Abstract
Previous studies have shown that maturation of the white matter in terms of its relative signal intensity changes on MRI is almost complete at 2-3 years of age. We hypothesized that quantitative analysis may show maturation of the white matter during childhood and adolescence. In the present study we performed multi-echo T2 relaxometry in 33 healthy subjects (girls, 15; boys, 18) aged 3-15 years. T2 relaxation times of the genu and splenium were measured. In healthy subjects, the T2 relaxation times were significantly correlated with age in both girls (r = 0.611, p = .016) and boys (r = 0.721, p = .001) in the splenium, but not in the genu (p > .05). To further confirm genu-to-splenium signal intensity ratio changes, a total of 389 brain MRIs were retrospectively selected from the patients who had normal results (189 girls/women, 200 boys/men; age range, 3-20 years). The genu-to-splenium signal intensity ratio was obtained from the T2-weighted images. In patients with normal MRI, the genu-to-splenium signal intensity ratio was significantly decreased with age (p < .001) by 16 years. The T2 relaxation times gradually increase in the splenium during childhood and adolescence, suggestive of maturation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 409-414 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Corpus callosum
- Human development
- Magnetic resonance imaging
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology