[68],[69]. There have been few studies of how these loops develop in children, but the pattern of changes in subcortical-cortical functional connectivity observed in our study suggest a process of pruning at the systems-level. This form of pruning is characterized by weakening of specific subcortical links, leading to longer path lengths similar to those seen in young-adults. Exactly how these links result in the formation of parallel and integrative loops, which support large-scale neuronal networks for learning and memory [63],[70] remains to be investigated.
