Infants' cortex undergoes microstructural growth coupled with myelination during development.

ABSTRACT: Development of cortical tissue during infancy is critical for the emergence of typical brain functions in cortex. However, how cortical microstructure develops during infancy remains unknown. We measured the longitudinal development of cortex from birth  to six months of age  using multimodal quantitative imaging of cortical microstructure. Here we show that infants' cortex undergoes profound microstructural tissue growth during the first six months of human life. Comparison of postnatal to prenatal transcriptomic gene expression data demonstrates that myelination and synaptic processes are dominant contributors to this postnatal microstructural tissue growth. Using visual cortex as a model system, we find hierarchical microstructural growth: higher-level visual areas have less mature tiss

SUBMITTER: Natu VS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8516989 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature