Area-level context and functional brain organization across the lifespan

Abstract

The neighborhoods children grow up in are associated with cognitive and mental health outcomes across the lifespan. Yet how neighborhood-level factors are quantified, and how they relate to large-scale functional brain connectivity, remains an emerging area of investigation. This scoping review synthesizes empirical evidence on associations between area-level factors and resting-state functional brain connectivity and network organization. We included studies assessing resting-state fMRI functional connectivity or rs-fMRI-derived intrinsic activity in relation to validated area-level deprivation indices guided by Trinidad et al.s (2022) inventory, the Opportunity Atlas, or geocoded crime exposure from the Uniform Crime Reporting program. Of the 28 studies meeting inclusion criteria, the evidence base was unevenly distributed across the lifespan; 25 of 28 (89.3%) examined perinatal, childhood, or adolescent samples, while only one examined adults exclusively. The literature was also methodologically non-independent, over half drew on the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, and the Area Deprivation Index was the most commonly used measure (k = 16, 57.1%). Therefore, apparent convergence partly reflects shared data and instruments rather than independent replication. Where directions could be compared, higher area-level disadvantage was associated predominantly with lower within-network connectivity in association and control systems and higher connectivity in somatomotor systems, with several findings attenuating once area-level exposure was isolated from household socioeconomic status. Geographic resolution varied but was rarely justified. Progress will require greater theoretical intentionality in selecting area-level measures, transparent justification of geographic resolution, treatment of dataset and measure non-independence, and investment in understudied developmental periods and non-US contexts.