Connectome hubs at resting state in children and adolescents : reproducibility and psychopathological correlation

Abstract

Functional brain hubs are key integrative regions in brain networks. Recently, brain hubs identifiedthrough resting-state fMRI have emerged as interesting targets to increase understanding of the relation-ships between large-scale functional networks and psychopathology. However, few studies have directlyaddressed the replicability and consistency of the hub regions identified and their association with symp-toms. Here, we used the eigenvector centrality (EVC) measure obtained from graph analysis of two large,independent population-based samples of children and adolescents (7–15 years old; total N = 652; 341subjects for site 1 and 311 for site 2) to evaluate the replicability of hub identification. Subsequently, wetested the association between replicable hub regions and psychiatric symptoms. We identified a set ofhubs consisting of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule/intraparietal sulcus(IPL/IPS). Moreover, lower EVC values in the right IPS were associated with psychiatric symptoms in bothsamples. Thus, low centrality of the IPS was a replicable sign of potential vulnerability to mental disordersin children. The identification of critical and replicable hubs in functional cortical networks in childrenand adolescents can foster understanding of the mechanisms underlying mental disorders.