had the same number of edges, but also selected a conservative K′ such that the networks generated were not disconnected. This is particularly important for network characterization because graph metrics are not interpretable when the network is disconnected. The value of K′ selected according to this procedure was 48 for both the groups. Thus, every network generated by using this degree preserving threshold will have exactly 2,160 ( = 48×90/2) edges, which is equivalent to a network cost of 0.54 ( = 2,160/4,005). Network cost is defined and calculated as the ratio of number of edges in the network to the maximum possible edges in the network [50]. Mean λ, mean γ, and mean σ values for the networks of each group were derived by thresholding the correlation matrices such that the network has on average K′ ( = 48) edges per node. Using this approach, no significant differences in the mean λ, γ, and σ values were observed between children and young-adults.
