Development of the Cerebral Cortex across Adolescence: A Multisample Study of Inter-Related Longitudinal Changes in Cortical Volume, Surface Area, and Thickness

作者：Christian K. Tamnes, Megan M. Herting, Anne‐Lise Goddings, Rosa Meuwese, Sarah‐Jayne Blakemore, Ronald E. Dahl, Berna Güroğlu, Armin Raznahan, Elizabeth R. Sowell, Eveline A. Crone, Kathryn L. Mills · 发表于：Journal of Neuroscience · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1523/jneurosci.3302-16.2017 · 被引用次数：760 · 研究领域：Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications、Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications

Before we can assess and interpret how developmental changes in human brain structure relate to cognition, affect, and motivation, and how these processes are perturbed in clinical or at-risk populations, we must first precisely understand typical brain development and how changes in different structural components relate to each other. We conducted a multisample magnetic resonance imaging study to investigate the development of cortical volume, surface area, and thickness, as well as their inter-relationships, from late childhood to early adulthood (7–29 years) using four separate longitudinal samples including 388 participants and 854 total scans. These independent datasets were processed and quality-controlled using the same methods, but analyzed separately to study the replicability of the results across sample and image-acquisition characteristics. The results consistently showed widespread and regionally variable nonlinear decreases in cortical volume and thickness and comparably smaller steady decreases in surface area. Further, the dominant contributor to cortical volume reductions during adolescence was thinning. Finally, complex regional and topological patterns of associations between changes in surface area and thickness were observed. Positive relationships were seen in sulcal regions in prefrontal and temporal cortices, while negative relationships were seen mainly in gyral regions in more posterior cortices. Collectively, these results help resolve previous inc...