Early Development of Spatial Patterns of Power-Law Frequency Scaling in fMRI Resting-State and EEG Data in the Newborn Brain.

Cereb Cortex. 2012 Mar 7;

Authors: Fransson P, Metsäranta M, Blennow M, Aden U, Lagercrantz H, Vanhatalo S

Abstract
Recent studies have revealed spatial and functional relations in the temporal dynamics of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) or electroencephalography (EEG) signals recorded in the adult brain. By modeling the frequency power spectrum of resting-state brain signals with a power-law function $$O\left(f\right)\propto \frac{1}{{f}^{\hbox{ \alpha }}}$$, the power-law exponent α has been shown to relate to the connectivity patterns of spontaneous brain activity that forms so-called rs-fMRI networks in the human adult brain. Here, we present an analysis of the dynamic properties of rs-fMRI and EEG signals acquired both in the newborn and adult brain, and we demonstrate frequency scaling of a power-law kind for orders of magnitude in the hemodynamic (0.01-0.15 Hz) and the electrical (0.2-30 Hz) domain. We show that the spatial segregation of resting-state dynamics of intrinsic fMRI signals in terms of the power-law exponent α is closely related to previously delineated resting-state neuronal architecture that encompasses primary sensory cortices and associate cortex in newborns. Moreover, the spatial profiles of differences in temporal dynamics for rs-fMRI signals could also be observed in EEG measurements in the newborn brain, albeit at a coarser spatial scale, with larger power-law exponents in occipital and parietal cortices compared with signals from the frontal brain.

PMID: 22402348 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]