The human cerebral cortex flattens during adolescence.
The human cerebral cortex appears to shrink during adolescence. To delineate the dynamic morphological changes involved in this process, 52 healthy male and female adolescents (11-17 years old) were neuroimaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, approximately 2 years apart. Using a novel morphometric analysis procedure combining the FreeSurfer and BrainVisa image software suites, we quantified global and lobar change in cortical thickness, outer surface area, the gyrification index, the average Euclidean distance between opposing sides of the white matter surface (gyral white matter thickness), the convex ("exposed") part of the outer cortical surface (hull surface area), sulcal length, depth, and width. We found that the cortical surface flattens during adolescence. Flattening was strongest in the frontal and occipital cortices, in which significant sulcal widening and decreased sulcal depth co-occurred. Globally, sulcal widening was associated with cortical thinning and, for the frontal cortex, with loss of surface area. For the other cortical lobes, thinning was related to gyral white matter expansion. The overall flattening of the macrostructural three-dimensional architecture of the human cortex during adolescence thus involves changes in gray matter and effects of the maturation of white matter.
Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, and Servicio de Psiquiatría del Niño y Adolecente, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, 28007 Madrid, Spain, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, 3584 CG, Utrecht, The Netherlands, The Behavioral Neurosciences Program, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2L1K6, Departament de Psiquiatria i Psicologia Infantil i Juvenil, SGR-1119, Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERSAM, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain, Unidad de Salud Mental Infanto-Juvenil, Departamento de Psiquiatría y Psicología, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain, and Departamento de Bioingeniería e Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911, Leganés, Madrid, Spain.
Yasser
Y
Alemán-Gómez
Joost
J
Janssen
Hugo
H
Schnack
Evan
E
Balaban
Laura
L
Pina-Camacho
Fidel
F
Alfaro-Almagro
Josefina
J
Castro-Fornieles
Soraya
S
Otero
Immaculada
I
Baeza
Dolores
D
Moreno
Nuria
N
Bargalló
Mara
M
Parellada
Celso
C
Arango
Manuel
M
Desco
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological