Pew-Thian Yap1, Yong Fan1,
Yasheng Chen1, John H. Gilmore2, Weili Lin1,
Dinggang Shen1
1Department of Radiology, University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; 2Department of
Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Our
objective is to study pediatric brain networks by applying DTI based fiber
tractography on 39 healthy pediatric subjects with longitudinal data
collected at the average ages of 2 weeks, 1 year, and 2 years. Our results
indicate that the small-world architecture exists at birth, with low global
and local efficiencies, and is strengthened in later stages of development.
In addition, we found that the node degree distributions of the networks have
Gaussian tails, signifying their single-scale nature. We also observe, across
development, that the brain network seems to evolve progressively from a
local, predominantly proximity based, connectivity pattern to a more
distributed, predominantly functional based, connectivity pattern.