Microstructural development from 9 to 14 years: Evidence from the ABCD Study

Clare E. Palmer; Diliana Pecheva; John R. Iversen; Donald J. Hagler, Jr; Leo Sugrue; Pierre Nedelec; Chun Chieh Fan; Wesley K. Thompson; Terry L. Jernigan; Anders M. Dale

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Feb 2022)

Microstructural development from 9 to 14 years: Evidence from the ABCD Study

Clare E. Palmer,
Diliana Pecheva,
John R. Iversen,
Donald J. Hagler, Jr,
Leo Sugrue,
Pierre Nedelec,
Chun Chieh Fan,
Wesley K. Thompson,
Terry L. Jernigan,
Anders M. Dale

Affiliations

Clare E. Palmer: Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92161, USA; Corresponding author.
Diliana Pecheva: Center for Multimodal Imaging and Genetics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9444 Medical Center Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
John R. Iversen: Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Donald J. Hagler, Jr: Center for Multimodal Imaging and Genetics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9444 Medical Center Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Leo Sugrue: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
Pierre Nedelec: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
Chun Chieh Fan: Center for Multimodal Imaging and Genetics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9444 Medical Center Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Wesley K. Thompson: Division of Biostatistics, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Terry L. Jernigan: Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92161, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92161, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
Anders M. Dale: Center for Multimodal Imaging and Genetics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9444 Medical Center Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92161, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 53
p. 101044

Abstract

Read online

During late childhood behavioral changes, such as increased risk-taking and emotional reactivity, have been associated with the maturation of cortico-cortico and cortico-subcortical circuits. Understanding microstructural changes in both white matter and subcortical regions may aid our understanding of how individual differences in these behaviors emerge. Restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) is a framework for modelling diffusion-weighted imaging that decomposes the diffusion signal from a voxel into hindered, restricted, and free compartments. This yields greater specificity than conventional methods of characterizing diffusion. Using RSI, we quantified voxelwise restricted diffusion across the brain and measured age associations in a large sample (n = 8086) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study aged 9–14 years. Older participants showed a higher restricted signal fraction across the brain, with the largest associations in subcortical regions, particularly the basal ganglia and ventral diencephalon. Importantly, age associations varied with respect to the cytoarchitecture within white matter fiber tracts and subcortical structures, for example age associations differed across thalamic nuclei. This suggests that age-related changes may map onto specific cell populations or circuits and highlights the utility of voxelwise compared to ROI-wise analyses. Future analyses will aim to understand the relevance of this microstructural developmental for behavioral outcomes.

Published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

ISSN: 1878-9293 (Print); 1878-9307 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: Netherlands
LCC subjects: Science: Physiology: Neurophysiology and neuropsychology
Website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/developmental-cognitive-neuroscience/

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords