Spontaneous fluctuations in task-independent brain network topologies are correlated with core and multidomain cognitive skills in early adolescence

Poster Session C - Sunday, April 14, 2024, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Jian Loong Jethro Lim¹ (jianloongjethro.lim@childrens.harvard.edu), Catherine Stamoulis^1,2; ¹Boston Children's Hospital, ²Harvard Medical School

The role of spontaneous inter-regional coordination in the adolescent brain, via incompletely maturated neural circuits, in developing cognitive skills is elusive. We investigated the cognitive correlates of dynamic topological fluctuations in task-independent brain networks, using resting-state fMRI from 4099 pre/early adolescents (53.1% females, median age = 120.0 months) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Dynamically-varying networks and their topological properties were estimated from custom-processed fMRI signals using a covariance-based approach. Their temporal variability was quantified by the coefficient of dispersion, and was correlated with performance across the ABCD neurocognitive tasks, using multivariate linear regression models (controlling for false discovery). The temporal variability of multiple properties of dorsal attention and frontoparietal control networks was positively correlated with age-corrected crystalized and total composite scores, and performance in the picture vocabulary, oral reading recognition and matrix reasoning tasks (p<0.05, β = 0.037 - 0.051, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [0.011, 0.081]). Topological variability in the prefrontal cortex was positively associated with performance in the list sorting working memory task (p<0.01, β = 0.056 - 0.068, CI = [0.025, 0.099]). Modularity variability in fronto-basal ganglia and left salience networks was negatively associated with total composite and matrix reasoning scores (p<0.05, β = -0.043 to -0.038, CI = [-0.076, -0.007]). These results suggest that spontaneous fluctuations in circuit topology of underdeveloped adolescent brains may play a significant role in overall cognitive function, fluid and crystallized ability, cognitive flexibility, and domain-specific performance.

Topic Area: OTHER