title: Tract Profiles of the Cerebellar White Matter Pathways in Children and Adolescents.
abstract: Intact development of cerebellar connectivity is essential for healthy neuromotor and neurocognitive development. To date, limited knowledge about the microstructural properties of the cerebellar peduncles, the major white matter tracts of the cerebellum, is available for children and adolescents. Such information would be useful as a comparison for studies of normal development, clinical conditions, or associations of cerebellar structures with cognitive and motor functions. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the variability in diffusion measures of the cerebellar peduncles within individuals and within a normative sample of healthy children. Participants were 19 healthy children and adolescents, aged 9-17 years, mean age 13.0 ± 2.3. We analyzed diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) data with deterministic tractography. We generated tract profiles for each of the cerebellar peduncles by extracting four diffusion properties (fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean, radial, and axial diffusivity) at 30 equidistant points along each tract. We were able to identify the middle cerebellar peduncle and the bilateral inferior and superior cerebellar peduncles in all participants. The results showed that within each of the peduncles, the diffusion properties varied along the trajectory of the tracts. However, the tracts showed consistent patterns of variation across individuals; the coefficient of variation for FA across individual profiles was low (≤20%) for each tract. We observed no systematic variation of the diffusion properties with age. These cerebellar tract profiles of the cerebellar peduncles can serve as a reference for future studies of children across the age range and for children and adolescents with clinical conditions that affect the cerebellum.
authors: Child Development Center, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors: Yael
authors: Y
authors: Leitner
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA USA.
authors: Katherine E
authors: KE
authors: Travis
authors: The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.|The English Department, Linguistics Division, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
authors: Michal
authors: M
authors: Ben-Shachar
authors: Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA USA.
authors: Kristen W
authors: KW
authors: Yeom
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA USA.
authors: Heidi M
authors: HM
authors: Feldman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016880:Anisotropy; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D002648:Child; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development
keywords: Cerebellum; Development; Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI); Premature birth; Tractography; White matter
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