Charting brain functional development from birth to 6 years of age
Early childhood is crucial for brain functional development. Using advanced neuroimaging methods, characterizing functional connectivity has shed light on the developmental process in infants. However, insights into spatiotemporal functional maturation from birth to early childhood are substantially lacking. In this study, we aggregated 1,091 resting-state functional MRI scans of typically developing children from birth to 6 years of age, harmonized the cohort and imaging-state-related bias, and delineated developmental charts of functional connectivity within and between canonical brain networks. These charts revealed potential neurodevelopmental milestones and elucidated the complex development of brain functional integration, competition and transition processes. We further determined that individual deviations from normative growth charts are significantly associated with infant cognitive abilities. Specifically, connections involving the primary, default, control and attention networks were key predictors. Our findings elucidate early neurodevelopment and suggest that functional connectivity-derived brain charts may provide an effective tool to monitor normative functional development.
Authors
- Weili Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2900-8204)
- Jed T. Elison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6246-1000)
- Changwei W. Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8968-9366)
- Yue Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3151-6774)
- Weiyan Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1235-4522)
- Jessica R. Cohen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6016-6526)
- Yiding Gui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2837-6862)
- Sheng‐Che Hung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6288-3556)
- Seoyoon Cho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7027-0781)
- Zhengwang Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4436-9005)
- Hongtu Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6781-2690)
- Mackenzie Woodburn
- Li Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2165-0080)
- Tengfei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6142-3865)
- Gang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4549-293X)
- Dan Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5398-5187)
- Joseph Piven
Institutions
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- University of North Carolina Health Care (US)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Minnesota Department of Education (US)
- Shanghai Children's Medical Center (CN)
- Resonance Research (United States) (US)
- Imaging Center (US)
- Taipei Medical University (TW)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Human Behaviour
- Published
- 2025-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02160-2
- Citations
- 23
- Primary Topic
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 32.92
Funders
- National Institute on Aging
- National Institute of Mental Health
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases