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- Title
The Human Cerebral Cortex Flattens during Adolescence.
- Authors
Alemán-Gómez, Yasser; Janssen, Joost; Schnack, Hugo; Balaban, Evan; Pina-Camacho, Laura; Alfaro-Almagro, Fidel; Castro-Fornieles, Josefina; Otero, Soraya; Baeza, Immaculada; Moreno, Dolores; Bargalló, Nuria; Parellada, Mara; Arango, Celso; Desco, Manuel
- Abstract
The human cerebral cortex appears to shrink during adolescence. To delineate the dynamic morphological changes involved in this process, 52 healthy male and female adolescents (11-17 years old) were neuroimaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, approximately 2 years apart. Using a novel morphometric analysis procedure combining the FreeSurfer and BrainVisa image software suites, we quantified global and lobar change in cortical thickness, outer surface area, the gyrification index, the average Euclidean distance between opposing sides of the white matter surface (gyral white matter thickness), the convex ("exposed") part of the outer cortical surface (hull surface area), sulcal length, depth, and width. We found that the cortical surface flattens during adolescence. Flattening was strongest in the frontal and occipital cortices, in which significant sulcal widening and decreased sulcal depth co-occurred. Globally, sulcal widening was associated with cortical thinning and, for the frontal cortex, with loss of surface area. For the other cortical lobes, thinning was related to gyral white matter expansion. The overall flattening of the macrostructural three-dimensional architecture of thehumancortex during adolescence thus involves changes in gray matter and effects of the maturation of white matter.
- Subjects
CEREBRAL cortex; ADOLESCENCE; TEENAGE girls; TEENAGE boys; MAGNETIC resonance imaging; MORPHOMETRICS; IMAGING system software
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2013, Vol 33, Issue 38, p15004
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1459-13.2013