Abstract
The advent of connectivity-based methods, particularly those utilizing spontaneous BOLD signals, has significantly advanced brain mapping and deepened our understanding of the human brain's functional architecture. While prior research has explored functional organization in early childhood, most studies have focused on coarse, group-level distinctions aligned with adult literature, often within narrow age ranges. This dissertation extends these investigations by examining cortical functional organization in greater detail among healthy infants and toddlers aged 1 to 5 years. Chapter 1 employs spontaneous BOLD signals in sleeping infants and toddlers to derive a group-level functional organization at the resolution of areas and networks. It compares infant/toddler area parcellations with existing adult and infant atlases to assess alignment and potential biases in analytical approaches. Additionally, it presents both coarse and fine-grained functional network divisions for a group-average connectome at approximately 2 years of age. Chapter 2 investigates the applicability of adult-derived functional network divisions to infant/toddler functional connectivity (FC), identifying regions with early "adult-like" organization and linking them to interindividual variability in adults. Chapter 3 introduces a vertex-level, individualized approach to delineate functional networks using a template-matching method, addressing limitations of group-average analyses. This chapter also proposes an alternative method for generating group-level network templates without explicit data alignment, enabling more precise fine-scale network mapping and age-related comparisons.
Committee Chair
Muriah Wheelock
Committee Members
Adam Eggebrecht; Christopher Smyser; Evan Gordon; Jed Elison; Richard Betzel
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author's Department
Biology & Biomedical Sciences (Neurosciences)
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
7-4-2025
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/2gky-py91
Recommended Citation
Tu, Jiaxin, "Cortical Functional Organization in Early Childhood" (2025). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3621.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/2gky-py91