A Structural MRI Study of Human Brain Development from Birth to 2 Years

By Rebecca C. Knickmeyer, S. Gouttard, Chaeryon Kang, Dianne D. Evans, K. Wilber, J. Keith Smith, R. Hamer, Weili Lin, Guido Gerig, John H. Gilmore. Journal of Neuroscience, 2008

1,065 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Brain development in the first 2 years after birth is extremely dynamic and likely plays an important role in neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia. Knowledge regarding this period is currently quite limited. We studied structural brain development in healthy subjects from birth to 2. Ninety-eight children received structural MRI scans on a Siemens head-only 3T scanner with magnetization prepared rapid gradient echo T1-weighted, and turbo spin echo, dual-echo (proton density and T2 weighted) sequences: 84 children at 2–4 weeks, 35 at 1 year and 26 at 2 years of age. Tissue segmentation was accomplished using a novel automated approach. Lateral ventricle, caudate, and hippocampal volumes were also determined. Total brain volume increased 101% in the first year, with a 15% increase in the second. The majority of hemispheric growth was accounted for by gray matter, which increased 149% in the first year; hemispheric white matter volume increased by only 11%. Cerebellum volume increased 240% in the first year. Lateral ventricle volume increased 280% in the first year, with a small decrease in the second. The caudate increased 19% and the hippocampus 13% from age 1 to age 2. There was robust growth of the human brain in the first two years of life, driven mainly by gray matter growth. In contrast, white matter growth was much slower. Cerebellum volume also increased substantially in the first year of life. These results suggest the structural underpinnings of cognitive and motor development in early childhood, as well as the potential pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Subfields: Genetics, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ff1abca950c2d3956994f5891cb9c95bd84690b1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

C. Hughes

In Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Citations in the corpus

The early development of brain white matter: a review of imaging studies in fetuses, newborns and infants. (2014, background): “, 2007), in infants at 0, 1 year and 2 years of age imaged at 3 T (Knickmeyer et al., 2008); DTI parameters in preterm newborns imaged at 1.”
Development of large-scale functional networks from birth to adulthood: a guide to neuroimaging literature (2017, background): “2A), doubling in volume during the first year and reaching 80–90% of adult volume by age 3 (Courchesne et al., 2000; Knickmeyer et al., 2008).”
A Review of Adversity, The Amygdala and the Hippocampus: A Consideration of Developmental Timing (2009, positive): “From birth to year 2, the hippocampus shows relatively little growth (Knickmeyer et al., 2008).”
The UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project (BCP): An Overview of the Study Design and Protocol Development (2018, positive): “…Study of Normal Brain Development, a number of independent research groups have produced important findings regarding structural brain development (Knickmeyer et al., 2008; Gilmore et al., 2012; Holland et al., 2014; Remer et al., 2017; Lyall et al., 2015) and white matter development via…”
Normal Development of Brain Circuits (2010, background): “…increase in brain volume during the first year of life is greatest in the cerebellum, followed by subcortical areas and then the cerebral cortex (Knickmeyer et al, 2008), which increases in volume by an impressive 88% in the first year, 15% in the second year, and then more modestly but…”
Considerations for conducting developmental neuroimaging research on mental health topics (2025, unknown): “Longitudinal investigations of early childhood reveal rapid volume increase in the ﬁ rst year of life in all aspects, with slower growth in the second and subsequent years (cerebellum, cerebral, and ventricle volumes; [49 – 51]).”
Developmental trajectories of EEG aperiodic and periodic components in children 2–44 months of age (2024, unknown): “…offset are consistent with established increases in neuronal number, gray matter volume, and synaptic number during the ﬁ rst year 1 – 3,5,6,8, 48 – 50 Our observed age-dependent increases in aperiodic slope in infancy also contrast with multiple studies covering child to adult-hood, where…”
Developmental trajectories of EEG aperiodic and periodic power: Implications for understanding the timing of thalamocortical development during infancy (2023, unknown): “50 also reported decreased slope with age in infants from 1 to 7-months-old, however the parameterization of the spectra in that study was limited to 1-10Hz due to excessive muscle noise in the data, and it is unclear how the shifts in 4-12Hz periodic power described below may affect modeling of…”