title: Brain anatomical networks in early human brain development.
abstract: Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that human brain networks have economic small-world topology and modular organization, enabling efficient information transfer among brain regions. However, it remains largely unknown how the small-world topology and modular organization of human brain networks emerge and develop. Using longitudinal MRI data of 28 healthy pediatric subjects, collected at their ages of 1 month, 1 year, and 2 years, we analyzed development patterns of brain anatomical networks derived from morphological correlations of brain regional volumes. The results show that the brain network of 1-month-olds has the characteristically economic small-world topology and nonrandom modular organization. The network's cost efficiency increases with the brain development to 1 year and 2 years, so does the modularity, providing supportive evidence for the hypothesis that the small-world topology and the modular organization of brain networks are established during early brain development to support rapid synchronization and information transfer with minimal rewiring cost, as well as to balance between local processing and global integration of information.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. yfan@nlpr.ia.ac.cn
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Jeffrey Keith
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Weili
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.forename: Dinggang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D055815:Young Adult