title: Development of human white matter fiber pathways: From newborn to adult ages.
abstract: Major long-range white matter pathways (cingulum, fornix, uncinate fasciculus [UF], inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus [IFOF], inferior longitudinal fasciculus [ILF], thalamocortical [TC], and corpus callosal [CC] pathways) were identified in eighty-three healthy humans ranging from newborn to adult ages. We tracked developmental changes using high-angular resolution diffusion MR tractography. Fractional anisotropy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficient, number, length, and volume were measured in pathways in each subject. Newborns had fewer, and more sparse, pathways than those of the older subjects. FA, number, length, and volume of pathways gradually increased with age and reached a plateau between 3 and 5 years of age. Data were further analyzed by normalizing with mean adult values as well as with each subject's whole brain values. Comparing subjects of 3 years old and under to those over 3 years old, the studied pathways showed differential growth patterns. The CC, bilateral cingulum, bilateral TC, and the left IFOF pathways showed significant growth both in volume and length, while the bilateral fornix, bilateral ILF and bilateral UF showed significant growth only in volume. The TC and CC took similar growth patterns with the whole brain. FA values of the cingulum and IFOF, and the length of ILF showed leftward asymmetry. The fornix, ILF and UF occupied decreased space compared to the whole brain during development with higher FA values, likely corresponding to extensive maturation of the pathways compared to the mean whole brain maturation. We believe that the outcome of this study will provide an important database for future reference.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Radiology, Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, 83 Zhong Shan Dong Lu, Guiyang, Guizhou Province 550002, China; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA; Fetal-Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Rongpin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Molly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Ashley R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA; Fetal-Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: emi@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Emi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Development; Diffusion imaging; Newborn; Tractography; White matter