Journal
NEUROIMAGE
Volume 115, Issue -, Pages 147-161Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.04.058
Keywords
Infant brain development; Brain MRI; Myelination; Cortical development
Funding
- National Institutes of Mental Health [R01 MH087510]
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [PN 151325]
- Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship award by Wellcome Trust [096195]
- T32 Postdoctoral Training Fellowship award by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development under National Institutes of Health [T32HD007489, P30HD003352]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The maturation of cortical structures, and the establishment of their connectivity, are critical neurodevelopmental processes that support and enable cognitive and behavioral functioning. Measures of cortical development, including thickness, curvature, and gyrification have been extensively studied in older children, adolescents, and adults, revealing regional associations with cognitive performance, and alterations with disease or pathology. In addition to these gross morphometric measures, increased attention has recently focused on quantifying more specific indices of cortical structure, in particular intracortical myelination, and their relationship to cognitive skills, including IQ, executive functioning, and language performance. Here we analyze the progression of cortical myelination across early childhood, from 1 to 6 years of age, in vivo for the first time. Using two quantitative imaging techniques, namely T-1 relaxation time and myelin water fraction (MWF) imaging, we characterize myelination throughout the cortex, examine developmental trends, and investigate hemispheric and gender-based differences. We present a pattern of cortical myelination that broadly mirrors established histological timelines, with somatosensory, motor and visual cortices myelinating by 1 year of age; and frontal and temporal cortices exhibiting more protracted myelination. Developmental trajectories, defined by logarithmic functions (increasing for MWF, decreasing for T-1), were characterized for each of 68 cortical regions. Comparisons of trajectories between hemispheres and gender revealed no significant differences. Results illustrate the ability to quantitatively map cortical myelination throughout early neurodevelopment, and may provide an important new tool for investigating typical and atypical development. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available