Functional parcellation of the neonatal brain

Abstract

SUMMARYThe cerebral cortex is organized into distinct but interconnected cortical areas, which can be defined by abrupt differences in patterns of resting state functional connectivity (FC) across the cortical surface. Such parcellations of the cortex have been derived in adults and older infants, but there is no widely used surface parcellation available for the neonatal brain. Here, we first demonstrate that adult- and older infant-derived parcels are a poor fit with neonatal data, emphasizing the need for neonatal-specific parcels. We next derive a set of 283 cortical surface parcels from a sample of n=261 neonates. These parcels have highly homogenous FC patterns and are validated using three external neonatal datasets. The Infomap algorithm is used to assign functional network identities to each parcel, and derived networks are consistent with prior work in neonates. The proposed parcellation may represent neonatal cortical areas and provides a powerful tool for neonatal neuroimaging studies.HIGHLIGHTSNeonatal cortical surface parcels derived based on abrupt changes in functional connectivity (FC) were highly homogenous and were validated in external neonatal datasets.Borders between cortical parcels were smoother (less abrupt) in group-average neonatal data compared to adults, likely due to increased heterogeneity in boundary location across individual neonates.Parcels derived from adults and older infants show poor fit with neonatal resting-state FC data, underscoring the need for a neonatal-specific parcellation.