title: Spatial-temporal atlas of human fetal brain development during the early second trimester.
abstract: During the second trimester, the human fetal brain undergoes numerous changes that lead to substantial variation in the neonatal in terms of its morphology and tissue types. As fetal MRI is more and more widely used for studying the human brain development during this period, a spatiotemporal atlas becomes necessary for characterizing the dynamic structural changes. In this study, 34 postmortem human fetal brains with gestational ages ranging from 15 to 22 weeks were scanned using 7.0 T MR. We used automated morphometrics, tensor-based morphometry and surface modeling techniques to analyze the data. Spatiotemporal atlases of each week and the overall atlas covering the whole period with high resolution and contrast were created. These atlases were used for the analysis of age-specific shape changes during this period, including development of the cerebral wall, lateral ventricles, Sylvian fissure, and growth direction based on local surface measurements. Our findings indicate that growth of the subplate zone is especially striking and is the main cause for the lamination pattern changes. Changes in the cortex around Sylvian fissure demonstrate that cortical growth may be one of the mechanisms for gyration. Surface deformation mapping, revealed by local shape analysis, indicates that there is global anterior-posterior growth pattern, with frontal and temporal lobes developing relatively quickly during this period. Our results are valuable for understanding the normal brain development trajectories and anatomical characteristics. These week-by-week fetal brain atlases can be used as reference in in vivo studies, and may facilitate the quantification of fetal brain development across space and time.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, 44 Wen-hua Xi Road, 250012 Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Jinfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Ivo D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Dinov
authors.forename: Junning
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhonghe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hobel
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Xiangtao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Alen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zamanyan
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Gaojun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Yuchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Fengchao
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.forename: Arthur W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Toga
authors.forename: Shuwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000716:Anatomy, Artistic; D001271:Atlases as Topic; D001921:Brain / Q000196:embryology*; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development; D005333:Fetus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second
keywords: Atlas; Fetal MRI; Human brain development; Second-trimester