title: Structural Development of Human Fetal and Preterm Brain Cortical Plate Based on Population-Averaged Templates.
abstract: We hypothesized that the distinct maturational processes take place across different cortical areas from middle fetal stage to normal time of birth and these maturational processes are altered in late third trimester. Fractional anisotropies (FA) from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) infer the microstructures of the early developing cortical plate. High-resolution DTI of 11 fetal brain specimens at postmenstrual age of 20 weeks (or simplified as 20 weeks), 19 in vivo brains at 35 weeks, and 17 in vivo brains at normal time of birth at term (40 weeks) were acquired. Population-averaged age-specific DTI templates were established with large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping for subject groups at 20, 35, and 40 weeks. To alleviate partial volume effects, skeletonized FA values were used for mapping averaged cortical FA to the cortical surface and measuring FA at 12 functionally distinctive cortical regions. Significant and heterogeneous FA decreases take place in distinct cortical areas from 20 to 35 weeks and from 35 to 40 weeks, suggesting differentiated cortical development patterns. Temporally nonuniform FA decrease patterns during 35-40 weeks compared with those during 20-35 weeks were observed in higher-order association cortex. Measured skeletonized FA suggested dissociated changes between cerebral cortex and white matter during 35-40 weeks.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan, Shandong 250012, China.|Advanced Imaging Research Center.
authors.forename: Qiaowen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Advanced Imaging Research Center.
authors.forename: Austin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chalak
authors.affiliation: Advanced Imaging Research Center.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Philips Health Tech.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chia
authors.affiliation: Advanced Imaging Research Center.
authors.forename: Virendra
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics.
authors.forename: Muraleedharan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sivarajan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.|Department of Radiology, Children's Medical Center at Dallas.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rollins
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan, Shandong 250012, China.
authors.forename: Shuwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Advanced Imaging Research Center.|Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D016880:Anisotropy; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D012016:Reference Values
keywords: DTI; cortical microstructure; fetal brain; heterogeneous; population-averaged template