Altered Synergistic and Redundant Brain Interactions in Prenatal Opioid-Exposed Infants
Poster No:
286
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Weixiong Jiang1,2, Janelle Liu3, Weiyan Yin2, Zhengwang Wu2, Tengfei Li2, Gang Li2, Li Wang2, Dexing Kong1, Karen Grewen4, Wei Gao3, Weili Lin2,5
Institutions:
1College of Mathematical Medicine, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China, 2Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States , 3Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States , 4Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States , 5Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
First Author:
Weixiong Jiang
College of Mathematical Medicine, Zhejiang Normal University|Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jinhua, Zhejiang, China|Chapel Hill, NC, United States
College of Mathematical Medicine, Zhejiang Normal University|Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jinhua, Zhejiang, China|Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Co-Author(s):
Janelle Liu
Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Weiyan Yin
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Zhengwang Wu
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Tengfei Li
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Gang Li
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Li Wang
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Karen Grewen
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Wei Gao
Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Weili Lin
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States |Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, United States |Chapel Hill, NC, United States
Introduction:
Prenatal opioid exposure (POE) is a growing public health issue in the United States (Honein, 2019), linked to adverse neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and sensory outcomes (Arter, 2021), as well as structural and functional brain alterations (Jiang, 2022; Salzwedel, 2020). Advances in neuroimaging now allow for the decomposition of BOLD signals into synergistic and redundant interactions, offering deeper insights into brain information processing beyond traditional functional connectivity (Mediano, 2021). Synergistic interactions, reflecting joint information processing, are prevalent among higher-order networks, while redundant interactions, indicating overlapping information, are common in sensorimotor regions (Luppi, 2022). Given the previously reported adverse outcomes in POE infants, this study examined the developmental trajectories of these interactions in POE infants compared to prenatal other drug exposure (PDE) and typical controls (TC) over the first nine months of life.
Methods:
This study included 167 pediatric participants with 248 resting-state fMRI runs: 67 POE (101 runs), 59 PDE (83 runs), and 41 TC (64 runs) (Liu, 2022). Preprocessed fMRI data were parcellated into 232 brain regions (Schaefer, 2018; Tian, 2020). Functional interactions were decomposed into 16 components using integrated information decomposition (Mediano, 2021), focusing on synergistic (joint information) and redundant (overlapping information) interactions. Proportions of synergy and redundancy were calculated as ratios of interaction values to total information transfer. Developmental differences were analyzed using two-sample t-test, incorporating both overall distribution (P<0.05, FDR corrected) and individual connectivity (P<0.001, uncorrected) analyses, to examine (1) differences across age bins (Mon0–3, Mon3–6, Mon6–9) within each group and (2) differences across groups within the same age bin.
Results:
Distinct patterns of synergistic and redundant interactions were observed across the groups (Fig.1, 2). Synergistic interactions were low in all groups during 0-3 months. From 0-3 to 3-6 months, TC showed a significant increase in synergy (P<1.0e-300, 4.62%), POE had a smaller increase (P=7.84e-206, 1.44%), while PDE showed no significant change (P=0.0634). This trend reversed between 3–6 and 6–9 months: POE and PDE exhibited rapid increases (P<1.0e-300, 8.91% and 8.32%), while TC increased slowly (P=2.11e-9, 0.31%). Redundant interactions were lower than synergistic ones. POE and PDE had lower redundancy during 3-6 month (P=2.22e-6 and 5.77e-21) but higher levels during 6-9 month compared to TC (P=1.47e-41 and 9.54e-109). Similar trends of synergistic and redundant interactions were observed in their proportions.
Alterations of brain information communications differed among groups (Fig.2). Significant changes primarily occurred in inter-networks connections. Minimal changes were seen between 0–3 months, while major alterations appeared between 3-6 months. For synergistic interactions, the PDE group exhibited significant reduction compared to TC, spanning five specialized networks. In contrast, significant reduction of redundant interactions was largely between POE and PDE, and POE and NC, particularly involving the visual, somatomotor and default mode networks. Interestingly, instead of exhibiting a reduction of synergetic interactions among groups, increased synergetic interactions were observed 6-9 months, especially between POE and PDE, and POE and NC among the higher-order networks.
Alterations of brain information communications differed among groups (Fig.2). Significant changes primarily occurred in inter-networks connections. Minimal changes were seen between 0–3 months, while major alterations appeared between 3-6 months. For synergistic interactions, the PDE group exhibited significant reduction compared to TC, spanning five specialized networks. In contrast, significant reduction of redundant interactions was largely between POE and PDE, and POE and NC, particularly involving the visual, somatomotor and default mode networks. Interestingly, instead of exhibiting a reduction of synergetic interactions among groups, increased synergetic interactions were observed 6-9 months, especially between POE and PDE, and POE and NC among the higher-order networks.
Conclusions:
This study reveals distinct developmental trajectories of synergistic and redundant interactions in POE, PDE, and TC groups during the first nine months. POE and PDE groups showed delayed development and disruptions in the first six months, followed by accelerated maturation during 6-9 months where accelerated maturation has been consistent observed in children experienced early life stress (Chan, 2024).
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism) 1
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging 2
Keywords:
Other - Prenatal opioid exposure; synergistic interactions; redundant interactions; cognition; neurodevelopmental trajectories
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Abstract Information
By submitting your proposal, you grant permission for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) to distribute your work in any format, including video, audio print and electronic text through OHBM OnDemand, social media channels, the OHBM website, or other electronic publications and media.
The Open Science Special Interest Group (OSSIG) is introducing a reproducibility challenge for OHBM 2025. This new initiative aims to enhance the reproducibility of scientific results and foster collaborations between labs. Teams will consist of a “source” party and a “reproducing” party, and will be evaluated on the success of their replication, the openness of the source work, and additional deliverables. Click here for more information. Propose your OHBM abstract(s) as source work for future OHBM meetings by selecting one of the following options:
Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Are you Internal Review Board (IRB) certified? Please note: Failure to have IRB, if applicable will lead to automatic rejection of abstract.
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel? NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel? NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
Provide references using APA citation style.
2. Chan, S.Y. (2024). The influence of early-life adversity on the coupling of structural and functional brain connectivity across childhood. Nature Mental Health, 2(1), 52-62.
3. Honein MA (2019). Public Health Surveillance of Prenatal Opioid Exposure in Mothers and Infants. Pediatrics, 143(3):e20183801.
4. Jiang, W (2022). Neural alterations in opioid-exposed infants revealed by edge-centric brain functional networks. Brain Communication. 4(3):fcac112.
5. Liu, J. (2022). Evidence for the normalization effects of medication for opioid use disorder on functional connectivity in neonates with prenatal opioid exposure. Journal of Neuroscience, 42(22), 4555-4566.
6. Luppi, A.I. (2022). A synergistic core for human brain evolution and cognition. Nature neuroscience, 25 (6), 771-782.
7. Mediano, P.A. (2021). Towards an extended taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition. arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.13186.
8. Salzwedel, A. (2020). Functional dissection of prenatal drug effects on baby brain and behavioral development. Human brain mapping, 41(17), 4789-4803.
9. Schaefer, A. (2018). Local-global parcellation of the human cerebral cortex from intrinsic functional connectivity MRI. Cerebral Cortex, 28(9), 3095-3114.
10. Tian, Y. (2020). Topographic organization of the human subcortex unveiled with functional connectivity gradients. Nature neuroscience, 23(11), 1421-1432.