Figure 5. The “local to distributed” maturation is supported by a general decrease in functional connections between regions close in space, an increase in functional connection between regions distant in space, and the maintenance of several short and long-range connections that do not change with age.

In this figure, functional connections are divided based on distance. Short-range functional connections are in (A,B), long-range functional connections (C,D) (y-axis, adult r-values; x-axis child r-values). Warm colors represent functional connections that are significantly greater in adults than children. Cool colors represent functional connections that are significantly greater in children than adults. Functional connections that do not significantly change with age are plotted in grey. As can be seen in (A,B), the majority of short-range functional connections that significantly change with age tend to decrease. The majority of long-range functional connections (C,D) that significantly change with age increase over time. However, many long and short-range functional connections do not significantly change over age (grey). In addition, while few, some long and short-range functional connections go against the general trend of short-range connections “growing down” and long-range functional connections “growing up.” See Figure S2 for an extended version of this figure, which includes a visualization of these functional connections on a semi-transparent brain.