Another prominent challenge for linking brain imaging findings to behavior/cognition/emotion is that behaviors emanate from the integrated activity of distributed networks not individual structures. Further complicating brain/behavior investigations is the growing realization that differences in the trajectories of development may in some cases be more informative than the final adult differences. For instance, in our longitudinal study looking at the relationship between cortical thickness and IQ differences in age by cortical thickness developmental curves were more predictive of IQ than differences in cortical thickness at age 20 years (Shaw et al. 2006). Trajectories are also more discriminating than static measures for sexual dimorphism and clinical investigations. The idea that in neuroimaging, as in life, the journey is often as important as the destination is becoming an accepted tenet of pediatric neuroimaging.
