Developmental changes of the central sulcus morphology in young children.

Niharika Gajawelli,Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh,Sean C L Deoni,Marvin D Nelson,Douglas C Dean,Natalie Ramsy,Natasha Lepore,Olivier Coulon

doi:10.1007/s00429-021-02292-x

Abstract

The human brain grows rapidly in early childhood, reaching 95% of its final volume by age 6. Understanding brain growth in childhood is important both to answer neuroscience questions about anatomical changes in development, and as a comparison metric for neurological disorders. Metrics for neuroanatomical development including cortical measures pertaining to the sulci can be instrumental in early diagnosis, monitoring, and intervention for neurological diseases. In this paper, we examine the development of the central sulcus in children aged 12-60months from structural magnetic resonance images. The central sulcus is one of the earliest sulci to develop at the fetal stage and is implicated in diseases such as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and Williams syndrome. We investigate the relationship between the changes in the depth of the central sulcus with respect to age. In our results, we observed a pattern of depth present early on, that had been previously observed in adults. Results also reveal the presence of a rightward depth asymmetry at 12months of age at a location related to orofacial movements. That asymmetry disappears gradually, mostly between 12 and 24months, and we suggest that it is related to the development of language skills.

Highlights

Normal development of the brain is of key interest in both neuroscience and medicine
The mean central sulcus (CS) depth curves indicate similarity to the pattern seen in adults (Cykowski et al 2008) identifiable as early as 12 months of age
A strong relationship was observed between sulcal depth and age in the left central sulcus in regions that correspond to the jaw, mouth and tongue regions, with the largest change seen between 18 and 24 months of age

Summary

Introduction

Normal development of the brain is of key interest in both neuroscience and medicine. Li et al 2011; Courchesne et al 2000; Nie, Li, and Shen 2013; Giedd and Rapoport 2010; Sowell et al 2007; Brain Development Cooperative Group 2012; Lenroot and Giedd 2006; Raznahan et al 2011; Keshavan et al 2002; Evans 2006). Longitudinal MR studies investigating brain development have shown inverted U shaped trajectories of gray matter (GM) volumes and that these trajectories vary widely over different regions of the cortex (Giedd and Rapoport 2010; Lenroot and Giedd 2006; Sowell et al 2003; Raznahan et al 2011; Knickmeyer et al 2008). A longitudinal study of regional cortical thickness and surface area in healthy infants from birth to 2 years showed that cortical thickness, by age 2, is on average 97% of adult values, while surface area is 69%, suggesting that surface area expansion is a driving factor in cortical volume changes after age 2 (Lyall et al 2015)

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