Longitudinal development of the cerebellum in human infants during the first 800 days
Ya Wang,
Liangjun Chen,
Zhengwang Wu,
Tengfei Li,
Yue Sun,
Jiale Cheng,
Hongtu Zhu,
Weili Lin,
Li Wang,
Wenhua Huang,
Gang Li
Affiliations
Ya Wang
National Key Discipline of Human Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Liangjun Chen
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Zhengwang Wu
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Tengfei Li
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Yue Sun
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Jiale Cheng
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Hongtu Zhu
Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Weili Lin
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Li Wang
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Corresponding author
Wenhua Huang
National Key Discipline of Human Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; Corresponding author
Gang Li
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: Revealing early dynamic development of the normative cerebellar structures contributes to exploring cerebellum-related neurodevelopmental disorders. Here, leveraging infant-tailored cerebellar image processing techniques, we studied the dynamic volumetric developmental trajectories of cerebellum and 27 cerebellar sub-regions and their relationships with behavioral scores based on 511 high-resolution structural MRI scans during the first 800 postnatal days. The ratio of the entire cerebellum to the intracranial volume increases rapidly at first and then peaks at 13 months after birth. Both the absolute and relative volumes of most cerebellar sub-structures exhibit rapid increase at first, then the relative volumes decrease slightly after arriving at peaks (except for X lobules). Each lobule depicts larger absolute volume in males than in females. The within-subject variation of the cerebellar volumetric percentile score is generally stable. The volumetric development of several lobules (e.g., V, Crus I, and Crus II) has a significantly positive correlation with fine motor skills during the age range examined.
