Functional Development of the Human Cerebellum from Birth to Five

Despite the cerebellum's crucial role in brain function, its early development, particularly in relation to the cerebrum, remains poorly understood. Here, we examine cerebellocortical connectivity using over 1,000 high-quality resting-state functional MRI scans from children between birth and five years of age. By mapping cerebellar topography with fine temporal granularity, we unveil the hierarchical organization of cerebellocortical functional connectivity from infancy. We observe dynamic shifts in cerebellar functional topography, which become more focal with age while largely maintaining stable anchor regions similar to adults, highlighting the cerebellum's evolving yet organized role in functional integration during early development. Our findings demonstrate cerebellar connectivity to higher-order networks at birth, which generally strengthen with age, emphasizing the cerebellum's early role in cognitive processing beyond sensory and motor functions. Our study provides insights into early cerebellocortical interactions, reveals functional asymmetry and sex-specific patterns in cerebellar development, and lays the groundwork for future research on cerebellum-related disorders in children.

尽管小脑（cerebellum）在大脑功能中发挥着至关重要的作用，但其早期发育过程，尤其是与大脑（cerebrum）的关联机制，目前仍鲜为人知。本研究利用超过1000份高质量的静息态功能磁共振成像（resting-state functional MRI）扫描数据，对出生至5岁儿童的小脑-皮层连接模式展开分析。通过以精细的时间粒度绘制小脑地形分布，我们揭示了婴儿期起小脑-皮层功能连接的层级组织架构。我们观察到小脑功能地形分布呈现动态变化：随着年龄增长，其功能分区愈发局限，但整体仍保留与成人相似的稳定锚定脑区，这凸显了小脑在早期发育过程中功能整合作用的动态演化与有序组织特征。研究结果显示，小脑在出生时便已与高级脑网络建立连接，且该连接通常随年龄增长而增强，这强调了小脑在早期阶段便参与感知与运动功能之外的认知加工过程。本研究为早期小脑-皮层交互作用提供了新见解，揭示了小脑发育过程中的功能不对称性与性别特异性模式，并为未来儿童小脑相关疾病的研究奠定了基础。