Developmental Trajectories of Thalamocortical Connectivity from Childhood to Young Adulthood
Poster No:
1756
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Alexandra John1, Alfred Anwander1, Aikaterina Manoli1, Amin Saberi2, Bin Wan3, Boris Bernhardt4, Sofie Valk1
Institutions:
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Saxony, 2Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Nordrhein-Westfalen, 3University Hospitals of Genève, Genève, Switzerland, 4McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
From childhood to young adulthood, the brain undergoes significant developmental changes, with cortical maturation following a sensory-to-association axis (i.e., unimodal regions develop early and association areas have a prolonged maturation into adulthood) (Sydnor et al., 2021). This trajectory facilitates the emergence and refinement of higher cognitive abilities (Larsen and Luna, 2018). Notably, from prenatal development onward, the thalamus, a subcortical hub region, interacts closely with the cortex by forming connections that play a critical role in sensory processing and cognition but also in neuropsychological disorders (Zheng et al., 2023; Benoit et al., 2022). Despite the critical role of the individual thalamic subnuclei in sensory and cognitive processes, little is known about the developmental trajectory of thalamocortical connectivity. To address this gap, we investigated how nuclei-specific thalamocortical connectivity profiles evolve from childhood to adulthood to provide insights into normative brain maturation and its relevance for cognitive development.
Methods:
We used diffusion-weighted imaging data (b-values: 1500 and 3000 s/mm²; resolution 1.5 mm isotropic) from the Human Connectome Project Development dataset (N = 626, age 5-21 y) (Somerville et al., 2018). After preprocessing (denoising, Gibbs unringing, topup, eddy correction), probabilistic tractography was performed using FSL (Behrens et al., 2007). Structural connectivity was assessed between 11 thalamic nuclei (T1-weighted-based HIPS-THOMAS segmentation (Vidal et al., 2024), Fig. 1B) and the 180 ipsilateral cortical parcels (Glasser et al., 2016), yielding individual structural connectivity matrices quantifying streamline counts of all thalamic nuclei - cortical parcel pairs per hemisphere. To illustrate group-level connectivity patterns, we created 'hit' maps for each nucleus by summing binary maps based on the top 10 % of parcels with the strongest connections per subject and projected them onto the cortex. Next, we examined age-related changes in connectivity using a General Linear Model with streamline counts as the dependent variable and age, sex, and nucleus volume as predictors. False discovery rate (FDR) correction was applied to control for multiple comparisons (α=.000139).
Results:
To evaluate tractography results of individual nuclei projections, we investigated the group-level connectivity profiles between the thalamic nuclei and ipsilateral cortical parcels. The tractograms of individual nuclei largely aligned with expected anatomical descriptions, such as the projections from MD nucleus to transmodal areas and VPL nucleus to somatosensory cortical areas (Fig. 1C). Next, we investigated age-related changes of structural connectivity and observed overall positive age effects on connections to frontal regions, temporal pole, and visual areas; negative age effects were found in regions including the premotor cortex, somatosensory cortex, and secondary visual areas (Fig. 2).
·Fig. 1: Thalamocortical Structural Connectivity.
·Fig. 2: Age Effects on Thalamocortical Connectivity by Nucleus.
Conclusions:
Extending previous studies that treated the thalamus as a single unit (Sydnor et al., 2024), we differentiated the thalamus at the subnuclei level to achieve a more detailed distinction of sensory and higher-order nuclei and used connectivity values derived from probabilistic tractography to investigate thalamocortical connectivity. We identified significant age-related changes that highlight distinct developmental trajectories: Positive effects, indicated by increasing streamline counts, might reflect processes such as increased myelination, while negative effects, associated with decreasing streamline counts, may correspond to pruning and the refinement of structural connections. These findings underscore the nuanced developmental trajectories of thalamocortical pathways and their critical role in supporting brain maturation and functional specialization.
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural)
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Normal Development
Subcortical Structures 1
White Matter Anatomy, Fiber Pathways and Connectivity 2
Keywords:
Development
MRI
Sub-Cortical
Thalamus
Tractography
White Matter
WHITE MATTER IMAGING - DTI, HARDI, DSI, ETC
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Abstract Information
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