Reconfiguration Ability of Functional Brain Network in the Cognitive Development of Young Preschool Children

Functional brain network is dynamic, i.e. fluctuates in time with varying connectivity and network topology, yet most studies consider the brain network as static. Only recent studies suggest that the reconfiguration of brain network across time, both at rest and during task, is linked with cognition in human adults. In this study, we tested this prediction, i.e. cognitive ability is associated with a flexible brain network, in preschool children of 3-4 years - a critical age, representing a ‘blossoming period’ for brain development. We recorded MEG data from 88 preschoolers, and assessed their cognitive ability by a battery of cognitive tests. We estimated brain network patterns at both sensor and source domains, and characterized their static and dynamic properties. Consistent with our prediction, we observed that children’s cognitive ability was sensitive to both the temporal dynamics of the functional brain network and their long-term manifestations. Importantly, we found that children with superior cognitive ability exhibited greater network reconfiguration (i.e. higher temporal variability) in the beta band (12 – 30 Hz) as compared to low scoring children, and the sub-networks involved in higher reconfiguration mainly comprised connections from the right temporal and parietal association areas to distributed brain regions. Further, network’s dynamic features lead to a higher classification accuracy than its static features. These results demonstrate that functional brain networks, and especially their reconfiguration ability, are critically linked with cognitive ability at an early stage of human brain development.