Age-differences in information flow in executive and sensorimotor brain networks during childhood and adolescence

Mental disorders often emerge during adolescence and have been associated with age-related differences in connection strengths of brain networks (static functional connectivity), manifesting in non-typical trajectories of brain development. However, little is known about the direction of information flow (directed functional connectivity) in this period of functional brain progression. We employed dynamic graphical models (DGM) to estimate directed functional connectivity from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data on 1143 participants, aged 6 to 17 years from the healthy brain network (HBN) sample. We tested for effects of age, sex, cognitive abilities and psychopathology on estimates of direction flow. Across participants, we show a pattern of reciprocal information flow between visual-medial and visual-lateral connections, in line with findings in adults. Investigating directed connectivity patterns between networks, we observed a positive association for age and direction flow from the cerebellar to the auditory network, and for the auditory to the sensorimotor network. Further, higher cognitive abilities were linked to lower information flow from the visual occipital to the default mode network. Additionally, examining the degree networks overall send and receive information to each other, we identified age-related effects implicating the right frontoparietal and sensorimotor network. However, we did not find any associations with psychopathology. Our results revealed that the directed functional connectivity of large-scale brain networks is sensitive to age and cognition during adolescence, warranting further studies that may explore trajectories of development in more fine-grained network parcellations and in different populations.