Resting-state functional connectivity of the human hippocampus in periadolescent children: Associations with age and memory performance

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: David E Warren, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Anthony J Rangel, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Nicholas J Christopher-Hayes, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Jacob A Eastman, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Michaela R Frenzel, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Julia M Stephen, The Mind Research Network; Vince Calhoun, Emory University; Yu‐Ping Wang, Tulane University; Tony W Wilson, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-05-12
• Publisher: WILEY
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25458
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: 3620
• End Page: 3642
• Grant/Funding Information: Support for the collection of the data for Philadelphia Neurodevelopment Cohort (PNC) was provided by grant RC2MH089983 awarded to Raquel Gur and RC2MH089924 awarded to Hakon Hakonarson. Subjects were recruited and genotyped through the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) at The Children's Hospital in Philadelphia (CHOP). Phenotypic data collection occurred at the CAG/CHOP and at the Brain Behavior Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania.
• Keywords: RHESUS-MONKEY; CONFOUND REGRESSION; memory; MEDIAL TEMPORAL-LOBE; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES; adolescence; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; DEFAULT-MODE NETWORK; HUMAN BRAIN; development; PARIETAL CORTEX; MOTION ARTIFACT; Neuroimaging; EPISODIC MEMORY; POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER; hippocampus; Neurosciences; Science & Technology; Neurosciences & Neurology; resting‐ state functional connectivity
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Health Sciences, General

Abstract

The hippocampus is necessary for declarative (relational) memory, and the ability to form hippocampal-dependent memories develops through late adolescence. This developmental trajectory of hippocampal-dependent memory could reflect maturation of intrinsic functional brain networks, but resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) of the human hippocampus is not well-characterized for periadolescent children. Measuring hippocampal rs-FC in periadolescence would thus fill a gap, and testing covariance of hippocampal rs-FC with age and memory could inform theories of cognitive development. Here, we studied hippocampal rs-FC in a cross-sectional sample of healthy children (N = 96; 59 F; age 9–15 years) using a seed-based approach, and linked these data with NIH Toolbox measures, the Picture-Sequence Memory Test (PSMT) and the List Sorting Working Memory Test (LSWMT). The PSMT was expected to rely more on hippocampal-dependent memory than the LSWMT. We observed hippocampal rs-FC with an extensive brain network including temporal, parietal, and frontal regions. This pattern was consistent with prior work measuring hippocampal rs-FC in younger and older samples. We also observed novel, regionally specific variation in hippocampal rs-FC with age and hippocampal-dependent memory but not working memory. Evidence consistent with these findings was observed in a second, validation dataset of similar-age healthy children drawn from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopment Cohort. Further, a cross-dataset analysis suggested generalizable properties of hippocampal rs-FC and covariance with age and memory. Our findings connect prior work by describing hippocampal rs-FC and covariance with age and memory in typically developing periadolescent children, and our observations suggest a developmental trajectory for brain networks that support hippocampal-dependent memory.