A comprehensive study of whole-brain functional connectivity and grey matter volume in children and young adults

Introduction Neuroimaging studies of human brain development show maturation of brain structure (e.g. 1), as well as brain function (e.g. 2). However, the relation between development of brain structure and function is still not well understood. Examination of the developing brain from a network perspective, studying functional brain connectivity ‘at rest’, is expected to give further insights into human brain development. Recently, a few studies have shown that functional connectivity undergoes important changes throughout childhood and adolescence (e.g. 3, 4). Yet, most of these studies focused on specific regions or networks, and did not take the well-known grey matter differences into account as a potential explanation for changing functional connectivity. In the present study 1) we investigated voxel-wise whole-brain functional connectivity in children and adults, without a priori restriction to specific seed regions or networks, and 2) we examined to what extent observed changes in functional brain connectivity can be explained by changes in local grey matter.