Functional Significance of Human Resting-State Networks Hubs Identified Using MEG During the Transition From Childhood to Adulthood

Cortical hubs identified within resting-state networks (RSNs), areas of the cortex that have a higher-than-average number of connections, are known to be critical to typical cognitive functioning and are often implicated in disorders leading to abnormal cognitive functioning. Functionally defined cortical hubs are also known to change with age in the developing, maturing brain, mostly based on studies carried out using fMRI. We have recently used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the maturation trajectories of RSNs and their hubs from age 7 to 29 in 131 healthy participants with high temporal resolution. We found that maturation trajectories diverge as a function of the underlying cortical rhythm. Specifically, we found the beta band (13-30 Hz)-mediated RSNs became more locally efficient with maturation, i.e., more organized into clusters and connected with nearby regions, while gamma (31-80 Hz)-mediated RSNs became more globally efficient with maturation, i.e., prioritizing faster signal transmission between distant cortical regions. We also found that different sets of hubs were associated with each of these networks. To better understand the functional significance of this divergence, we wanted to examine the cortical functions associated with the identified hubs that grew or shrunk with maturation within each of these networks. To that end, we analyzed the results of the prior study using Neurosynth, a platform for large-scale, automated synthesis of fMRI data that links brain coordinates with their probabilistically associated terms. By mapping the Neurosynth terms associated with each of these hubs, we found that maturing hubs identified in the gamma band RSNs were more likely to be associated with bottom-up processes while maturing hubs identified in the beta band RSNs were more likely to be associated with top-down functions. The results were consistent with the idea that beta band-mediated networks preferentially support the maturation of top-down processing, while the gamma band-mediated networks preferentially support the maturation of bottom-up processing.

Automated summary

This study investigated the maturation trajectories of resting-state networks (RSNs) and their hubs from ages 7 to 29 using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The results showed that RSNs mediated by the beta band became more locally efficient with maturation, while RSNs mediated by the gamma band became more globally efficient. Different sets of hubs were associated with each network. Further analysis revealed that maturing hubs in gamma band RSNs were more likely to be associated with bottom-up processes, while maturing hubs in beta band RSNs were more likely to be associated with top-down functions.