Rest Functional Brain Maturation during the First Year of Life
Hervé Lemaître, Pierre Augé, Ana Saitovitch, Alice Vinçon-Leite, Jean-Marc Tacchella, Ludovic Fillon, Raphaël Calmon, Volodia Dangouloff‐Ros, R. Lévy, D. Grévent, Françis Brunelle, Nathalie Boddaert, Mônica Zilbovicius
Abstract
The first year of life is a key period of brain development, characterized by dramatic structural and functional modifications. Here, we measured rest cerebral blood flow (CBF) modifications throughout babies' first year of life using arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging sequence in 52 infants, from 3 to 12 months of age. Overall, global rest CBF significantly increased during this age span. In addition, we found marked regional differences in local functional brain maturation. While primary sensorimotor cortices and insula showed early maturation, temporal and prefrontal region presented great rest CBF increase across the first year of life. Moreover, we highlighted a late and remarkably synchronous maturation of the prefrontal and posterior superior temporal cortices. These different patterns of regional cortical rest CBF modifications reflect a timetable of local functional brain maturation and are consistent with baby's cognitive development within the first year of life.