adult state (stronger for movie than rest) but not infant state (same for sleep and movie). Nevertheless, the connections that drove this similarity, particularly in the frontoparietal control network, were modulated by infant state. In sum, infant functional connectivity differs between sleep and movie states, highlighting the value of awake fMRI for studying functional networks over development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tristan S Yates
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Cameron T Ellis
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Nicholas B Turk-Browne
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
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7
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St-Onge F, Javanray M, Pichet Binette A, Strikwerda-Brown C, Remz J, Spreng RN, Shafiei G, Misic B, Vachon-Presseau É, Villeneuve S. Functional connectome fingerprinting across the lifespan. Netw Neurosci 2023; 7:1206-1227. [PMID: 37781144 PMCID: PMC10473304 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Systematic changes have been observed in the functional architecture of the human brain with advancing age. However, functional connectivity (FC) is also a powerful feature to detect unique "connectome fingerprints," allowing identification of individuals among their peers. Although fingerprinting has been robustly observed in samples of young adults, the reliability of this approach has not been demonstrated across the lifespan. We applied the fingerprinting framework to the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort (n = 483 aged 18 to 89 years). We found that individuals are "fingerprintable" (i.e., identifiable) across independent functional MRI scans throughout the lifespan. We observed a U-shape distribution in the strength of "self-identifiability" (within-individual correlation across modalities), and "others-identifiability" (between-individual correlation across modalities), with a decrease from early adulthood into middle age, before improving in older age. FC edges contributing to self-identifiability were not restricted to specific brain networks and were different between individuals across the lifespan sample. Self-identifiability was additionally associated with regional brain volume. These findings indicate that individual participant-level identification is preserved across the lifespan despite the fact that its components are changing nonlinearly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frédéric St-Onge
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada
| | - Mohammadali Javanray
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada
| | - Alexa Pichet Binette
- Clinical Memory Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | | | - Jordana Remz
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada
| | - R. Nathan Spreng
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Golia Shafiei
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Bratislav Misic
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Étienne Vachon-Presseau
- Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain (AECRP), McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Sylvia Villeneuve
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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8
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Wang F, Zhang H, Wu Z, Hu D, Zhou Z, Girault JB, Wang L, Lin W, Li G. Fine-grained functional parcellation maps of the infant cerebral cortex. eLife 2023; 12:e75401. [PMID: 37526293 PMCID: PMC10393291 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) is widely used to examine the dynamic brain functional development of infants, but these studies typically require precise cortical parcellation maps, which cannot be directly borrowed from adult-based functional parcellation maps due to the substantial differences in functional brain organization between infants and adults. Creating infant-specific cortical parcellation maps is thus highly desired but remains challenging due to difficulties in acquiring and processing infant brain MRIs. In this study, we leveraged 1064 high-resolution longitudinal rs-fMRIs from 197 typically developing infants and toddlers from birth to 24 months who participated in the Baby Connectome Project to develop the first set of infant-specific, fine-grained, surface-based cortical functional parcellation maps. To establish meaningful cortical functional correspondence across individuals, we performed cortical co-registration using both the cortical folding geometric features and the local gradient of functional connectivity (FC). Then we generated both age-related and age-independent cortical parcellation maps with over 800 fine-grained parcels during infancy based on aligned and averaged local gradient maps of FC across individuals. These parcellation maps reveal complex functional developmental patterns, such as changes in local gradient, network size, and local efficiency, especially during the first 9 postnatal months. Our generated fine-grained infant cortical functional parcellation maps are publicly available at https://www.nitrc.org/projects/infantsurfatlas/ for advancing the pediatric neuroimaging field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityXi'anChina
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Han Zhang
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Zhengwang Wu
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Dan Hu
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Zhen Zhou
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Jessica B Girault
- Department of Psychiatry, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Li Wang
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Weili Lin
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
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9
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Kim JH, De Asis-Cruz J, Krishnamurthy D, Limperopoulos C. Toward a more informative representation of the fetal-neonatal brain connectome using variational autoencoder. eLife 2023; 12:e80878. [PMID: 37184067 PMCID: PMC10241511 DOI: 10.7554/elife.80878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have helped elucidate previously inaccessible trajectories of early-life prenatal and neonatal brain development. To date, the interpretation of fetal-neonatal fMRI data has relied on linear analytic models, akin to adult neuroimaging data. However, unlike the adult brain, the fetal and newborn brain develops extraordinarily rapidly, far outpacing any other brain development period across the life span. Consequently, conventional linear computational models may not adequately capture these accelerated and complex neurodevelopmental trajectories during this critical period of brain development along the prenatal-neonatal continuum. To obtain a nuanced understanding of fetal-neonatal brain development, including nonlinear growth, for the first time, we developed quantitative, systems-wide representations of brain activity in a large sample (>500) of fetuses, preterm, and full-term neonates using an unsupervised deep generative model called variational autoencoder (VAE), a model previously shown to be superior to linear models in representing complex resting-state data in healthy adults. Here, we demonstrated that nonlinear brain features, that is, latent variables, derived with the VAE pretrained on rsfMRI of human adults, carried important individual neural signatures, leading to improved representation of prenatal-neonatal brain maturational patterns and more accurate and stable age prediction in the neonate cohort compared to linear models. Using the VAE decoder, we also revealed distinct functional brain networks spanning the sensory and default mode networks. Using the VAE, we are able to reliably capture and quantify complex, nonlinear fetal-neonatal functional neural connectivity. This will lay the critical foundation for detailed mapping of healthy and aberrant functional brain signatures that have their origins in fetal life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jung-Hoon Kim
- Developing Brain Institute, Children's National HospitalWashingtonUnited States
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10
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Kim J, De Asis‐Cruz J, Kapse K, Limperopoulos C. Systematic evaluation of head motion on resting-state functional connectivity MRI in the neonate. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:1934-1948. [PMID: 36576333 PMCID: PMC9980896 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2022] [Revised: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Reliability and robustness of resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) relies, in part, on minimizing the influence of head motion on measured brain signals. The confounding effects of head motion on functional connectivity have been extensively studied in adults, but its impact on newborn brain connectivity remains unexplored. Here, using a large newborn data set consisting of 159 rs-fcMRI scans acquired in the Developing Brain Institute at Children's National Hospital and 416 scans from The Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP), we systematically investigated associations between head motion and rs-fcMRI. Head motion during the scan significantly affected connectivity at sensory-related networks and default mode networks, and at the whole brain scale; the direction of motion effects varied across the whole brain. Comparing high- versus low-head motion groups suggested that head motion can impact connectivity estimates across the whole brain. Censoring of high-motion volumes using frame-wise displacement significantly reduced the confounding effects of head motion on neonatal rs-fcMRI. Lastly, in the dHCP data set, we demonstrated similar persistent associations between head motion and network connectivity despite implementing a standard denoising strategy. Collectively, our results highlight the importance of using rigorous head motion correction in preprocessing neonatal rs-fcMRI to yield reliable estimates of brain activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jung‐Hoon Kim
- Developing Brain Institute, Children's NationalWashingtonDistrict of ColumbiaUSA
| | | | - Kushal Kapse
- Developing Brain Institute, Children's NationalWashingtonDistrict of ColumbiaUSA
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11
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Donovan SM, Aghaeepour N, Andres A, Azad MB, Becker M, Carlson SE, Järvinen KM, Lin W, Lönnerdal B, Slupsky CM, Steiber AL, Raiten DJ. Evidence for human milk as a biological system and recommendations for study design-a report from "Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN)" Working Group 4. Am J Clin Nutr 2023; 117 Suppl 1:S61-S86. [PMID: 37173061 PMCID: PMC10356565 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.12.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Revised: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Human milk contains all of the essential nutrients required by the infant within a complex matrix that enhances the bioavailability of many of those nutrients. In addition, human milk is a source of bioactive components, living cells and microbes that facilitate the transition to life outside the womb. Our ability to fully appreciate the importance of this matrix relies on the recognition of short- and long-term health benefits and, as highlighted in previous sections of this supplement, its ecology (i.e., interactions among the lactating parent and breastfed infant as well as within the context of the human milk matrix itself). Designing and interpreting studies to address this complexity depends on the availability of new tools and technologies that account for such complexity. Past efforts have often compared human milk to infant formula, which has provided some insight into the bioactivity of human milk, as a whole, or of individual milk components supplemented with formula. However, this experimental approach cannot capture the contributions of the individual components to the human milk ecology, the interaction between these components within the human milk matrix, or the significance of the matrix itself to enhance human milk bioactivity on outcomes of interest. This paper presents approaches to explore human milk as a biological system and the functional implications of that system and its components. Specifically, we discuss study design and data collection considerations and how emerging analytical technologies, bioinformatics, and systems biology approaches could be applied to advance our understanding of this critical aspect of human biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharon M Donovan
- Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.
| | - Nima Aghaeepour
- Department of Anesthesiology, Pain, and Perioperative Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Aline Andres
- Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center and Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA
| | - Meghan B Azad
- Manitoba Interdisciplinary Lactation Centre (MILC), Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health and Department of Immunology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Martin Becker
- Department of Anesthesiology, Pain, and Perioperative Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Susan E Carlson
- Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA
| | - Kirsi M Järvinen
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology and Center for Food Allergy, University of Rochester Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Weili Lin
- Biomedical Research Imaging Center and Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Bo Lönnerdal
- Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Carolyn M Slupsky
- Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA, USA; Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | | | - Daniel J Raiten
- Pediatric Growth and Nutrition Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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12
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Wang L, Wu Z, Chen L, Sun Y, Lin W, Li G. iBEAT V2.0: a multisite-applicable, deep learning-based pipeline for infant cerebral cortical surface reconstruction. Nat Protoc 2023; 18:1488-1509. [PMID: 36869216 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-023-00806-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2022] [Indexed: 03/05/2023]
Abstract
The human cerebral cortex undergoes dramatic and critical development during early postnatal stages. Benefiting from advances in neuroimaging, many infant brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets have been collected from multiple imaging sites with different scanners and imaging protocols for the investigation of normal and abnormal early brain development. However, it is extremely challenging to precisely process and quantify infant brain development with these multisite imaging data because infant brain MRI scans exhibit (a) extremely low and dynamic tissue contrast caused by ongoing myelination and maturation and (b) inter-site data heterogeneity resulting from the use of diverse imaging protocols/scanners. Consequently, existing computational tools and pipelines typically perform poorly on infant MRI data. To address these challenges, we propose a robust, multisite-applicable, infant-tailored computational pipeline that leverages powerful deep learning techniques. The main functionality of the proposed pipeline includes preprocessing, brain skull stripping, tissue segmentation, topology correction, cortical surface reconstruction and measurement. Our pipeline can handle both T1w and T2w structural infant brain MR images well in a wide age range (from birth to 6 years of age) and is effective for different imaging protocols/scanners, despite being trained only on the data from the Baby Connectome Project. Extensive comparisons with existing methods on multisite, multimodal and multi-age datasets demonstrate superior effectiveness, accuracy and robustness of our pipeline. We have maintained a website, iBEAT Cloud, for users to process their images with our pipeline ( http://www.ibeat.cloud ), which has successfully processed over 16,000 infant MRI scans from more than 100 institutions with various imaging protocols/scanners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Wang
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
| | - Zhengwang Wu
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
| | - Liangjun Chen
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Yue Sun
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Weili Lin
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
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13
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Li Y, Zhang X, Nie J, Zhang G, Fang R, Xu X, Wu Z, Hu D, Wang L, Zhang H, Lin W, Li G. Brain Connectivity Based Graph Convolutional Networks and Its Application to Infant Age Prediction. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2022; 41:2764-2776. [PMID: 35500083 PMCID: PMC10041448 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2022.3171778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Infancy is a critical period for the human brain development, and brain age is one of the indices for the brain development status associated with neuroimaging data. The difference between the predicted age based on neuroimaging and the chronological age can provide an important early indicator of deviation from the normal developmental trajectory. In this study, we utilize the Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) to predict the infant brain age based on resting-state fMRI data. The brain connectivity obtained from rs-fMRI can be represented as a graph with brain regions as nodes and functional connections as edges. However, since the brain connectivity is a fully connected graph with features on edges, current GCN cannot be directly used for it is a node-based method for sparse graphs. Hence, we propose an edge-based Graph Path Convolution (GPC) method, which aggregates the information from different paths and can be naturally applied on dense graphs. We refer the whole model as Brain Connectivity Graph Convolutional Networks (BC-GCN). Further, two upgraded network structures are proposed by including the residual and attention modules, referred as BC-GCN-Res and BC-GCN-SE to emphasize the information of the original data and enhance influential channels. Moreover, we design a two-stage coarse-to-fine framework, which determines the age group first and then predicts the age using group-specific BC-GCN-SE models. To avoid accumulated errors from the first stage, a cross-group training strategy is adopted for the second stage regression models. We conduct experiments on infant fMRI scans from 6 to 811 days of age. The coarse-to-fine framework shows significant improvements when being applied to several models (reducing error over 10 days). Comparing with state-of-the-art methods, our proposed model BC-GCN-SE with coarse-to-fine framework reduces the mean absolute error of the prediction from >70 days to 49.9 days. The code is now available at https://github.com/SCUT-Xinlab/BC-GCN.
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Longitudinal Infant Functional Connectivity Prediction via Conditional Intensive Triplet Network. MEDICAL IMAGE COMPUTING AND COMPUTER-ASSISTED INTERVENTION : MICCAI ... INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDICAL IMAGE COMPUTING AND COMPUTER-ASSISTED INTERVENTION 2022; 13438:255-264. [PMID: 36563062 PMCID: PMC9769983 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-16452-1_25] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Longitudinal infant brain functional connectivity (FC) constructed from resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) has increasingly become a pivotal tool in studying the dynamics of early brain development. However, due to various reasons including high acquisition cost, strong motion artifact, and subject dropout, there has been an extreme shortage of usable longitudinal infant rs-fMRI scans to construct longitudinal FCs, which hinders comprehensive understanding and modeling of brain functional development at early ages. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel conditional intensive triplet network (CITN) for longitudinal prediction of the dynamic development of infant FC, which can traverse FCs within a long duration and predict the target FC at any specific age during infancy. Targeting at accurately modeling of the progression pattern of FC, while maintaining the individual functional uniqueness, our model effectively disentangles the intrinsically mixed age-related and identity-related information from the source FC and predicts the target FC by fusing well-disentangled identity-related information with the specific age-related information. Specifically, we introduce an intensive triplet auto-encoder for effective disentanglement of age-related and identity-related information and an identity conditional module to mix identity-related information with designated age-related information. We train the proposed model in a self-supervised way and design downstream tasks to help robustly disentangle age-related and identity-related features. Experiments on 464 longitudinal infant fMRI scans show the superior performance of the proposed method in longitudinal FC prediction in comparison with state-of-the-art approaches.
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