Abstract：
The relationship between brain entropy (BEN) and early brain development has been established through animal studies. However, it remains unclear whether the BEN can be used to identify age-dependent functional changes in human neonatal brains and the genetic underpinning of the new neuroimaging marker remains to be elucidated. In this study, we analyzed resting-state fMRI data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, including 280 infants who were scanned at 37.5-43.5 weeks postmenstrual age. The BEN maps were calculated for each subject, and a voxel-wise analysis was conducted using a general linear model to examine the effects of age, sex, and preterm birth on BEN. Additionally, we evaluated the correlation between regional BEN and gene expression levels. Our results demonstrated that the BEN in the sensorimotor-auditory and association cortices, along the \'S-A\' axis, was significantly positively correlated with postnatal age (PNA), and negatively correlated with gestational age (GA), respectively. Meanwhile, the BEN in the right rolandic operculum correlated significantly with both GA and PNA. Preterm-born infants exhibited increased BEN values in widespread cortical areas, particularly in the visual-motor cortex, when compared to term-born infants. Moreover, we identified five BEN-related genes (DNAJC12, FIG4, STX12, CETN2, and IRF2BP2), which were involved in protein folding, synaptic vesicle transportation and cell division. These findings suggest that the fMRI-based BEN can serve as an indicator of age-dependent brain functional development in human neonates, which may be influenced by specific genes.
摘要：
脑熵（BEN）与早期脑发育之间的关系已通过动物研究建立。然而,目前尚不清楚BEN是否可用于识别人类新生儿大脑的年龄依赖性功能变化,新的神经影像学标记的遗传基础仍有待阐明.在这项研究中,我们分析了来自发展中人类连接体项目的静息态功能磁共振成像数据，包括280名在月经后37.5-43.5周接受扫描的婴儿。计算每个受试者的BEN图，并使用一般线性模型进行了逐体素分析，以检查年龄的影响，性别,和BEN上的早产。此外,我们评估了区域BEN与基因表达水平之间的相关性。我们的结果表明，BEN在感觉运动-听觉和联想皮层中，沿\'S-A\'轴,与出生后年龄（PNA）呈显著正相关，与孕龄（GA）呈负相关，分别。同时,右罗兰盖中的BEN与GA和PNA均显着相关。早产儿在广泛的皮质区域表现出增加的BEN值，特别是在视觉运动皮层，与足月出生的婴儿相比。此外，我们确定了五个BEN相关基因（DNAJC12，FIG4，STX12，CETN2和IRF2BP2），参与蛋白质折叠，突触小泡运输和细胞分裂。这些发现表明，基于fMRI的BEN可以作为人类新生儿年龄依赖性脑功能发育的指标，可能受到特定基因的影响。
