Born Connected: Do Infants Already Have Adult-Like Multi-Scale Connectivity Networks?

Abstract

The human brain undergoes remarkable development during the first six postnatal months, a period of dramatic structural and functional change critical for understanding neurodevelopmental trajectories. Previous infant resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) studies identified intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) but reported widely varying network numbers and organization, limiting cross-study comparisons. A recent analysis of over 100,000 subjects spanning from adolescents to adults generated a 105-network multi-scale template that greatly enhanced replicability, but the presence of these canonical ICNs in infants has not been investigated. We analysed resting-state scans from infants aged 0-6 months using two complementary approaches: burst independent component analysis (burstICA), a fully data-driven, model-order-agnostic method, and the reference-informed NeuroMark framework. burstICA successfully recovered the full set of canonical ICNs directly from infant data, and simulation-based validation confirmed that the recovered networks were biologically specific rather than methodological biases. The NeuroMark framework enhanced spatial correspondence with the reference template and maintained distinct, reproducible network profiles across scans, demonstrating high reliability for cross-study and cross-age comparisons. Networks critical for higher-order cognition, such as the default mode and salience networks, displayed adult-like topography comparable to that of primary sensory networks even within the first 6 months after birth. Subcortical networks also exhibited precise spatial organization, underscoring early maturation of deep brain structures. Functional network connectivity analyses revealed close similarity to adult profiles and clear antagonistic patterns between sensory systems and higher-order networks, indicating that foundational aspects of mature brain organization are already emerging in early infancy. Together, these findings establish a methodological foundation for early network mapping in infancy and lay critical groundwork for longitudinal and translational studies of brain development.