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Cited by 71Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsFunctional Brain Connectivity StudiesFetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders

Human fetal brain connectome: structural network development from middle fetal stage to birth

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Song, Limei, Mishra, Virendra, Ouyang, Minhui, Peng, Qinmu, Slinger, Michelle, Liu, Shuwei, Huang, Hao·2017·Frontiers in Neuroscience
DOI 10.3389/fnins.2017.00561PMC PMC5645529
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Abstract

Complicated molecular and cellular processes take place in a spatiotemporally heterogeneous and precisely regulated pattern in the human fetal brain, yielding not only dramatic morphological and microstructural changes, but also macroscale connectomic transitions. As the underlying substrate of the fetal brain structural network, both dynamic neuronal migration pathways and rapid developing fetal white matter (WM) fibers could fundamentally reshape early fetal brain connectome. Quantifying structural connectome development can not only shed light on the brain reconfiguration in this critical yet rarely studied developmental period, but also reveal alterations of the connectome under neuropathological conditions. However, transition of the structural connectome from the mid-fetal stage to birth is not yet known. The contribution of different types of neural fibers to the structural network in the mid-fetal brain is not known, either. In this study, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI or DTI) of 10 fetal brain specimens at the age of 20 postmenstrual weeks (PMW), 12 in vivo brains at 35 PMW and 12 in vivo brains at term (40 PMW) were acquired. The structural connectome of each brain was established with evenly parcellated cortical regions as network nodes and traced fiber pathways based on DTI tractography as network edges. Two groups of fibers were categorized based on the fiber terminal locations in the cerebral wall in the 20PMW fetal brains. We found that fetal brain networks become stronger and more efficient during 20-40 PMW. Furthermore, network strength and global efficiency increase more rapidly during 20-35PMW than during 35-40PMW. Visualization of the whole brain fiber distribution by the lengths suggested that the network reconfiguration in this developmental period could be associated with a significant increase of major long association WM fibers. In addition, non-WM neural fibers could be a major contributor to the structural network configuration at 20PMW and small-world network organization could exist as early as 20PMW. These findings offer a preliminary record of the fetal brain structural connectome maturation from the middle fetal stage to birth and reveal the critical role of non-WM neural fibers in structural network configuration in the middle fetal stage.

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  • Fetal brain structural connectivity shows adult-like topological organization, including significant small-world, modular, and rich-club organization, during the middle to final trimester of gestation.

    “Many studies have discovered largely adult-like topological structures including significant small-world, modular, and rich-club organization during the middle to final trimester of gestation”

    From Quantitative mapping of the brain’s structural connectivity using diffusion MRI tractography: A review (2022) · cites this paper as Song et al., 2017

    The Results report small-world organization in fetal structural networks at 20, 35, and 40 postmenstrual weeks (Figures 6–7; page not provided). The passages do not establish modular or rich-club organization, or characterize the topology as broadly adult-like. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Song, L., Mishra, V., Ouyang, M., Peng, Q., Slinger, M., Liu, S., & Huang, H.
Affiliations
  • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
  • Cleveland Clinic (US)
  • Shandong University (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Liu, Shuwei
  • Huang, Hao
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2017-10-13
Volume
11
Pages
561-561
ISSN
1662-453X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fnins.2017.00561
PMC
PMC5645529
OpenAlex
W2762636258
Cited by
71
References
13
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 10
FWCI
5.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Office of Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health (MH092535, MH092535-S1)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571237)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders
Keywords
fetal brain, structural connectome, brain network development, network efficiency, network strength, small-world networks, cortical parcellation, tractography, neuronal migration

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