Developmental Variations in Recurrent Spatiotemporal Brain Propagations from Childhood to Adulthood.

The brain undergoes profound structural and functional transformations from childhood to adolescence. Convergent evidence suggests that neurodevelopment proceeds in a hierarchical manner, characterized by heterogeneous maturation patterns across brain regions and networks. However, the maturation of the intrinsic spatiotemporal propagations of brain activity remains largely unexplored.

Glioma-White Matter Tract Interactions: A dMRI-Based Three-Tier Classification and Its Clinical Relevance.

Background: This study proposed a classification system for the interaction between gliomas and white matter tracts, exploring its potential associations with clinical characteristics, tumor pathological subtypes, and patient outcomes.

Methods: Clinical data and diffusion MRI from 360 glioma patients who underwent craniotomy were analyzed. Using automatic fiber tractography, glioma-tract relationships were categorized into three types: displacement, infiltration, and disruption.

Spatial Heterogeneity and Subtypes of Functional Connectivity Development in Youth.

The brain functional connectome development is fundamental to neurocognitive growth in youth. While brain age prediction has been widely used to assess connectome development at the individual level, traditional approaches providing a global index overlook the spatial variability and inter-individual heterogeneity of functional connectivity (FC) development across the cortex. In this study, we introduced a regional brain development index to assess spatially fine-grained FC development.

Dynamic switching between brain networks predicts creative ability.

Creativity is hypothesized to arise from a mental state which balances spontaneous thought and cognitive control, corresponding to functional connectivity between the brain's Default Mode (DMN) and Executive Control (ECN) Networks. Here, we conduct a large-scale, multi-center examination of this hypothesis. Employing a meta-analytic network neuroscience approach, we analyze resting-state fMRI and creative task performance across 10 independent samples from Austria, Canada, China, Japan, and the United States (N = 2433)-constituting the largest and most ethnically diverse creativity neuroscience study to date.

Transcranial low-level laser stimulation in the near-infrared-II region (1064 nm) for brain safety in healthy humans.

Background: The use of near-infrared lasers for transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) offers a non-invasive method for influencing brain activity and is beneficial for various neurological conditions. However, comprehensive quantitative studies on its safety are lacking.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the safety of 1064-nm laser-based tPBM across brain structure, brain function, neural damage, cognitive ability and tolerance.

Hierarchical individual variation and socioeconomic impact on personalized functional network topography in children.

Background: The spatial layout of large-scale functional brain networks exhibits considerable inter-individual variability, especially in the association cortex. Research has demonstrated a link between early socioeconomic status (SES) and variations in both brain structure and function, which are further associated with cognitive and mental health outcomes. However, the extent to which SES is associated with individual differences in personalized functional network topography during childhood remains largely unexplored.

Morphological Brain Networks of White Matter: Mapping, Evaluation, Characterization, and Application.

Although white matter (WM) accounts for nearly half of adult brain, its wiring diagram is largely unknown. Here, an approach is developed to construct WM networks by estimating interregional morphological similarity based on structural magnetic resonance imaging. It is found that morphological WM networks showed nontrivial topology, presented good-to-excellent test-retest reliability, accounted for phenotypic interindividual differences in cognition, and are under genetic control.

Heritability of functional gradients in the human subcortico-cortical connectivity.

The human subcortex plays a pivotal role in cognition and is widely implicated in the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders. However, the heritability of functional gradients based on subcortico-cortical functional connectivity remains elusive. Here, leveraging twin functional MRI (fMRI) data from both the Human Connectome Project (n = 1023) and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 936) datasets, we construct large-scale subcortical functional gradients and delineate an increased principal functional gradient pattern from unimodal sensory/motor networks to transmodal association networks.

Structural connectivity matures along a sensorimotor-association connectional axis in youth.

Childhood and adolescence are associated with protracted developmental remodeling of cortico-cortical structural connectivity. However, how heterochronous development in white matter structural connectivity spatially and temporally unfolds across the macroscale human connectome remains unknown. Leveraging non-invasive diffusion MRI data from both cross-sectional (N = 590) and longitudinal (baseline: N = 3,949; two-year follow-up: N = 3,155) developmental datasets, we found that structural connectivity development diverges along a pre-defined sensorimotor-association (S-A) connectional axis from ages 8.

The factor outweighs the specific internalizing factor in predicting recurrences of adolescent depression.

Background: The early prediction of adolescent depression recurrence poses a significant challenge in the field. This study aims to investigate and compare the abilities of the general psychopathology factor () and the specific internalizing factor, in predicting depression recurrence over a 2-year course, as well as identifying remitted depressed adolescents from healthy adolescents. Longitudinal changes of these two factors in different trajectory groups were also tracked to examine their sensitivity to sustained remission and relapse.

Predictable navigation through spontaneous brain states with cognitive-map-like representations.

Just as navigating a physical environment, navigating through the landscapes of spontaneous brain states may also require an internal cognitive map. Contemporary computation theories propose modeling a cognitive map from a reinforcement learning perspective and argue that the map would be predictive in nature, representing each state as its upcoming states. Here, we used resting-state fMRI to test the hypothesis that the spaces of spontaneously reoccurring brain states are cognitive map-like, and may exhibit future-oriented predictivity.

Personalized functional brain network topography is associated with individual differences in youth cognition.

Individual differences in cognition during childhood are associated with important social, physical, and mental health outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. Given that cortical surface arealization during development reflects the brain's functional prioritization, quantifying variation in the topography of functional brain networks across the developing cortex may provide insight regarding individual differences in cognition. We test this idea by defining personalized functional networks (PFNs) that account for interindividual heterogeneity in functional brain network topography in 9-10 year olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study.

Group-common and individual-specific effects of structure-function coupling in human brain networks with graph neural networks.

The human cerebral cortex is organized into functionally segregated but synchronized regions bridged by the structural connectivity of white matter pathways. While structure-function coupling has been implicated in cognitive development and neuropsychiatric disorders, it remains unclear to what extent the structure-function coupling reflects a group-common characteristic or varies across individuals, at both the global and regional brain levels. By leveraging two independent, high-quality datasets, we found that the graph neural network accurately predicted unseen individuals' functional connectivity from structural connectivity, reflecting a strong structure-function coupling.

Functional connectome through the human life span.

The lifespan growth of the functional connectome remains unknown. Here, we assemble task-free functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging data from 33,250 individuals aged 32 postmenstrual weeks to 80 years from 132 global sites. We report critical inflection points in the nonlinear growth curves of the global mean and variance of the connectome, peaking in the late fourth and late third decades of life, respectively.

Process model of emotion regulation-based digital intervention for emotional problems.

Background: To address the lack of mental health practitioners in developing countries, the current study explored the feasibility of a newly developed self-guided digital intervention program TEA (training for emotional adaptation) in alleviating depressive and anxiety symptoms, as one of a few studies which adapted from theoretical models with effective intervention techniques.

Methods: The first part of this study involved 11 professional mental health practitioners giving feedback on the feasibility of the TEA; while the second part involved a mixed-method single-arm study with 32 participants recruited online, who went through the seven intervention sessions within 14 days. The questionnaires were collected before, after, 14 days after, and 30 days after intervention.