White matter connectivity is organized by cytoarchitecture from birth
Poster No:
1554
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Emily Kubota1, Xiaoqian Yan2, Mareike Grotheer3, Bella Fascendini4, Sarah Tung1, Christina Tyagi1, Vaidehi Natu5, Kalanit Grill-Spector6
Institutions:
1Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai, 3University of Marburg - Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Hesse, 4Princeton, Princeton, NJ, 5Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 61Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Xiaoqian Yan
Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
Shanghai, Shanghai
Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University
Shanghai, Shanghai
Introduction:
High-level visual areas are organized consistently across individuals, and in blind participants, high level visual areas respond to their preferred categories presented in other modalities (van den Hurk, Van Baelen, and Op de Beeck 2017; Murty et al. 2020). This phenomenon has led researchers to ask: what determines where functionally specialized regions emerge? One hypothesis is that innate white matter connectivity determines the functional specialization of ventral temporal cortex (VTC). In recent work, however, we found that white matter connectivity is organized by cytoarchitecture rather than functional specialization in children (Kubota et al. 2023). Are white matter connections organized by functional specialization or cytoarchitecture from birth? Using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, we test these two hypotheses in newborns, 3 month-olds, 6 month-olds, and adults.
Methods:
Our final sample included N=88 sessions from 42 infants (21 longitudinal) and 21 adults ((n=23 newborns (M=28.56 days, SD= 10.21days), n=23 3-month-olds (M=106.91 days, SD=19.33 days), n=21 6-month-olds (M=189.05 days, SD=15.77 days), n=21 adults (M=28.21 years, SD=5.51 years)). We collected dMRI data in all infants and adults, and generated a whole brain tractogram in each participant. We projected adult maximum probability map (MPM) regions of interest (ROI) of six category-selective regions in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) to individual participant brains. For each participant, we intersected the whole brain tractogram with each of the MPM ROIs (see Fig 1). We then projected the endpoints of the intersected connectome to the cortical surface to see how the endpoints connect to the rest of the brain. Finally, we quantified the endpoint density at each Glasser Atlas ROI (Glasser et al. 2016) to determine the connectivity profile of each ROI. We used principal component analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the connectivity profiles and found that the first 10 principal components explain 98% of the variance in connectivity. We used a leave-one-out cross-validated classifier to test if we could classify from the connectivity profile of the ROI its cytoarchitectonic area (FG2/FG3/FG4), category selectivity(word/face/body/place), or age group (0 months/3 months/6 months/adult) in a held out subject.
Results:
We found that from the white matter connectivity profiles we can classify cytoarchitecture (Fig 2C) and category (Fig 2D) above chance. The odds of correct classification of cytoarchitecture was significantly higher compared to category (odds ratio= 5.97, 95% CI [3.99, 8.94], binomial logistic regression). There was no significant difference in the odds of correct classification or for newborns, 3-month-olds, and 6-month-olds compared to adults (newborns: odds ratio =1.20, 95% CI [0.77, 1.89], 3-months: odds ratio =1.01, 95% CI [0.65, 1.56], 6-months: odds ratio =1.05, 95% CI [0.67, 1.65], binomial logistic regression). These results demonstrate that cytoarchitecture was classified better than category across all age groups. In addition, from white matter connectivity we could classify age group above chance (Fig 2E), suggesting development of connectivity profiles. Examination of the endpoint connectivity profiles across the brain reveals that connections from VTC to lateral prefrontal cortex increase over development, whereas connections from VTC to orbitofrontal cortex and the parietal lobe decrease over development.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that white matter connectivity and cytoarchitecture in VTC are linked from birth, providing evidence for innate organization of white matter connectivity. However, white matter connectivity also changes over development: connections from VTC to lateral frontal cortex increase from infancy to adulthood, whereas connections from VTC to the parietal lobe decrease. These results suggest that white matter connectivity has both innate scaffolding and the capacity to change over development.
Lifespan Development:
Normal Brain Development: Fetus to Adolescence 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) 1
Diffusion MRI Modeling and Analysis
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Perception: Visual
Keywords:
Development
Vision
White Matter
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Hurk, Job van den, Marc Van Baelen, and Hans P. Op de Beeck. 2017. “Development of Visual Category Selectivity in Ventral Visual Cortex Does Not Require Visual Experience.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114 (22): E4501–10.
Kubota, Emily, Mareike Grotheer, Dawn Finzi, Vaidehi S. Natu, Jesse Gomez, and Kalanit Grill-Spector. 2023. “White Matter Connections of High-Level Visual Areas Predict Cytoarchitecture Better than Category-Selectivity in Childhood, but Not Adulthood.” Cerebral Cortex 33 (6): 2485–2506.
Murty, N. Apurva Ratan, Santani Teng, David Beeler, Anna Mynick, Aude Oliva, and Nancy Kanwisher. 2020. “Visual Experience Is Not Necessary for the Development of Face-Selectivity in the Lateral Fusiform Gyrus.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (37): 23011–20.