Dynamic Shifts in Controllability of White Matter Networks in Early Brain Development

Motivation: Understanding how white matter connectivity adapts to support coordinated neural activity across different brain regions during development is crucial. However, the specific processes by which white matter enables this coordination are still unclear. Goal(s): We analyze white matter networks to understand how the brain may be optimized for dynamic processes. Approach: We constructed white matter undirected networks from diffusion-weighted images of 325 subjects aged 0-5. Controllability and synchronizability metrics reflecting brain dynamics were computed across age. Results: We show that white matter networks develop during the first 5 years of age to enhance controllability while reducing synchronizability. Impact: We found that as children grow, brain networks become more controllable on average but less synchronized. Regions with high average controllability generally have low modal controllability, and more synchronized brain networks usually show lower average controllability.