TY - JOUR
T1 - Hubs in the human fetal brain network
AU - van den Heuvel, Marion I.
AU - Turk, Elise
AU - Manning, Janessa H.
AU - Hect, Jasmine
AU - Hernandez-Andrade, Edgar
AU - Hassan, Sonia S.
AU - Romero, Roberto
AU - van den Heuvel, Martijn P.
AU - Thomason, Moriah E.
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - Advances in neuroimaging and network analyses have lead to discovery of highly connected regions, or hubs, in the connectional architecture of the human brain. Whether these hubs emerge in utero, has yet to be examined. The current study addresses this question and aims to determine the location of neural hubs in human fetuses. Fetal resting-state fMRI data (N = 105) was used to construct connectivity matrices for 197 discrete brain regions. We discovered that within the connectional functional organization of the human fetal brain key hubs are emerging. Consistent with prior reports in infants, visual and motor regions were identified as emerging hub areas, specifically in cerebellar areas. We also found evidence for network hubs in association cortex, including areas remarkably close to the adult fusiform facial and Wernicke areas. Functional significance of hub structure was confirmed by computationally deleting hub versus random nodes and observing that global efficiency decreased significantly more when hubs were removed (p <.001). Taken together, we conclude that both primary and association brain regions demonstrate centrality in network organization before birth. While fetal hubs may be important for facilitating network communication, they may also form potential points of vulnerability in fetal brain development.
AB - Advances in neuroimaging and network analyses have lead to discovery of highly connected regions, or hubs, in the connectional architecture of the human brain. Whether these hubs emerge in utero, has yet to be examined. The current study addresses this question and aims to determine the location of neural hubs in human fetuses. Fetal resting-state fMRI data (N = 105) was used to construct connectivity matrices for 197 discrete brain regions. We discovered that within the connectional functional organization of the human fetal brain key hubs are emerging. Consistent with prior reports in infants, visual and motor regions were identified as emerging hub areas, specifically in cerebellar areas. We also found evidence for network hubs in association cortex, including areas remarkably close to the adult fusiform facial and Wernicke areas. Functional significance of hub structure was confirmed by computationally deleting hub versus random nodes and observing that global efficiency decreased significantly more when hubs were removed (p <.001). Taken together, we conclude that both primary and association brain regions demonstrate centrality in network organization before birth. While fetal hubs may be important for facilitating network communication, they may also form potential points of vulnerability in fetal brain development.
KW - Brain networks
KW - Development
KW - Fetus
KW - Functional connectivity
KW - Hubs
KW - Prenatal
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041836406&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.02.001
DO - 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.02.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 29448128
AN - SCOPUS:85041836406
VL - 30
SP - 108
EP - 115
JO - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
SN - 1878-9293
ER -