Olga Tymofiyeva1,
Christopher P. Hess1, Etay Ziv1, Patricia N. Lee1,
Hannah C. Glass2, 3, Donna M. Ferriero3, A
James Barkovich1, Duan Xu1
1Department
of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United
States; 2Department of Neurology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United
States; 3Department of Pediatrics, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United
States
In this study, we applied an automated template-free "baby connectome" framework using diffusion MRI to examine the maturational changes of the structural brain networks in subjects of different ages, including premature neonates, term-born neonates, six-month-old infants, and adults. We observed increasing brain network integration and decreasing segregation with age in term-born subjects, consistent with previous findings in the late developing human brain. We also explored how the equal area nodes can be grouped into modules without any prior anatomical information an important step toward a fully network-driven registration and analysis of brain connectivity.