Variations in Cortical Functional Gradients Relate to Dimensions of Psychopathology in Preschool Children

Objective: It is unclear how the functional brain hierarchy is organized in preschool-aged children, and whether alterations in the brain organization are linked to mental health in this age group. Here, we assessed whether preschool-aged children exhibit a brain organizational structure similar to that of older children, how this structure might change over time, and whether it might reflect mental health. Method: This study derived functional gradients using diffusion embedding from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 4.5-year-old children (N = 100, 42 male participants) and 6.0-year-old children (N = 133, 62 male participants) from the longitudinal Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort. We then conducted partial least-squares correlation analyses to identify the association between the impairment ratings of different mental disorders and network gradient values. Results: The main organizing axis of functional connectivity (ie, principal gradient) separated the visual and somatomotor regions (ie, unimodal) in preschool-aged children, whereas the second axis delineated the unimodal−transmodal gradient. This pattern of organization was stable from 4.5 to 6 years of age. The second gradient separating the high- and low-order networks exhibited a diverging pattern across mental health severity, differentiating dimensions related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and phobic disorders. Conclusion: This study characterized, for the first time, the functional brain hierarchy in preschool-aged children. A divergence in functional gradient pattern across different disease dimensions was found, highlighting how perturbations in functional brain organization can relate to the severity of different mental health disorders.