Multimodal Brain Growth Patterns: Insights from Canonical Correlation Analysis and Deep Canonical Correlation Analysis with Auto-Encoder

Today’s advancements in neuroimaging have been pivotal in enhancing our understanding of brain development and function using various MRI techniques. This study utilizes images from T1-weighted imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging to identify gray matter and white matter coherent growth patterns within 2 years from 9–10-year-old participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The motivation behind this investigation lies in the need to comprehend the intricate processes of brain development during adolescence, a critical period characterized by significant cognitive maturation and behavioral change. While traditional methods like canonical correlation analysis (CCA) capture the linear interactions of brain regions, a deep canonical correlation analysis with an autoencoder (DCCAE) nonlinearly extracts brain patterns. The study involves a comparative analysis of changes in gray and white matter over two years, exploring their interrelation based on correlation scores, extracting significant features using both CCA and DCCAE methodologies, and finding an association between the extracted features with cognition and the Child Behavior Checklist. The results show that both CCA and DCCAE components identified similar brain regions associated with cognition and behavior, indicating that brain growth patterns over this two-year period are linear. The variance explained by CCA and DCCAE components for cognition and behavior suggests that brain growth patterns better account for cognitive maturation compared to behavioral changes. This research advances our understanding of neuroimaging analysis and provides valuable insights into the nuanced dynamics of brain development during adolescence.