During early brain development, rs-functional connectivity exhibits regional and age-specific activation patterns. We hypothesize that these rs-fMRI patterns might reflect maturity of intracerebral microvascular compartment linked to spatio-temporal genetic expression patterns. The genetic patterns were explored through postmortem human brain specimens and the rs-fMRI connectivity using a longitudinal preterm dataset. rs-functional connectivity and angiogenic genes expression show spatio-temporal differences during early brain development. We observe an increased role of the primary somatosensory and motor cortices from late-fetal to neonatal periods that might be driven by an increased expression of important angiogenic genes in these regions.
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