Regional size reduction in the human corpus callosum following pre- and perinatal brain injury.
This morphometric study examined two aspects of corpus callosum development: pediatric cortico-callosal topography and developmental neuroplasticity subsequent to perinatal brain injury. In vivo magnetic resonance imaging was used to quantify the total midsagittal cross-sectional area and five anterioposterior subregions of the callosum in 10 children with focal lesions and 86 healthy volunteer control subjects. Nine of the ten children with early injury showed a reduction in the total area of the callosum relative to matched controls. The area of the total callosum cross-section was inversely proportional to the size of lesion. All patients displayed region-specific size reduction. This regional thinning bore a topographical relationship to the lesion sites. Reduction in anterior subregions 1, 2 and 3 was respectively associated with lesions in the anterior inferior frontal area, the middle and superior frontal region, and the precentral area. Attenuation of subregion 4 corresponded to anterior parietal lesions, and thinning of subregion 5 occurred with posterior parietal injury. This cortical-callosal pattern coincides with adult and nonhuman primate mappings. Callosal thinning despite the early onset of the lesions suggests limits to developmental neuroplasticity.
Moses
P
P
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. pmoses@ucsd.edu
Courchesne
E
E
Stiles
J
J
Trauner
D
D
Egaas
B
B
Edwards
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male