Insula functional connectivity development follows a canonical antero-posterior axis of organization
- 1University of Pennsylvania
Abstract
The insula is a heterogeneous region associated with a range of functional domains including sensory, cognitive, and emotional processing. Cytoarchitectural and functional studies have described an antero-posterior axis of insula organization. However, the insula's functional development remains sparsely described. We delineated the development of insula resting-state functional connectivity across 562 individuals (6-22 years) using generalized additive models and population value decomposition. We show insulo-cortical functional connectivity development differs across the insula: anterior subregions have predominantly decreasing connectivity across the age range examined, whereas posterior subregions have variable connectivity that aligns with the sensorimotor-association axis. Vertex-level analysis revealed that age-related trajectories followed an antero-posterior axis that aligned with estimates of insula microstructure. Our results emphasize that the development of insula connectivity is spatially heterogeneous and aligns with known cytoarchitecture. The normative insula development described here provides a foundation for investigating how emerging psychopathology may be linked to variation in insula development.
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BibTeX
@misc{flook2026insula,
title = {{Insula functional connectivity development follows a canonical antero-posterior axis of organization}},
author = {E. A. Flook and G. Shafiei and M. Cieslak and C. Horien and A. C. Luo and S. L. Meisler and T. Salo and V. J. Sydnor and T. T. Tong and D. M. Barch and J. Goldsmith and R. E. Gur and L. H. Somerville and L. Q. Uddin and A. Alexander-Bloch and R. T. Shinohara and T. D. Satterthwaite},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.24.761529},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.24.761529v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Insula functional connectivity development follows a canonical antero-posterior axis of organization
AU - E. A. Flook
AU - G. Shafiei
AU - M. Cieslak
AU - C. Horien
AU - A. C. Luo
AU - S. L. Meisler
AU - T. Salo
AU - V. J. Sydnor
AU - T. T. Tong
AU - D. M. Barch
AU - J. Goldsmith
AU - R. E. Gur
AU - L. H. Somerville
AU - L. Q. Uddin
AU - A. Alexander-Bloch
AU - R. T. Shinohara
AU - T. D. Satterthwaite
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.24.761529
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.24.761529v1
AB - The insula is a heterogeneous region associated with a range of functional domains including sensory, cognitive, and emotional processing. Cytoarchitectural and functional studies have described an antero-posterior axis of insula organization. However, the insula's functional development remains sparsely described. We delineated the development of insula resting-state functional connectivity across 562 individuals (6-22 years) using generalized additive models and population value decomposition. We show insulo-cortical functional connectivity development differs across the insula: anterior subregions have predominantly decreasing connectivity across the age range examined, whereas posterior subregions have variable connectivity that aligns with the sensorimotor-association axis. Vertex-level analysis revealed that age-related trajectories followed an antero-posterior axis that aligned with estimates of insula microstructure. Our results emphasize that the development of insula connectivity is spatially heterogeneous and aligns with known cytoarchitecture. The normative insula development described here provides a foundation for investigating how emerging psychopathology may be linked to variation in insula development.
ER -