Segregation and integration of the functional connectome in neurodevelopmentally 'at risk' children.
Publication Date
2022-05Journal Title
Dev Sci
ISSN
1363-755X
Publisher
Wiley
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Jones, J. S., CALM Team, & Astle, D. (2022). Segregation and integration of the functional connectome in neurodevelopmentally 'at risk' children.. Dev Sci https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13209
Abstract
Functional connectivity within and between Intrinsic Connectivity Networks (ICNs) transforms over development and is thought to support high order cognitive functions. But how variable is this process, and does it diverge with altered cognitive development? We investigated age-related changes in integration and segregation within and between ICNs in neurodevelopmentally 'at-risk' children, identified by practitioners as experiencing cognitive difficulties in attention, learning, language, or memory. In our analysis we used performance on a battery of 10 cognitive tasks alongside resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in 175 at-risk children and 62 comparison children aged 5-16. We observed significant age-by-group interactions in functional connectivity between two network pairs. Integration between the ventral attention and visual networks and segregation of the limbic and fronto-parietal networks increased with age in our comparison sample, relative to at-risk children. Furthermore, functional connectivity between the ventral attention and visual networks in comparison children significantly mediated age-related improvements in executive function, compared to at-risk children. We conclude that integration between ICNs show divergent neurodevelopmental trends in the broad population of children experiencing cognitive difficulties, and that these differences in functional brain organisation may partly explain the pervasive cognitive difficulties within this group over childhood and adolescence.
Keywords
RESEARCH ARTICLE, RESEARCH ARTICLES, cognitive development, executive function, fMRI, functional connectivity, intrinsic connectivity networks, neurodevelopment
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00005/16)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00005/10)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00005/2)
Medical Research Council (MC_U105559837)
Identifiers
desc13209
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13209
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/331986
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.