Spontaneous Brain Activity in the Newborn Brain During Natural Sleep—An fMRI Study in Infants Born at Full Term

Recent progress in functional neuroimaging research has provided the opportunity to probe at the brain's intrinsic functional architecture. Synchronized spontaneous neuronal activity is present in the form of resting-state networks in the brain even in the absence of external stimuli. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of resting-state networks in the unsedated infant brain born at full term. Using functional MRI, we investigated spontaneous low-frequency signal fluctuations in 19 healthy full-term infants. Resting-state functional MRI data acquired during natural sleep was analyzed using independent component analysis. We found five resting-state networks in the unsedated infant brain born at full term, encompassing sensory cortices, parietal and temporal areas, and the prefrontal cortex. In addition, we found evidence for a resting-state network that enclosed the bilateral basal ganglia.