NeuroImage (Dec 2021)

Similarity and stability of face network across populations and throughout adolescence and adulthood

  • Zhijie Liao,
  • Tobias Banaschewski,
  • Arun L.W. Bokde,
  • Sylvane Desrivières,
  • Herta Flor,
  • Antoine Grigis,
  • Hugh Garavan,
  • Penny Gowland,
  • Andreas Heinz,
  • Bernd Ittermann,
  • Jean-Luc Martinot,
  • Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot,
  • Eric Artiges,
  • Frauke Nees,
  • Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos,
  • Luise Poustka,
  • Sarah Hohmann,
  • Sabina Millenet,
  • Juliane H. Fröhner,
  • Michael N. Smolka,
  • Henrik Walter,
  • Robert Whelan,
  • Gunter Schumann,
  • Tomáš Paus

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 244
p. 118587

Abstract

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The ability to extract cues from faces is fundamental for social animals, including humans. An individual's profile of functional connectivity across a face network can be shaped by common organizing principles, stable individual traits, and time-varying mental states. In the present study, we used data obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging in two cohorts, IMAGEN (N = 534) and ALSPAC (N = 465), to investigate - both at group and individual levels - the consistency of the regional profile of functional connectivity across populations (IMAGEN, ALSPAC) and time (Visits 1 to 3 in IMAGEN; age 14 to 22 years). At the group level, we found a robust canonical profile of connectivity both across populations and time. At the individual level, connectivity profiles deviated from the canonical profile, and the magnitude of this deviation related to the presence of psychopathology. These findings suggest that the brain processes faces in a highly stereotypical manner, and that the deviations from this normative pattern may be related to the risk of mental illness.

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