Abstract
Childhood and adolescence are marked by protracted developmental remodeling of cortico-cortical structural connectivity. However, the spatiotemporal variability of white matter connectivity development across the human connectome and its relevance to cognition and psychopathology remains unclear. Using diffusion MRI data from three independent developmental cohorts spanning youth, we identified a robust divergence in structural connectivity maturation along a predefined sensorimotor-association (S-A) connectional axis during youth (http://connectcharts.cibr.ac.cn). This developmental continuum ranged from early childhood increases in sensorimotor-sensorimotor connectivity strength to late adolescent increases in association-association connectivity strength, with the transition occurring around age 15. The S-A connectional axis also captured spatial variations in the associations between structural connectivity and both higher-order cognition and general psychopathology. Moreover, group-level developmental trajectories of structural connectivity differed by cognitive and psychopathological levels, with psychopathological effects predominantly observed in association connections. These findings delineate a spatiotemporal continuum of structural connectivity development during youth, providing a normative reference for quantifying developmental variability in psychiatric disorders.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Brain Science and Brain-like Intelligence Technology - National Science and Technology Major Project (2022ZD0211300 to Z.C.), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2025-I2M-XHJC-056 to Z.C.), Non-profit Central Research Institute Fund of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2024-RC416-02 to Z.C.), Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR) funds (to Z.C.), the National Institute of Mental Health, USA (T32MH016804 to V.J.S.), Open Research Fund of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (to Y.L.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32000760 to K.W.). We thank the research participants and staff involved in data collection and project execution of the Lifespan Human Connectome Project in Development (HCP-D) study, Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the Executive Function and Neurodevelopment in Youth (EFNY), the developmental component of the Chinese Color Nest Project (devCCNP), and the Shandong Adolescent Neuroimaging Project on Depression (SAND). The HCP-Development 2.0 Release data used in this report came from DOI: 10.15154/1520708. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number U01MH109589 and by funds provided by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. The ABCD data were obtained from the ABCD Study (abcdstudy.org), held in the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). This is a multisite, longitudinal study designed to recruit more than 10,000 children aged 9-10 and follow them over 10 years into early adulthood. The ABCD Study is supported by the NIH and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041048, U01DA050989, U01DA051016, U01DA041022, U01DA051018, U01DA051037, U01DA050987, U01DA041174, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041028, U01DA041134, U01DA050988, U01DA051039, U01DA041156, U01DA041025, U01DA041120, U01DA051038, U01DA041148, U01DA041093, U01DA041089, U24DA041123, U24DA041147. A full list of supporters is available at https://abcdstudy.org/federal-partners.html. A listing of participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org/scientists/workgroups/. ABCD consortium investigators designed and implemented the study and/or provided data but did not necessarily participate in the analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators. The ABCD data repository grows and changes over time. The ABCD data used in this report came from Fast Track and release 5.1, NIMH Data Archive Digital Object Identifier 10.15154/z563-zd24. DOIs can be found at https://nda.nih.gov/study.html?id=2313.
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Xu, X., Yang, H., Cong, J. et al. Mapping the spatiotemporal continuum of structural connectivity development across the human connectome in youth. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73072-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73072-6
