Emi Takahashi^1,2, Gang Xu³, Rebecca D Folkerth⁴, Robin L Haynes³, Joseph J Volpe⁵, Hannah C Kinney³, and Patricia Ellen Grant^1,2
1Newborn Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ²Fetal-Neonatal Neuroimaging & Developmental Science Center, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, United States, ³Pathology, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, ⁴Pathology, Division of Neuropathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, ⁵Neurology, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School

We aimed to define through a correlative HARDI- and immunohistochemical analyses the neuroanatomic basis of transient radial coherence of the telencephalic wall that extends from the lateral ventricle to the pial surface. Our data suggest that HARDI-determined radial coherence in the fetal white matter from approximately 20 to 30 weeks reflects radial glial fibers, radially oriented chains of migrating neuroblasts, and a subset of radially oriented, immature axons in combination. This study provides important baseline for the interpretation of radial coherence in the clinical assessment of preterm infants at risk for encephalopathy of prematurity and radial glial fiber injury.

Els Fieremans¹, Vitria Adisetiyo¹, Amir Paydar¹, Hetal Sheth¹, John Nwankwo¹, Jens H. Jensen^1,2, and Sarah Milla^1
1Center for Biomedical Imaging, Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, ²Radiology and Radiological Science, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States

White matter microstructural changes during the first two years of healthy brain development are characterized in terms of non-Gaussian diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) parameters. The observed significant non-linear age-related changes in the DKI-parameters suggest an increased sensitivity to brain maturation as compared to standard Gaussian diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In addition, specific measures of white matter integrity can be derived from DKI, of which significant age-related changes were detected for the axonal water fraction and tortuosity, both markers for myelination, while the intracellular and extracellular diffusivities do not change appreciably in normal brain development.

Tina Jeon¹, Virendra Mishra¹, Yong He², and Hao Huang^1,3
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States, ²State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, ³Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States

Cellular activities occurring in the cortex during development can drive the structural changes of not only cortex but also white matter. The interaction between cortex and white matter may be accessed with microstructural measurements of white matter traced from this cortical region. In this paper, , we parcellated the cortex into 66 gyri and measured the fractional anisotropy (FA) of white matter tracts projected from the local cortex with a certain gyral label with DTI tractography from data of 26 normal children. Significant negative correlations of thickness and FA of traced white matter were found in most of frontal gyri.

Andrew Melbourne¹, Giles S Kendall², Manuel J Cardoso¹, Nicola J Robertson², Neil Marlow², and Sebastien Ourselin^1
1University College London, London, United Kingdom, ²University College Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Infants born prematurely are at increased risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Independent advances suggest that measurement of white matter structure and cortical surface features can help in defining biomarkers for neurodevelopmental outcome. This work analyses 18high resolution T1-weighted term-equivalent MRI of very preterm neonates (<32weeks gestation) and corresponding diffusion tensor imaging (30 directions). This work develops a methodology to link the cortical folding pattern with the underlying white matter connection pattern, thus the spatial surface pattern might allow inference on the connectivity and thus the integrity of the deep grey matter.

Kerstin Pannek¹, Giulia D'Acunto², Andrea Guzzetta³, Simon Finnigan¹, Preethi Mathew¹, Roslyn Boyd¹, Paul Colditz¹, and Stephen Rose^1
1The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, ²University of Pisa, Italy, ³Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Italy

Preterm birth carries an increased risk of impaired motor function. We used a fully automated tractography technique to delineate interhemispheric motor connections in very preterm infants at term equivalent age and term born neonates. Measures of white matter integrity within the volume of the tracks correlated with clinical motor scores; however measures of white matter integrity on the midsagittal plane alone did not reveal significant correlations. This study describes a fully automated tractography technique for extracting commissural tracks in neonates, and highlights the importance of assessing white matter integrity within tracks, rather than on a single slice.

Silvina L. Ferradal¹, Steve M. Liao², Adam T. Eggebrecht³, Terrie E. Inder², and Joseph P. Culver^3
1Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States, ²Pediatrics, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, United States, ³Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, United States

Adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants are still a clinical concern. Resting-state functional connectivity methods provide an approach to detect functional deficits in the neonatal brain. DOT provides a portable alternative for studying brain function at the bedside. Having previously developed fcDOT methods in adults, we apply these techniques for studying functional connectivity in hospitalized infants. Herein, we present fcDOT maps obtained for 6 healthy term-equivalent premature infants. Our results represent the first steps towards establishing a normative data set for fcDOT and serve as a basis to establish fcDOT as a bedside tool to monitor infant brain function.

Miao Cao¹, Zhengjia Dai¹, Fengmei Fan², Lili Jiang², Xiaoyan Cao², Mingrui Xia¹, Ni Shu¹, Xinian Zuo², and Yong He^1
1National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²Institue of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Beijing, China

Uncovering the lifespan changes of the human brain is crucial in discovery neuroscience. The lifespan trajectory coding both normal developing and aging stages of the brain has reflected dramatic changes both its structure and function. It has been commonly accepted that human brain is structurally and functionally organized into a complex network allowing the segregation and integration of information processing. However, how the brain network is reorganized through the lifespan has been rarely studied. Here, we used resting-state fMRI and graph-theory methods to map the lifespan trajectory of human whole-brain functional networks in 150 healthy subjects (7-85 years old).

Feng Liu^1,2, Yunsuo Duan^1,2, Bradley S. Peterson^1,2, and Alayar Kangarlu^1,2
1Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, ²New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, United States

Studying the characteristics of cerebral blood flow (CBF) during resting state can help us understand the functional connectivity of the developing brain. We have collected pulsed ASL data for 28 healthy subjects from young children to adolescence (aged from 6 to 20 years old). We studied the static CBF maps during resting state and also used ROI seed-based analysis on the CBF time series to analyze brain connectivity. By showing the changing characteristics of CBF in differing age groups, we are able to better understand the development of brain connectivity.

Ning Ning¹, Lei Zhang^1,2, Yumiao Zhang¹, Zhuanqin Ren², Ed.X Wu³, and Jian Yang^1
1Department of radiology, the first affiliated hospital of medical college, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Department of magnetic resonance imaging, Baoji central hospital, Baoji, Shaanxi, China, ³Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

This study aims to evaluate the R2* and susceptibility phase values of deep gray nuclei in infants for study of early brain development by using susceptibility weighted imaging. 56 infants with postmenstrual age (PMA) range of 37-91 weeks were examined by using an ESWAN (enhanced T2* weighted angiography) sequence. R2* and phase values were obtained for caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, thalamus, red nucleus and substantia nigra. R2* values showed a significant and positive correlation with PMA, as well as the reference iron concentrations calculated using an empirical equation that was derived in an earlier postmortem study. No significant linear correlation was observed between phase value, PMA and iron concentrations in each gray matter structure. Therefore, R2* presents a more sensitive parameter than phase value for in vivo estimation of brain iron deposition in infants.

Cyrille Capel¹, Catherine Gondry-Jouet², Bénédicte Krejpowicz³, Véronique Courtois³, Malek Makki⁴, Roger Bouzerar¹, and Olivier Baledent^1
1Image Processing Unit, University Hospital, Amiens, France, ²Radiology, University Hospital, Amiens, France, ³Ecole supérieure d'ostéopathie et de biomécanique, Ostéobio, Paris, France, ⁴MRI Research Center, University Chidlren Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

We applied 2D cine-PC MRI to investigate the intracranial compliance of 29 healthy term neonates and children. Cerebral blood volume expansion, during cardiac cycle, was calculated from internal carotid and vertebral arteries and jugular veins' flows. The cerebrospinal fluid volume flushing out of the cranium owing to intracranial pressure increase was measured at the cervical level. An index of intracranial compliance, defined as the ratio of blood and CSF volume changes during the cardiac cycle, was calculated. We have demonstrated that intracranial compliance variations during the first months of life could be studied using PCMRI.