Cited by 440Functional Brain Connectivity StudiesAdvanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsComplex Network Analysis Techniques

Topological organization of the human brain functional connectome across the lifespan

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Cao, Miao, Wang, Jin-Hui, Dai, Zheng-Jia, Cao, Xiao-Yan, Jiang, Li-Li, Fan, Feng-Mei, Song, Xiao-Wei, Xia, Ming-Rui +6 more·2014·Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

Human brain function undergoes complex transformations across the lifespan. We employed resting-state functional MRI and graph-theory approaches to systematically chart the lifespan trajectory of the topological organization of human whole-brain functional networks in 126 healthy individuals ranging in age from 7 to 85 years. Brain networks were constructed by computing Pearson's correlations in blood-oxygenation-level-dependent temporal fluctuations among 1024 parcellation units followed by graph-based network analyses. We observed that the human brain functional connectome exhibited highly preserved non-random modular and rich club organization over the entire age range studied. Further quantitative analyses revealed linear decreases in modularity and inverted-U shaped trajectories of local efficiency and rich club architecture. Regionally heterogeneous age effects were mainly located in several hubs (e.g., default network, dorsal attention regions). Finally, we observed inverse trajectories of long- and short-distance functional connections, indicating that the reorganization of connectivity concentrates and distributes the brain's functional networks. Our results demonstrate topological changes in the whole-brain functional connectome across nearly the entire human lifespan, providing insights into the neural substrates underlying individual variations in behavior and cognition. These results have important implications for disease connectomics because they provide a baseline for evaluating network impairments in age-related neuropsychiatric disorders.

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  • In adulthood, high strength and betweenness hubs are largely located within default mode, attentional, sensorimotor, and visual areas.

    “high strength and betweenness hubs in adulthood are largely located within within the default mode, attentional, sensorimotor, and visual areas (Cao et al., 2014; Fransson et al., 2011; Grayson et al., 2014; Hwang et al., 2013)”
  • Among cortical areas, some report increasing hubness of frontal nodes, while other lobes show mixed reports of increasing, decreasing, or stable hubness.

    “Among cortical areas, some have reported increasing hubness of frontal nodes (Cao et al., 2014; Wu et al., 2013) while in other lobes there have been mixed reports of increasing (Cao et al., 2014; Grayson et al., 2014) and decreasing (Wu et al., 2013; Zuo et al., 2012), or stable (Hwang et al., 2013) hubness.”
  • There is convergent evidence that locations of high-strength and high-betweenness hub regions are stable after 5 years of age.

    “Returning to the MRI literature, there is convergent evidence that the locations of high-strength and high-betweenness hub regions appear to be stable after 5 years of age (Cao et al., 2014; Grayson et al., 2014; Hwang et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2012; Wu et al., 2013; Zuo et al., 2012).”
  • Specific connections to cortical hub regions increase during childhood and adolescence, resulting in increased rich club coefficients in adulthood.

    “More detailed network analyses have revealed that specific connections to cortical hub regions increase during childhood and adolescence (Grayson et al., 2014; Hwang et al., 2013) resulting in increased rich club coefficients in adulthood (Cao et al., 2014; Grayson et al., 2014).”

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Authors
Cao, M., Wang, J.-H., Dai, Z.-J., Cao, X.-Y., Jiang, L.-L., Fan, F.-M., Song, X.-W., Xia, M.-R., Shu, N., Dong, Q., Milham, M. P., Castellanos, F. X., Zuo, X.-N., & He, Y.
Affiliations
  • Beijing Normal University (CN)
  • Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Corresponding author
Zuo, Xi-Nian
Venue
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2014-01
Volume
7
Pages
76-93
ISSN
1878-9293 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2093597642
Cited by
440
References
102
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 17 · 2012: 1
FWCI
14.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Institutional Repository of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Natural Science Foundation (81030028, 31221003, 81171409)
  • National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (81225012)
  • Major Joint Fund for International Cooperation and Exchange of the National Natural Science Foundation (81220108014)
  • Open Research Fund of the Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, the Startup Foundation for Distinguished Research Professor (Y0CX492S03)
  • Institute of Psychology, the Hundred Talents Program and the Key Research Program (KSZD-EW-TZ-002)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
Keywords
lifespan development, network topology, modularity, rich club, local efficiency, brain network hubs, default mode network, dorsal attention network, resting-state fMRI, graph theory
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Brain, Brain Mapping, Child, Cognition, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Net, Sex Factors, Connectome

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