Intrinsic timescale develops hierarchically from sensorimotor to association cortex in youth and stabilizes in adulthood

The useful part

Satterthwaite Intrinsic timescale is a commonly used measure of spontaneous neural dynamics that quantifies the temporal window of processing of neuronal populations. Intrinsic timescale displays a hierarchical cortical organization across multiple species and imaging modalities, with shorter timescales in sensorimotor cortex compared to association cortex. However, less is known about how intrinsic timescale evolves during human brain development and whether its cortical maturation patterns generalize to independent developmental samples.

How it works

• We find that developmental patterns in the intrinsic timescale follow a hierarchical pattern that recapitulates an axis spanning sensorimotor to association cortices (S–A axis).
• Our analysis of an independent healthy young adult dataset (HCPYA: n = 973, age range 22–37 years) the specificity of these developmental findings, suggesting that the intrinsic timescale develops along the...
• Together, these results reveal convergence between major axes of cortical organization and development, highlighting intrinsic timescale as a principled marker of hierarchical brain maturation in youth.

Details worth keeping

by Golia Shafiei, Joëlle Bagautdinova, Valerie J. Barch, Matthew Cieslak, Yong Fan, Elizabeth Flook, Alexandre R.