Patterns of Coordinated Anatomical Change in Human Cortical Development: A Longitudinal Neuroimaging Study of Maturational Coupling

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.09.028
• Publication Date: 2011-12-11T01:34:11Z
• Authors: Armin Raznahan; Jason P. Lerch; Nancy Lee; Dede Greenstein; Gregory L. Wallace; Michael Stockman; Liv Clasen; Phillip W. Shaw; Jay N. Giedd
• Keywords: Cerebral Cortex; Male; 0301 basic medicine; Brain Mapping; Sex Characteristics; Adolescent; Neuroscience(all); Decision Making; Statistics as Topic; Neuropsychological Tests; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional Laterality; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Humans; Female; Longitudinal Studies; Child; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Understanding of human structural brain development has rapidly advanced in recent years, but remains fundamentally "localizational" in nature. Here, we use 376 longitudinally acquired structural brain scans from 108 typically developing adolescents to conduct the first study of coordinated anatomical change within the developing cortex. Correlation in rates of anatomical change was regionally heterogeneous, with fronto-temporal association cortices showing the strongest and most widespread maturational coupling with other cortical areas, and lower-order sensory cortices showing the least. Canonical cortical systems with rich structural and functional interconnectivity showed significantly elevated maturational coupling. Evidence for sexually dimorphic maturational coupling was found within a frontopolar-centered prefrontal system involved in complex decision-making. By providing the first link between cortical connectivity and the coordination of cortical development, we reveal a hitherto unseen property of healthy brain maturation, which may represent a target for neurodevelopmental disease processes, and a substrate for sexually dimorphic behavior in adolescence.