A multisample study of longitudinal changes in brain network architecture in 4-13-year-old children

Pathways through Adolescenc

Towards an understanding of neuroscience for science educators

Advances in neuroscience have brought new insights to the development of cognitive functions. These data are of considerable interest to educators concerned with how students learn. This review documents some of the recent findings in neuroscience, which is richer in describing cognitive functions than affective aspects of learning. A brief overview is presented here of the techniques used to generate data from imaging and how these findings have the possibility to inform educators. There are implications for considering the impact of neuroscience at all levels of education – from the classroom teacher and practitioner to policy. This relatively new cross-disciplinary area of research implies a need for educators and scientists to engage with each other. What questions are emerging through such dialogues between educators and scientists are likely to shed light on, for example, reward, motivation, working memory, learning difficulties, bilingualism and child development. The sciences of learning are entering a new paradigm

A key characteristic of sex differences in the developing brain: Greater variability in brain structure of boys than girls

Pathways through Adolescenc

Anatomical MRI of the developing human brain: what have we learned?

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Cerebellum development during childhood and adolescence: A longitudinal morphometric MRI study

In addition to its well-established role in balance, coordination, and other motor skills, the cerebellum is increasingly recognized as a prominent contributor to a wide array of cognitive and emotional functions. Many of these capacities undergo dramatic changes during childhood and adolescence. However, accurate characterization of co-occurring anatomical changes has been hindered by lack of longitudinal data and methodologic challenges in quantifying subdivisions of the cerebellum. In this study we apply an innovative image analysis technique to quantify total cerebellar volume and 11 subdivisions (i.e. anterior, superior posterior, and inferior posterior lobes, corpus medullare, and three vermal regions) from anatomic brain MRI scans from 25 healthy females and 25 healthy males aged 5-24 years, each of whom was scanned at least three times at approximately 2-year intervals. Total cerebellum volume followed an inverted U shaped developmental trajectory peaking at age 11.8 years in females and 15.6 years in males. Cerebellar volume was 10% to 13% larger in males depending on the age of comparison and the sexual dimorphism remained significant after covarying for total brain volume. Subdivisions of the cerebellum had distinctive developmental trajectories with more phylogenetically recent regions maturing particularly late. The cerebellum's unique protracted developmental trajectories, sexual dimorphism, preferential vulnerability to environmental influences, and frequent implication in childhood onset disorders such as autism and ADHD make it a prime target for pediatric neuroimaging investigations

Supplementary Material for: The Developmental Mismatch in Structural Brain Maturation during Adolescence

Regions of the human brain develop at different rates across the first two decades of life, with some maturing before others. It has been hypothesized that a mismatch in the timing of maturation between subcortical regions (involved in affect and reward processing) and prefrontal regions (involved in cognitive control) underlies the increase in risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors observed during adolescence. Most support for this ‘dual systems' hypothesis relies on cross-sectional data, and it is not known whether this pattern is present at an individual level. The current study utilizes longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to describe the developmental trajectories of regions associated with risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors, namely, the amygdala, nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Structural trajectories of gray matter volumes were analyzed using FreeSurfer in 33 participants aged 7-30 years, each of whom had at least three high-quality MRI scans spanning three developmental periods: late childhood, adolescence and early adulthood (total 152 scans). The majority of individuals in our sample showed relatively earlier maturation in the amygdala and/or NAcc compared to the PFC, providing evidence for a mismatch in the timing of structural maturation between these structures. We then related individual developmental trajectories to retrospectively assessed self-reported risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence in a subsample of 24 participants. Analysis of this smaller sample failed to find a relationship between the presence of a mismatch in brain maturation and risk-taking and sensation-seeking behaviors during adolescence. Taken together, it appears that the developmental mismatch in structural brain maturation is present in neurotypically developing individuals. This pattern of development did not directly relate to self-reported behaviors at an individual level in our sample, highlighting the need for prospective studies combining anatomical and behavioral measures