Apparent thinning of human visual cortex during childhood is associated with myelination.

ABSTRACT: Human cortex appears to thin during childhood development. However, the underlying microstructural mechanisms are unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), quantitative MRI (qMRI), and diffusion MRI (dMRI) in children and adults, we tested what quantitative changes occur to gray and white matter in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) from childhood to adulthood, and how these changes relate to cortical thinning. T₁ relaxation time from qMRI and mean diffusivity (MD) from dMRI provide independent and complementary measurements of microstructural properties of gray and white matter tissue. In face- and character-selective regions in lateral VTC, T₁ and MD decreased from age 5 to adulthood in mid and deep cortex, as well as in their adjacent white matter. T<

SUBMITTER: Natu VS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6789966 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature