Association Between Fractional Amplitude of Low-Frequency Spontaneous Fluctuation and Degree Centrality in Children and Adolescents

The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs) of the BOLD signal have been successfully applied as exploratory tools in neuroimaging. This metric has been useful in mapping brain functional changes in many clinical populations. However, little is known about the neurophysiological correlates of fALFF. This study aimed at demonstrating that fALFF is related to local network centrality during childhood and adolescence. The establishment of this relationship is fundamental to provide a more meaningful explanation to previous clinical and neurodevelopmental studies based on fALFF. Our findings show a correlation of similar to 0.5 between these two metrics at a group level, which is a finding replicated in four large independent samples. However, when considering the across-subject and intra-subject correlations between the two metrics, the correlation is much lower, probably due to the low signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, we found that regions with high fALFF and degree centrality overlapped modestly, particularly the posterior cingulate/precuneus and lateral parietal cortices.