Towards Personalized Precision Functional Mapping in Infancy

Abstract

Precise network topology of functional brain systems is highly specific to individuals and undergoes dramatic changes during critical periods of development. Large amounts of high-quality resting state data is required to investigate these individual differences, but is difficult to obtain in early infancy. We therefore tested the use of template matching to efficiently identify individualized network topology in early infancy using reduced amounts of data. Given the dramatic changes experienced during early development, we first generated a set of age-specific network templates which were then used to validate the application of template matching using two independent neonatal datasets with extended acquisition of resting state fMRI data. We were able to detect all major adult networks in individual infants and confirm that the topology of the resulting network maps is individual-specific. Interestingly, there was no plateau in intra-subject network map similarity with greater amounts of resting state data, so the amount and/or quality of infant data required to achieve high precision network maps will require further investigation. Understanding personalized precision functional mapping in infancy is necessary for elucidating longitudinal development of functional brain networks: this study demonstrates a robust methodological approach for identifying individualized resting state networks in infants.

Note:
Funding Declaration: Support for this work was provided by NICHD R01 HD060628 (Wadhwa; EMA Assessment of Biobehavioral Processes in Human Pregnancy), NIMH R01 MH091351 (Buss & Wadhwa; Fetal Programming of the Newborn and Infant Human Brain), Supplement to R01 MH091351 (Buss & Fair; Fetal Programming of Brain Functional Connectivity in Neonates and Infants), NIMH R00 MH111805 (Graham; A targeted approach to examine the influence of maternal psychological stress on newborn brain outcomes), NICHD P50 HD103525 (Gurnett; Clinical Translational Core), NIMH R01 MH113883 (Luby, Smyser, & Warner; Early Life Adversity, Biological Embedding, and Risk for Developmental Precursors of Mental Disorders), and Pilot Project funding through BUILD EXITO R03 5TL4GM118965 (Advances in neuroimaging methods to examine early neurobiological predictors of executive functioning). Individual author funding includes NCCIH T32 AT002688 (author LAM), DFG German Research Foundation 493345456 (author JM; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), NICHD F31 HD109017-01A1 (author MA), NICHD K99 HD100593 (author JR), NIMH F30 MH118762 (author M. Marr; Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy as a key mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of childhood traumatic stress), and NIDA T32DA043593 (author AJ).

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethical Approval: Written informed consent was obtained from all parents of neonatal and adolescent participants and additional assent was obtained from adolescent participants. Analysis of neuroimaging data was approved by the Institutional Review Board at University of Minnesota.

Keywords: Individualized resting state functional networks in infants, Precision functional mapping in infancy, Age-specific resting state functional network templates for infants, Infant MRI, Neurodevelopment of resting state networks, Template matching for detecting resting state functional networks