Brain dynamics under resting state and naturalistic conditions from childhood to adolescence

在过去的十年里，越来越多的证据表明，儿童、青少年和成年人的大脑在非常复杂的方面是不同的。在整个发育过程中，大脑和行为的变化模式可能是线性的或非线性的，这是整个生命周期发生的结构、功能和网络水平变化的结果。虽然对大脑结构的变化相对了解较多，但对大脑动力学(即支持大脑活动和大脑功能的基本特征的大规模功能组织)知之甚少。了解大脑动力学以及功能组织如何在从婴儿期到儿童期和青春期再到成年期的发育过程中发生变化，是神经科学的关键挑战之一。这项NSERC建议的总体目标是阐明大脑在休息阶段(RS；缺少任务)的发育变化，以及从儿童早期开始的自然的、现实世界的互动。在休息状态(RS)期间探测大脑的研究表明，即使当大脑没有参与活跃的认知任务时，它也表现出一种高度结构化的活动组织，其特征是空间分布网络上的同步神经活动。这些网络在调节记忆、语言和情绪等复杂功能方面发挥着关键作用。有证据表明，基本的功能性大脑网络从儿童早期就存在，这些网络在青春期过程中变得专门。到目前为止，还没有研究直接比较从儿童到青春期的功能连接，也没有研究比较自然互动期间RS和EEG之间的连接。在这个拟议的DG计划中，我在未来五年的短期目标是：(1)在9-18岁的参与者中表征RS-功能网络的拓扑结构，(2)评估9-18岁之间的动态大脑状态RS-In参与者的变化，以及(3)验证方法和分析管道，以研究5-7岁儿童在自然、真实世界任务中的功能连通性。我将回答一个基本问题：当嵌入到自然主义互动的背景下时，组织中功能连接性的衡量标准将如何变化？这项工作将产生神经发育的连接组信息理论，以回答大脑-行为关系的基本问题。我将使用已建立的功能连通性的测量方法，并应用图论分析来探索和评估大脑发育过程中的动态关系。

Over the past decade, increasing evidence has shown that the brains of children, adolescents and adults are different in very complex ways.  Across development, the pattern of changes in both the brain and in behaviour may be linear or nonlinear, as a result of the structural, functional and network level changes that occur across the lifespan. While changes in brain structure are relatively well understood, less is known about brain dynamics, i.e. the large-scale functional organization supporting fundamental features of brain activity and brain function. Understanding brain dynamics and how functional organization changes over development, from infancy through childhood and adolescence, to adulthood is one of the key challenges in neuroscience. The overall goal of this NSERC proposal is to elucidate the brain's developmental changes in resting stage (RS; absence of a task) and naturalistic, real-world interactions starting in early childhood.     Probing the brain during the resting state (RS) has revealed that even when the brain is not involved in active cognitive tasks, it exhibits a highly structured organization of activity characterized by synchronous neural activity over spatially distributed networks. These networks play a critical role in mediating complex functions such as memory, language, and emotion. There is evidence that basic functional brain networks are present from early childhood and that these networks become specialized during the course of adolescence. Thus far, there are no studies that have directly compared functional connectivity from childhood to adolescence and no studies that have compared connectivity between RS and EEG connectivity during naturalistic interactions. Within this proposed DG program my short-term objectives over the next five years are: (1) characterize the topology of RS-functional networks in participants between the ages of 9-18 years, (2) evaluate the changes in dynamic brain states RS- in participants between the ages of 9-18 years, and (3) validate methods and analysis pipeline to study functional connectivity during naturalistic, real-world tasks in children between the ages of 5-7 years of age.     I will address the fundamental question: How do the metrics of functional connectivity shift in organization when embedded within the context of naturalistic interactions? This work will produce a connectome-informed theory of neurodevelopment to answer fundamental questions of brain-behaviour relationships. I will use established measures of functional connectivity and apply graph theory analysis to explore and evaluate the relationship in brain dynamics over the course of development.