Maturation of metabolic connectivity of the adolescent rat brain
Hongyoon Choi,
Yoori Choi,
Kyu Wan Kim,
Hyejin Kang,
Do Won Hwang,
E Edmund Kim,
June-Key Chung,
Dong Soo Lee
Affiliations
Hongyoon Choi
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Yoori Choi
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Kyu Wan Kim
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Hyejin Kang
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Do Won Hwang
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
E Edmund Kim
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
June-Key Chung
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Dong Soo Lee
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Neuroimaging has been used to examine developmental changes of the brain. While PET studies revealed maturation-related changes, maturation of metabolic connectivity of the brain is not yet understood. Here, we show that rat brain metabolism is reconfigured to achieve long-distance connections with higher energy efficiency during maturation. Metabolism increased in anterior cerebrum and decreased in thalamus and cerebellum during maturation. When functional covariance patterns of PET images were examined, metabolic networks including default mode network (DMN) were extracted. Connectivity increased between the anterior and posterior parts of DMN and sensory-motor cortices during maturation. Energy efficiency, a ratio of connectivity strength to metabolism of a region, increased in medial prefrontal and retrosplenial cortices. Our data revealed that metabolic networks mature to increase metabolic connections and establish its efficiency between large-scale spatial components from childhood to early adulthood. Neurodevelopmental diseases might be understood by abnormal reconfiguration of metabolic connectivity and efficiency.
