Four-dimensional mapping of dynamic longitudinal brain subcortical development and early learning functions in infants

Brain subcortical structures are paramount in many cognitive functions and their aberrations during infancy are predisposed to various neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, making it highly essential to characterize the early subcortical normative growth patterns. This study investigates the volumetric development and surface area expansion of six subcortical structures and their associations with Mullen scales of early learning by leveraging 513 high-resolution longitudinal MRI scans within the first two postnatal years. Results show that (1) each subcortical structure (except for the amygdala with an approximately linear increase) undergoes rapid nonlinear volumetric growth after birth, which slows down at a structure-specific age with bilaterally similar developmental patterns; (2) Subcortical local area expansion reveals structure-specific and spatiotemporally heterogeneous patterns; (3) Positive associations between thalamus and both receptive and expressive languages and between caudate and putamen and fine motor are revealed. This study advances our understanding of the dynamic early subcortical developmental patterns. Studies of early brain development often rely on cross sectional data. Here the authors investigate volumetric development and surface area expansion of six subcortical structures using longitudinal MRI scans within the first two postnatal years.

Automated summary

This study investigates the volumetric development and surface area expansion of six subcortical structures during the first two postnatal years. The results show that each structure undergoes rapid nonlinear growth after birth, which slows down at a structure-specific age. Additionally, there are positive associations between certain subcortical structures and language learning as well as fine motor skills.