ISMRM 21st Annual Meeting & Exhibition ○ 20-26 April 2013 ○ Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
SCIENTIFIC SESSION
Normal Developing Brain Friday 26 April 2013
Room 150 AG | 10:30 - 12:30 | Moderators: | Petra S. Hüppi, Duan Xu
10:30 | 0794. | Diffeomorphic Construction of a Normative Spatiotemporal Fetal Brain MRI Template Ali Gholipour1, Catherine Limperopoulos2, Cedric Clouchoux2, Alireza Akhondi-Asl1, Judy A. Estroff1, and Simon K. Warfield1 1Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, 2Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States The MRI study of the developing brain is challenged by the difficulty of scanning neonates and fetuses, and the rapid changes in the brain anatomy. The recent advances in volumetric fetal brain MRI have enabled the construction of spatiotemporal templates. The anatomic variations are encoded by probability maps in probabilistic templates, but are encoded in the deformation fields in deformable templates. While the recent work has focused on probabilistic spatiotemporal template construction to characterize normal fetal brain development, this work has focused on deformable spatiotemporal template construction; and suggests kernel regression integrated with symmetric normalization for diffeomorphic spatiotempral template construction.
10:42 | 0795. | Brain Development in Preterm and Term Neonates Assessed by White Matter Model of Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging with Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Analysis Xianjun Li1,2, Jie Gao1, Yumiao Zhang1, Xue Luo1,2, Jianghong Han1, Gang Niu1, Mingxi Wan2, Ed X. Wu3, and Jian Yang1,2 1Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, 3Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China The purpose of this study was to investigate the white matter changes of diffusion parameters derived from white matter model of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in preterm and term neonates using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis. In this study, 38 neonates with postmenstrual ages of 33 to 42 weeks were studied, including 19 preterm neonates and 19 term neonates. The results showed that significant increase of intra-axonal diffusivity without significant changes of axial diffusivity in extra-axonal space and radial diffusivity in extra-axonal space in genu of corpus callosum and body of corpus callosum, reflecting the increase of the alignment, caliber and number of axons. In posterior limb of internal capsule and splenium of corpus callosum, increased diffusion kurtosis or restriction were accompanied by the reduced diffusivity in radial direction. Such diffusivity and kurtosis analysis can be valuable to our understanding the white matter changes in intra-axon and extra-axon space during early development.
10:54 | 0796. | Brain Microstructure Assessed by CHARMED and NODDI in the Newborn Nicolas Kunz1, Hui Zhang2, Yaniv Assaf3, François Lazeyras4, Daniel Alexander2, and Petra Susan Hüppi1,5 1Pediatrics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, 2Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 3Neurobiology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, 4Radiology-CIBM, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland, 5Department of Neurology, Childrens Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), may be the only feasible technique to study micorstructural changes occurring during the brain development. The main aims of this study was to design a complete new pipeline to perform micro-structural diffusion analysis in neonatal brain and to compare DTI to CHARMED and NODDI, which provides new microstructural metrics such as the intra-axonal volume fraction (VFia). High quality subject template was generated using DTI-TK tensor registration tools, which allows the accurate definitions of 13 ROIs. FA and VFia were able to depict fine mircostructural differences in early maturation fiber tracts.
11:06 | 0797. | High B-Value HARDI Analysis in Neonates Scanned at Term-Equivalent Age Reveals Correlation Between Apparent White Matter Fibre Density and Immaturity at Birth Jacques-Donald Tournier1,2, Serena J. Counsell3, David A. Raffelt1, Nora Tusor4, Phumza Nongena4, A. David Edwards3, Joseph V. Hajnal3, and Alan Connelly1,2 1Advanced MRI development, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3Centre for the Developing Brain, King's College London, London, London, United Kingdom,4Department of Medicine (Paediatrics), Imperial College London, London, London, United Kingdom Preterm birth is associated with poor neurodevelopmental performance, and diffuse white matter injury is frequently observed. In this study, we investigate the effect of gestational age at birth on a new direction-specific measure, the apparent fibre density (AFD), using a high b-value, high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) acquisition. 31 neonates were scanned at term, and the AFD correlated with gestational age, regressing out post-menstrual age at scan. Significant correlations were observed bilaterally in most major white matter tracts, consistent with previous DTI findings. AFD allows the identification of direction-specific changes, making interpretation of results more straightforward than using scalar measures.
11:18 | 0798. | The Effect of Preterm Birth on Cortico-Cortical Connectivity: The Preterm Connectome Kerstin Pannek1, Xanthy Hatzigeorgiou2, Paul Colditz3, and Stephen Rose4 1The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 2Novita Children's Services, Adelaide, Australia, 3The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 4The Australian E-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia Preterm birth is associated with a high prevalence of adverse neurodevelopmental outcome. We used diffusion MRI and T2 relaxometry to assess alterations in cortico-cortical connectivity in the preterm brain at term equivalent age. Cortical networks associated with affected connections mainly involved left frontal and motor cortical areas. Identified cortical regions are associated with higher cognitive function, working memory, language production, verbal comprehension, executive function and motor function, deficits in which are often observed in children and adults born preterm.
11:30 | 0799. | Thalamic Parcellation Based on Probabilistic Neocortical Connections in a Neonatal Population Katyucia de Macedo Rodrigues1,2, Emma Ben-Avi2, Myong-Sun Choe3, Marie Drottar3, Patricia Ellen Grant2,4, and Lilla Zöllei2,3 1Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, 2Radiology, A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging/Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, 3Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, 4Newborn Medicine, Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States The importance of the thalamus on motor, somatosensory and cognitive functions is well recognized. The study of the thalamic structure with its nuclear subdivisions in the pediatric population could shed a light on thalamic development and changes secondary to pathological states. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of thalamic parcellation in clusters that have an anatomical and functional correspondence to known thalamic nuclei in a neonatal population. This parcellation is derived from thalamic connections to predefined neocortical targets observed using probabilistic diffusion tractography.
11:42 | 0800. | Coherent Cortical Pruning and Axonal Integrity Enhancement During Brain Development Accessed by DTI Tractography from Parcellated Cortex Tina Jeon1, Virendra Mishra1, and Hao Huang1 1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States Cortical thinning during brain development is due to complicated cellular and molecular processes including synaptic pruning, apoptosis and cell shrinkage during development. In parallel, association and commissural white matter tracts project from a group of selected and preserved neurons and connect certain cortical regions. These parallel processes are essential for the formation of the brain circuits which enable certain brain functions, especially those related to mental disorders. In this study, we investigated the relationship of the change of fractional anisotropy of these axons and change of the corresponding cortical thickness with DTI and T1-weighted images from 39 normal children.
11:54 | 0801. | Typical Patterns of Myelin Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Abilities in Babies and Toddlers Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh1,2, Douglas C. Dean III1, Holly Dirks1, Nicole Waskiewicz1, Katie Lehman1, Michelle Han1, Lindsay Walker1, Beth A. Jerskey1, and Sean C. L. Deoni1 1Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 2Neuroimaging, King's College London, London, London, United Kingdom The trajectory of myelination in the developing brain is coupled with progressive optimisation of cognitively relevant brain networks. Here we use a multivariate technique, independent component analysis, to parcellate quantitative myelin maps (mcDESPOT) from 200 children between 3 months and 5 years, into clusters with consistent developmental trajectories. We demonstrate distributed, functionally relevant, systems that myelinate concurrently.
12:06 | 0802. | Variegation in the Adolescent Cortical Folding Pattern in Preterm and Control Populations Man Wong1, Andrew Melbourne2, Manuel Jorge Cardoso2, Gemma Northam1, Sebastien Ourselin2, and Torsten Baldeweg1 1Institute for Childs Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 2Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, United Kingdom Differences are observed between the brain volumes and cortical folding pattern of preterm-born and control groups at adolescence.
12:18 | 0803. | Effects of Aging and Gender on Brain Intrinsic Functional Connectivity: A Resting State Study in a Large Cohort of Healthy Subjects Massimo Filippi1, Paola Valsasina1, Paolo Misci1, Andrea Falini2, Giancarlo Comi3, and Maria A. Rocca1 1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, 2Department of Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, 3Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy In this study, we explored gender- and age-related effects on resting state (RS) functional connectivity within and among networks with potential functional relevance. RS data were acquired from 285 healthy controls (148 men and 137 women, range=8-79 years). Abnormalities of connectivity within and among networks, as detected by independent component analysis and functional network connectivity, were found in almost all RS networks; however, age and gender effects were variable across networks. Our results might contribute to the understanding of gender-related differences in the pathobiology of aging.