Creating Normative Functional Brain Atlases During Infancy

 描述(由申请人提供)： 利用静息功能磁共振成像(RsfMRI)技术探索早期脑功能发育的机制，在婴儿期建立标准化的脑功能图谱越来越受到人们的关注。这些探索有望检测早期功能连接生物标志物，这些标志物对于开发不同儿科神经疾病的早期诊断和干预方案至关重要，如脑瘫和癫痫。然而，考虑到婴儿期和成年期之间戏剧性的功能演变，早期的发展研究有值得注意的困难，这两个定义都包括 对婴儿适宜的感兴趣区(ROI)和由此产生的功能连接模式的准确解释。因此，建立特定于婴儿的脑功能图谱是该领域取得更快进展的紧迫任务。我们的团队在婴儿期使用rsfMRI描绘正常脑功能连接发育模式方面拥有丰富的经验，并积累了大量正常单胎婴儿(N=174)在出生后头两年进行纵向rsfMRI扫描的样本。如此大规模数据集的可获得性为我们在婴儿期建立标准化的脑功能图谱提供了独特的机会。事实上，我们已经证明了这种努力的可行性，并描绘了在生命的头两年中脑岛和丘脑的次区域功能分离轮廓。在这些以往经验的基础上，并利用大规模先前存在的数据，拟议的研究旨在为生命的头两年建立一套规范性的功能地图集。此外，我们将利用1岁和2岁时测量的现有行为数据(即马伦溃疡)来评估已建立的功能图谱的行为相关性和重要性(目标1)。其次，另一个同样重要和独特的数据集，包括在同一年龄段扫描的120名双卵双胞胎婴儿(DZ)和88名同卵双胞胎婴儿(MZ)，也可用于：1)独立验证基于单胎婴儿建立的图谱；2)检查相关的遗传和环境因素对功能图谱的贡献(目标2)。在拟议的项目成功完成后，我们预计将向早期脑发育研究界免费提供一个软件包，其中包含已建立的特定于婴儿的标准化脑功能图谱及其行为相关性、遗传相关性和环境影响，以促进该领域的更快进展(目标3)。这种方法是创新的，因为它将第一次将成熟的功能连接集群技术应用于婴儿数据，并在婴儿时期创建标准的功能脑图集。这项拟议的研究具有重要意义，因为它有望为研究界提供一套前所未有的参考，以加快未来对大脑正常和异常早期发育背后的功能机制的探索。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Creating Normative Functional Brain Atlases during Infancy There is an increasing interest in exploring the mechanisms underlying early brain functional development using the resting state fMRI (rsfMRI) technique. Such explorations are promising for the detection of early functional connectivity biomarkers that are essential for the development of early diagnosis and intervention schemes for different pediatric neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy. However, given the dramatic functional evolution between infancy and adulthood, there are noteworthy difficulties for early developmental studies which include both the definition of infant-appropriate regions of interest (ROIs) and the accurate interpretation of the resulting functional connectivity patterns. Therefore, the establishment of infant-specific functional brain atlases represents an urgent mission for more rapid progress in the field. Our team has extensive experience in using rsfMRI to delineate normal brain functional connectivity development patterns during infancy and has accumulated a large sample of normal singleton infants (N=174) with longitudinal rsfMRI scans during the first two years of life. The availabilityof such a large-scale dataset provides us a unique opportunity to establish normative functional brain atlases during infancy. In fact, we have demonstrated the feasibility of such an endeavor and delineated the sub-regional functional segregation profile of the insula and thalamus during the first two years of life. Building on these previous experiences and leveraging the large-scale pre-existing data, the proposed study aims to establish a set of normative functional atlases for the first two years of life. Additionally, we will utilize existing behavioral data (i.e., Mullen Sores) measured at 1 and 2 years of age to evaluate the behavioral relevance and significance of the established functional atlases (Aim 1). Secondly, another equally important and unique dataset consisting of 120 dizygotic (DZ) and 88 monozygotic (MZ) twin infants scanned at the same age interval is also available and will be used to: i) independently validate the atlases established based on singleton infants; and ii) examine the associated genetic and environmental contributions to the functional atlases (Aim 2). Upon successful completion of the proposed project, we expect that a software package containing the established infant-specific normative functional brain atlases together with their behavioral correlation, genetic association, and environmental influences, will be made freely available to the early brain development research community to foster more rapid progress in the field (Aim 3). The approach is innovative because it will be the first to apply established functional connectivity clustering techniques to infant data and create normative functional brain atlases during infancy. The proposed research is significant because it is expected to provide the research community with an unprecedented set of references to expedite future explorations of the functional mechanisms underlying both normal and abnormal early brain development.