Abstract: Growth patterns in the developing brain detected by using continuum
mechanical tensor maps

09 March 2000
Nature 404, 190 - 193 (2000) © Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
 
PAUL M. THOMPSON, JAY N. GIEDD, ROGER P. WOODS, DAVID MACDONALD, ALAN C. EVANS & ARTHUR W. TOGA

The dynamic nature of growth and degenerative disease processes requires the design of sensitive strategies to
detect, track and quantify structural change in the brain in its full spatial and temporal complexity. Although
volumes of brain substructures are known to change during development, detailed maps of these dynamic
growth processes have been unavailable. Here we report the creation of spatially complex, four-dimensional
quantitative maps of growth patterns in the developing human brain, detected using a tensor mapping strategy
with greater spatial detail and sensitivity than previously obtainable. By repeatedly scanning children (aged
3–15 years) across time spans of up to four years, a rostro-caudal wave of growth was detected at the corpus
callosum, a fibre system that relays information between brain hemispheres. Peak growth rates, in fibres
innervating association and language cortices, were attenuated after puberty, and contrasted sharply with a
severe, spatially localized loss of subcortical grey matter. Conversely, at ages 3–6 years, the fastest growth
rates occurred in frontal networks that regulate the planning of new actions. Local rates, profiles, and principal
directions of growth were visualized in each individual child.