Abstract

The presence of heterogeneity/subgroups in infants and older populations against single-domain brain or behavioral measures has been previously characterized. However, few attempts have been made to explore heterogeneity at the brain–behavior relationship level. Such a hypothesis posits that different subgroups of infants may possess qualitatively different brain–behavior relationships that could ultimately contribute to divergent developmental outcomes even with relatively similar brain phenotypes. In this study, we aimed to explore such relationship-level heterogeneity and delineate the subgrouping structure of newborns with differential brain–behavior associations based on a typically developing sample of 81 infants with 3-week resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans and 4-year intelligence quotient (IQ) measures. Our results not only confirmed the existence of relationship-level heterogeneity in newborns but also revealed divergent developmental outcomes associated with two subgroups showing similar brain functional connectivity but contrasting brain–behavior relationships. Importantly, further analyses unveiled an intriguing pattern that the subgroup with higher 4-year IQ outcomes possessed brain–behavior relationships that were congruent to their functional connectivity pattern in neonates while the subgroup with lower 4-year IQ not, providing potential explanations for the observed IQ differences. The characterization of heterogeneity at the brain–behavior relationship level may not only improve our understanding of the patterned intersubject variability during infancy but could also pave the way for future development of heterogeneity-inspired, personalized, subgroup-specific models for better prediction.

中文翻译：

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具有异质脑行为关系的新生儿的亚组结构。

摘要

先前已经表征了婴儿和老年人群中存在针对单域大脑或行为测量的异质性/亚组。然而，很少有人尝试在大脑-行为关系层面探索异质性。这种假设假设不同的婴儿亚群可能具有质量不同的大脑行为关系，即使大脑表型相对相似，最终也可能导致不同的发育结果。在这项研究中，我们旨在探索这种关系水平的异质性，并根据 81 名婴儿的典型发育样本，通过 3 周静息状态功能磁共振成像扫描和 4-年智商 (IQ) 措施。我们的结果不仅证实了新生儿关系水平异质性的存在，而且还揭示了与两个亚组相关的不同发育结果，这些亚组表现出相似的大脑功能连接性，但大脑-行为关系却截然不同。重要的是，进一步的分析揭示了一个有趣的模式，即 4 年 IQ 结果较高的亚组具有与新生儿功能连接模式一致的大脑行为关系，而 4 年 IQ 较低的亚组则没有，这为观察到的结果提供了潜在的解释。智商差异。在大脑 - 行为关系水平上对异质性的表征不仅可以提高我们对婴儿期模式化的主体间变异性的理解，而且还可以为异质性启发的未来发展铺平道路，