Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, and Servicio de Psiquiatría del Niño y Adolecente, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, 28007 Madrid, Spain, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, 3584 CG, Utrecht, The Netherlands, The Behavioral Neurosciences Program, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2L1K6, Departament de Psiquiatria i Psicologia Infantil i Juvenil, SGR-1119, Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERSAM, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain, Unidad de Salud Mental Infanto-Juvenil, Departamento de Psiquiatría y Psicología, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, 39008 Santander, Spain, and Departamento de Bioingeniería e Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911, Leganés, Madrid, Spain.
J Neurosci. 2013 Sep 18;33(38):15004-10. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1459-13.2013.
The human cerebral cortex appears to shrink during adolescence. To delineate the dynamic morphological changes involved in this process, 52 healthy male and female adolescents (11-17 years old) were neuroimaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, approximately 2 years apart. Using a novel morphometric analysis procedure combining the FreeSurfer and BrainVisa image software suites, we quantified global and lobar change in cortical thickness, outer surface area, the gyrification index, the average Euclidean distance between opposing sides of the white matter surface (gyral white matter thickness), the convex ("exposed") part of the outer cortical surface (hull surface area), sulcal length, depth, and width. We found that the cortical surface flattens during adolescence. Flattening was strongest in the frontal and occipital cortices, in which significant sulcal widening and decreased sulcal depth co-occurred. Globally, sulcal widening was associated with cortical thinning and, for the frontal cortex, with loss of surface area. For the other cortical lobes, thinning was related to gyral white matter expansion. The overall flattening of the macrostructural three-dimensional architecture of the human cortex during adolescence thus involves changes in gray matter and effects of the maturation of white matter.
人类大脑皮层在青春期似乎会缩小。为了描绘这个过程中涉及的动态形态变化，我们使用磁共振成像对 52 名健康的男性和女性青少年（11-17 岁）进行了两次神经成像，两次成像时间间隔约为 2 年。我们使用一种新的形态计量分析程序，结合 FreeSurfer 和 BrainVisa 图像软件套件，定量分析了皮质厚度、外表面面积、脑回指数、白质表面相对两侧的平均欧几里得距离（脑回白质厚度）、外皮质表面的凸面（暴露面）面积、脑沟长度、深度和宽度的整体和叶间变化。我们发现，大脑皮层在青春期会变平。在额叶和枕叶中，脑沟变宽和脑沟深度减小的情况最为明显。总体而言，脑沟变宽与皮质变薄有关，而对于额叶皮层，则与表面积的丧失有关。对于其他皮质叶，变薄与脑白质扩张有关。因此，人类大脑皮层在青春期的宏观三维结构整体变平涉及灰质的变化和白质成熟的影响。
