Functional connectomes become more longitudinally self-stable, but not more distinct from others, across early childhood
Kirk Graff,
Ryann Tansey,
Shefali Rai,
Amanda Ip,
Christiane Rohr,
Dennis Dimond,
Deborah Dewey,
Signe Bray
Affiliations
Kirk Graff
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Corresponding author at: Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, B4-290, 28 Oki Drive NW, Calgary, AB T3B 6A8, Canada.
Ryann Tansey
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Shefali Rai
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Amanda Ip
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Christiane Rohr
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Dennis Dimond
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Deborah Dewey
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Community Health Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Signe Bray
Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Functional connectomes, as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), are highly individualized, and evidence suggests this individualization may increase across childhood. A connectome can become more individualized either by increasing self-stability or decreasing between-subject-similarity. Here we used a longitudinal early childhood dataset to investigate age associations with connectome self-stability, between-subject-similarity, and developmental individualization, defined as an individual's self-stability across a 12-month interval relative to their between-subject-similarity. fMRI data were collected during an 18-minute passive viewing scan from 73 typically developing children aged 4-7 years, at baseline and 12-month follow-up. We found that young children had highly individualized connectomes, with sufficient self-stability across 12-months for 98% identification accuracy. Linear models showed a significant relationship between age and developmental individualization across the whole brain and in most networks. This association appeared to be largely driven by an increase in self-stability with age, with only weak evidence for relationships between age and similarity across participants. Together our findings suggest that children's connectomes become more individualized across early childhood, and that this effect is driven by increasing self-stability rather than decreasing between-subject-similarity.
