There have been recent advancements in the field of neuroimaging and mapping the human brain. Researchers have developed new human brain atlases that chart postnatal development, offering insight into how the brain changes and grows over time. These atlases use various neuroimaging techniques such as MRI and DTI to create detailed maps of brain structure and connectivity. These new atlases have important implications for our understanding of brain development and for the diagnosis and treatment of various neurological and psychiatric conditions.
Scientists have created a new collection of month-by-month infant brain atlases (IBA) that capture fine details of the developing brain in both space and time. Medical professionals can use human brain atlases to track normative trends over time and pinpoint critical aspects of early brain development.
They can see what typical structural and functional development looks like with these atlases, making it easier to spot symptoms of abnormal development such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and cerebral palsy.
Pew-Thian Yap, Ph.D., professor in the UNC Department of Radiology, and colleagues in the department and the Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC) have created a new collection of month-by-month infant brain atlas (IBA) that capture fine spatiotemporal details of the early developing brain.
Our team’s human brain atlases depict the early development phase of postnatal neurodevelopment. Our atlases will be a valuable resource for brain scientists as they unravel key normative and aberrant traits of the most important stage of human brain development.
Sahar Ahmad
The researchers created a set of month-specific surface-volume longitudinal brain atlases of infants aged 2 weeks to 2 years in this study, which was published in the journal Nature Methods. The paper’s lead author was Sahar Ahmad, Ph.D., a radiology research instructor.
“Brain atlases are critical for understanding neurodevelopment through the lenses of cellular composition, neural pathways, and functional organization,” said Yap. “Our team’s human brain atlases depict the early development phase of postnatal neurodevelopment. Our atlases will be a valuable resource for brain scientists as they unravel key normative and aberrant traits of the most important stage of human brain development.”
Throughout the first two years of life, the human brain goes through a variety of cellular processes that drive the infant brain’s rapid growth. During this time, the brain undergoes structural changes and neural circuit reorganization. When development goes wrong, it can have a negative impact on quality of life, including an increased risk of autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD.
The IBA allows researchers to record changes in brain structure, cortical geometry, and tissue contrast.
The atlases also revealed that cortices in the temporal, parietal, and prefrontal regions of the brain are thicker than the primary visual and sensorimotor cortices. This is consistent with the finding that the higher-order functions of the infant brain – such as attention, working memory, inhibition, and problem-solving – mature more slowly than the areas of the brain that are responsible for the visual, motor, and sensory functions.
Overall, the surface-volume consistent IBA captures infant growth trajectories accurately and with rich anatomical details. From 2 weeks to 2 years of age, these atlases documented monthly changes in the size, shape, and cortical geometry of normally developing brains, as well as tissue contrast, volume, and microstructural characteristics.
“We hope that these atlases will serve as a common coordinate framework for the discovery of new insights into the developmental processes that underpin child cognition and social behavior,” Yap said.
