Dissociation of reliability, predictability, and heritability in fine- and coarse-scale functional connectomes during development

AbstractThe functional connectome supports information transmission through the brain at various spatial scales, from exchange between broad cortical regions to finer-scale connections that underlie specific information processing mechanisms. In adults, while both the coarse- and fine-scale functional connectomes predict cognition, the fine-scale can predict twice the variance. Yet, past brain-wide association studies, particularly using large developmental samples, limit their focus to the coarse connectome to understand the neural underpinnings of individual differences in cognition. We examine resting-state fMRI (n=1,115 children, 389 twin pairs) and use hyperalignment to access reliable information in the fine-scale connectome. Though individual differences in the fine-scale connectome are more reliable than those in the coarse-scale, they are less heritable. Further, the alignment and scale of connectomes influence their ability to predict behavior: both scales equally predict more heritable cognitive traits, but the fine-scale connectome predicts less heritable traits significantly better than the coarse-scale.