Longitudinal neuroimaging studies offer valuable insight into brain development, ageing, and disease progression over time. However, prevailing analytical approaches rooted in our understanding of population variation are primarily tailored for cross-sectional studies. To fully leverage the potential of longitudinal neuroimaging, we need methodologies that account for the complex interplay between population variation and individual dynamics. We extend the normative modelling framework, which evaluates an individual’s position relative to population standards, to assess an individual’s longitudinal change compared to the population’s standard dynamics. Using normative models pre-trained on over 58,000 individuals, we introduce a quantitative metric termed ‘z-diff’ score, which quantifies a temporal change in individuals compared to a population standard. This approach offers advantages in flexibility in dataset size and ease of implementation. We applied this framework to a longitudinal dataset of 98 patients with early-stage schizophrenia who underwent MRI examinations shortly after diagnosis and 1 year later. Compared to cross-sectional analyses, showing global thinning of grey matter at the first visit, our method revealed a significant normalisation of grey matter thickness in the frontal lobe over time—an effect undetected by traditional longitudinal methods. Overall, our framework presents a flexible and effective methodology for analysing longitudinal neuroimaging data, providing insights into the progression of a disease that would otherwise be missed when using more traditional approaches.

Research on brain plasticity, particularly in the context of deafness, consistently emphasizes the reorganization of the auditory cortex. But to what extent do all individuals with deafness show the same level of reorganization? To address this question, we examined the individual differences in functional connectivity (FC) from the deprived auditory cortex. Our findings demonstrate remarkable differentiation between individuals deriving from the absence of shared auditory experiences, resulting in heightened FC variability among deaf individuals, compared to more consistent FC in the hearing group. Notably, connectivity to language regions becomes more diverse across individuals with deafness. This does not stem from delayed language acquisition; it is found in deaf native signers, who are exposed to natural language since birth. However, comparing FC diversity between deaf native signers and deaf delayed signers, who were deprived of language in early development, we show that language experience also impacts individual differences, although to a more moderate extent. Overall, our research points out the intricate interplay between brain plasticity and individual differences, shedding light on the diverse ways reorganization manifests among individuals. It joins findings of increased connectivity diversity in blindness and highlights the importance of considering individual differences in personalized rehabilitation for sensory loss.