Hao Huang1, Ni Shu2, Virendra Mishra1, Tina Jeon1, Gaolang Gong2, Qi Dong2, Yong He2
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
After birth, complicated molecular and biochemical processes take place in the human brain white matter, which is reshaped to better adapt sophisticated functional and cognitive requirements. The axonal connectivity undergoes dramatic structural changes, causing the significant variations of brain network properties. In this study, high resolution DTI data of 25 neonates, 13 infants and 15 young children were acquired and analyzed with DTI based tractography to characterize network dynamics at three landmark time points during early childhood. Significant changes among the network properties at these key developmental time points were found although the property of small-world organization is kept.