general
Lifespan atlas maps cortical functional hierarchies from birth to 100 years
A unified analysis of resting fMRI from neonates to centenarians reveals how three core cortical connectivity gradients mature, peak and decline across the lifespan, links those trajectories to cognition and microstructure, and provides a normative reference for studying developmental and ageing brain disorders.
Mar 25th 2026 · United States
Insights
- Researchers computed functional connectivity gradients for 3,556 individuals (3,972 scans) aged 16 days to 100 years to produce a continuous lifespan atlas of three principal cortical axes: sensory–association (SA), visual–somatosensory (VS) and modulation–representation (MR).
- The largest topographic changes occur in the first four years of life, with SA and MR showing protracted differentiation through childhood and adolescence before peaking in early adulthood (SA ~19 years, MR ~19 years).
- VS differentiation peaks in early childhood (around five years) and then steadily contracts, indicating a shift from modality-dominated to more integrated network organization with maturation.
- Global embedding dispersion rises through childhood, peaks near 13.8 years, and declines in later adulthood, consistent with increasing differentiation in youth and dedifferentiation with aging.
- Structure–function coupling is moderate overall, strongest early in life and decreasing with age, with SA showing the closest microstructural alignment and MR and VS showing weaker coupling.
- SA topographic fidelity is the most consistent and domain-general predictor of cognitive performance in young adults, while MR and higher-order embedding features show more selective or age-varying associations.
- Transcriptomic enrichment links SA to synaptic signalling and vesicle-cycle genes, VS to transcriptional and RNA metabolic programs, and MR to ion transport and excitability, with gene–gradient coupling strongest in early life and weaker in later adulthood.