Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Fetal Neonatal Neuroimaging and Developmental Science Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Neuroimage. 2019 Jan 15;185:881-890. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.03.057. Epub 2018 Mar 27.
Spatial distribution and specific geometric and topological patterning of early sulcal folds have been hypothesized to be under stronger genetic control and are more associated with optimal organization of cortical functional areas and their white matter connections, compared to later developing sulci. Several previous studies of sulcal pit (putative first sulcal fold) distribution and sulcal pattern analyses using graph structures have provided evidence of the importance of sulcal pits and patterns as remarkable anatomical features closely related to human brain function, suggesting additional insights concerning the anatomical and functional development of the human brain. Recently, early sulcal folding patterns have been observed in healthy fetuses and fetuses with brain abnormalities such as polymicrogyria and agenesis of corpus callosum. Graph-based quantitative sulcal pattern analysis has shown high sensitivity in detecting emerging subtle abnormalities in cerebral cortical growth in early fetal stages that are difficult to detect via qualitative visual assessment or using traditional cortical measures such as gyrification index and curvature. It has proven effective for characterizing genetically influenced early cortical folding development. Future studies will be aimed at better understanding a comprehensive map of spatio-temporal dynamics of fetal cortical folding in a large longitudinal cohort in order to examine individual clinical fetal MRIs and predict postnatal neurodevelopmental outcomes from early fetal life.
早期脑沟回的空间分布以及特定的几何和拓扑模式被认为受到更强的遗传控制，与皮质功能区及其白质连接的最佳组织相比，与后来发育的脑沟回更为相关。先前有几项关于脑沟裂（假定的第一条脑沟回）分布和脑沟模式的基于图结构的研究，为脑沟裂和脑沟模式作为与人类大脑功能密切相关的显著解剖特征的重要性提供了证据，这表明了有关人类大脑解剖和功能发育的更多见解。最近，在健康胎儿和大脑异常（如多微小脑回和胼胝体发育不全）的胎儿中已经观察到早期脑沟回折叠模式。基于图的定量脑沟回模式分析在检测早期胎儿阶段大脑皮质生长中出现的难以通过定性视觉评估或使用传统皮质测量（如脑回指数和曲率）检测到的细微异常方面具有很高的灵敏度。它已被证明对表征遗传影响的早期皮质折叠发育有效。未来的研究将旨在更好地了解大的纵向队列中胎儿皮质折叠时空动力学的综合图谱，以便检查个体临床胎儿 MRI 并从早期胎儿生活预测产后神经发育结局。
