Spatial Development of Brain Networks During The First Six Postnatal Months

The initial months of life constitute a crucial period for human development. A comprehensive understanding of this early phase is essential for unraveling the origins of neurodevelopmental disorders and promoting infant brain health. This study uniquely focuses on the spatial development of intrinsic brain connectivity networks during infancy, which has been less explored compared to functional connectivity. We utilized independent component analysis on resting-state fMRI data from 74 infants to assess how the spatial organization of infant brain networks evolves between birth and six months.

Our findings reveal significant changes in spatial characteristics, including an a notable rise in the network-averaged spatial similarity across age, reflecting how closely each participant-specific spatial map aligns with the group-level map for each network. We also observed a marked reduction in the network engagement range by age, representing the extent of voxel intensity range fluctuation within each network. This suggests a continuing process of consolidation, where voxel contributions to the network become more uniform, as indicated by the narrowing of intensity values. The network strength, calculated as the average of all the voxel intensities in the network, indicating the degree of involvement to the specific functional network, increased across age in several networks, such as frontal-mPFC, primary, and secondary visual networks. The network size, along with the network center of mass, illustrating spatial distribution alterations of brain networks by age, varied across different networks. For instance, both metrics increased across age in the secondary visual network but decreased in the temporal network. Additionally, we examined the networks in relation to their linear versus non-linear developmental trajectories across all spatial characteristics, providing a deeper understanding of how these patterns evolve during early infancy. These findings contribute to early brain development understanding and offer insights into potential markers of consolidation and spatial reorganization in large-scale brain networks during infancy.