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. 2023 Oct;8(10):1024-1032.
doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.09.005. Epub 2022 Sep 23.

Early Childhood Development of Node Centrality in the White Matter Connectome and Its Relationship to IQ at Age 6 Years

Maria Bagonis  1 , Emil Cornea  1 , Jessica B Girault  2 , Rebecca L Stephens  1 , SunHyung Kim  1 , Juan Carlos Prieto  1 , Martin Styner  3 , John H Gilmore  4
Affiliations

Early Childhood Development of Node Centrality in the White Matter Connectome and Its Relationship to IQ at Age 6 Years

Maria Bagonis et al. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Background: The white matter (WM) connectome is important for cognitive development and intelligence and is altered in neuropsychiatric illnesses. Little is known about how the WM connectome develops or its relationship to IQ in early childhood.

Methods: The development of node centrality in the WM connectome was studied in a longitudinal cohort of 226 (123 female) children from the University of North Carolina Early Brain Development Study. Structural and diffusion-weighted images were acquired after birth and at 1, 2, 4, and 6 years, and IQ was assessed at 6 years. Eigenvector centrality, betweenness centrality, and the global graph metrics of global efficiency, small worldness, and modularity were determined at each age.

Results: The greatest developmental change in eigenvector centrality and betweenness centrality occurred during the first year of life, with relative stability between ages 1 and 6 years. Most of the high-centrality hubs at age 6 were also high-centrality hubs at 1 year, and many were already high-centrality hubs at birth. There were generally small but significant changes in global efficiency and modularity from birth to 6 years, while small worldness increased between 2 and 4 years. Individual node centrality was not significantly correlated with IQ at 6 years.

Conclusions: Node centrality in the WM connectome is established very early in childhood and is relatively stable from age 1 to 6 years. Many high-centrality hubs are established before birth, and most are present by age 1.

Keywords: Betweenness centrality; Brain networks; Cognitive development; Developmental trajectory; Diffusion-weighted imaging; Eigenvector centrality.

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Conflict of interest statement

Financial Disclosure

All authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Development of WM connectome Global efficiency, Small Worldness and Modularity from birth to 6 years. Data is presented in Table 3. * p <0.05 ** p < 0.001
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Development of node EVC from birth to 6 years. Colored lines represent high EVC hubs (top 15%) at age 6 years. Glass brains represent node strength (larger nodes with higher EVC) after birth and at ages 1 and 6 years. Note similar patterns at 1 and 6 years. Data is presented in Supplemental Table 11. Glass brain was created in BrainNet Viewer (63).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Development of node BNC from birth to 6 years. Colored lines represent high BNC hubs (top 15%) at age 6 years. Glass brains represent node strength (larger nodes with higher BNC) after birth and at ages 1 and 6 years. Note similar patterns at 1 and 6 years. Data is presented in Supplemental Table 12. Glass brain was created in BrainNet Viewer (63).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Nodes with significant change of EVC and BNC from birth to 1 year and 1 to 6 years. Data is presented in Supplemental Tables 11 and 12. Glass brain was created in BrainNet Viewer (63)
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Correlations of node mean EVC and BNC at age 6 with that of previous ages. N for each age correlation Neo-6 yr: 12; 1–6 yr: 22; 2–6 yr: 24, 4–6: 39. Line is line of identity. Data is presented in Supplemental Tables 8 and 9.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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