Biology subjects

Tournier, J. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Tournier, J. D..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

The developing brain structural and functional connectome fingerprint

In the mature brain, structural and functional connectivity fingerprints can be used to identify the uniqueness of an individual. However, whether the characteristics that make a brain distinguishable from others already exist at birth remains unknown. Here, we used neuroimaging data of preterm born neonates who were scanned twice during the perinatal period to assess the developing brain fingerprint. We found that 62% of the participants could be identified based on the congruence of the later structural connectome to the initial connectivity matrix derived from the earlier timepoint. In contrast, similarity between functional connectomes only allowed to identify 12% of the participants. These suggests that structural connectivity is more stable in early life and can represent a potential connectome fingerprint. Thus, a relatively stable structural connectome appears to support a changing functional connectome at a time when neonates must rapidly acquire new skills to adapt to their new environment.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

The network properties of the brain at the time of normal birth support the acquisition of language processing

Language acquisition appears to rely at least in part on recruiting pre-existing brain structures. We hypothesized that the neural substrate for language can be characterized by distinct, non-trivial network properties of the brain, that modulate language acquisition early in development. We tested whether these brain network properties present at the normal age of birth predicted later language abilities, and whether these were robust against perturbation by studying infants exposed to the extreme environmental stress of preterm birth.\n\nWe found that brain network controllability and integration predicted respectively phonological, bottom-up and syntactical, top-down language skills at 20 months, and that syntactical but not phonological functions were modulated by premature extrauterine life. These data show that the neural substrate for language acquisition is a network property present at term corrected age. These distinct developmental trajectories may be relevant to the emergence of social interaction after birth.

neuroscience↗