Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts

Neuroscience is increasingly focusing on developmental factors related to human structural and functional connectivity. Unfortunately, to date, diffusion-based imaging approaches have only contributed modestly to these broad objectives, despite the promise of diffusion-based tractography. Here, we r...

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Main Authors:	Imperati, Davide, Colcombe, Stan, Kelly, Clare, Di Martino, Adriana, Zhou, Juan, Castellanos, F. Xavier, Milham, Michael P.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2011
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166135/

id	pubmed-3166135
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-31661352011-09-09 Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts Imperati, Davide Colcombe, Stan Kelly, Clare Di Martino, Adriana Zhou, Juan Castellanos, F. Xavier Milham, Michael P. Research Article Neuroscience is increasingly focusing on developmental factors related to human structural and functional connectivity. Unfortunately, to date, diffusion-based imaging approaches have only contributed modestly to these broad objectives, despite the promise of diffusion-based tractography. Here, we report a novel data-driven approach to detect similarities and differences among white matter tracts with respect to their developmental trajectories, using 64-direction diffusion tensor imaging. Specifically, using a cross-sectional sample comprising 144 healthy individuals (7 to 48 years old), we applied k-means cluster analysis to separate white matter voxels based on their age-related trajectories of fractional anisotropy. Optimal solutions included 5-, 9- and 14-clusters. Our results recapitulate well-established tracts (e.g., internal and external capsule, optic radiations, corpus callosum, cingulum bundle, cerebral peduncles) and subdivisions within tracts (e.g., corpus callosum, internal capsule). For all but one tract identified, age-related trajectories were curvilinear (i.e., inverted ‘U-shape’), with age-related increases during childhood and adolescence followed by decreases in middle adulthood. Identification of peaks in the trajectories suggests that age-related losses in fractional anisotropy occur as early as 23 years of age, with mean onset at 30 years of age. Our findings demonstrate that data-driven analytic techniques may be fruitfully applied to extant diffusion tensor imaging datasets in normative and neuropsychiatric samples. Public Library of Science 2011-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3166135/ /pubmed/21909351 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0023437 Text en Imperati et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Imperati, Davide Colcombe, Stan Kelly, Clare Di Martino, Adriana Zhou, Juan Castellanos, F. Xavier Milham, Michael P.
spellingShingle	Imperati, Davide Colcombe, Stan Kelly, Clare Di Martino, Adriana Zhou, Juan Castellanos, F. Xavier Milham, Michael P. Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts
author_facet	Imperati, Davide Colcombe, Stan Kelly, Clare Di Martino, Adriana Zhou, Juan Castellanos, F. Xavier Milham, Michael P.
author_sort	Imperati, Davide
title	Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts
title_short	Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts
title_full	Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts
title_fullStr	Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts
title_full_unstemmed	Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts
title_sort	differential development of human brain white matter tracts
description	Neuroscience is increasingly focusing on developmental factors related to human structural and functional connectivity. Unfortunately, to date, diffusion-based imaging approaches have only contributed modestly to these broad objectives, despite the promise of diffusion-based tractography. Here, we report a novel data-driven approach to detect similarities and differences among white matter tracts with respect to their developmental trajectories, using 64-direction diffusion tensor imaging. Specifically, using a cross-sectional sample comprising 144 healthy individuals (7 to 48 years old), we applied k-means cluster analysis to separate white matter voxels based on their age-related trajectories of fractional anisotropy. Optimal solutions included 5-, 9- and 14-clusters. Our results recapitulate well-established tracts (e.g., internal and external capsule, optic radiations, corpus callosum, cingulum bundle, cerebral peduncles) and subdivisions within tracts (e.g., corpus callosum, internal capsule). For all but one tract identified, age-related trajectories were curvilinear (i.e., inverted ‘U-shape’), with age-related increases during childhood and adolescence followed by decreases in middle adulthood. Identification of peaks in the trajectories suggests that age-related losses in fractional anisotropy occur as early as 23 years of age, with mean onset at 30 years of age. Our findings demonstrate that data-driven analytic techniques may be fruitfully applied to extant diffusion tensor imaging datasets in normative and neuropsychiatric samples.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2011
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166135/
_version_	1611473492049395712

Differential Development of Human Brain White Matter Tracts

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