Perdue Meaghan V, DeMayo Marilena M, Bell Tiffany K, Boudes Elodie, Bagshawe Mercedes, Harris Ashley D, Lebel Catherine
Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada.
Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada; Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Canada.
Neuroimage. 2023 Jul 1;274:120087. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120087. Epub 2023 Apr 19.
Metabolites play important roles in brain development and their levels change rapidly in the prenatal period and during infancy. Metabolite levels are thought to stabilize during childhood, but the development of neurochemistry across early-middle childhood remains understudied. We examined the developmental changes of key metabolites (total N-acetylaspartate, tNAA; total choline, tCho; total creatine, tCr; glutamate+glutamine, Glx; and myo-inositol, mI) using short echo-time magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the left temporo-parietal cortex (LTP) using a mixed cross-sectional/longitudinal design in children aged 2-11 years (ACC: N = 101 children, 112 observations; LTP: N = 95 children, 318 observations). We found that tNAA increased with age in both regions, while tCho decreased with age in both regions. tCr increased with age in the LTP only. Glx did not show linear age effects in either region, but a follow-up analysis in participants with ≥3 datapoints in the LTP revealed a quadratic effect of age following an inverted U-shape. These substantial changes in neurochemistry throughout childhood likely underlie various processes of structural and functional brain development.
代谢物在大脑发育中发挥着重要作用，其水平在孕期和婴儿期会迅速变化。人们认为代谢物水平在儿童期会趋于稳定，但儿童早期到中期神经化学的发展仍未得到充分研究。我们采用短回波时间磁共振波谱（MRS），对2至11岁儿童的前扣带回皮质（ACC）和左侧颞顶叶皮质（LTP）进行了混合横断面/纵向设计研究，以检测关键代谢物（总N-乙酰天门冬氨酸，tNAA；总胆碱，tCho；总肌酸，tCr；谷氨酸+谷氨酰胺，Glx；以及肌醇，mI）的发育变化（ACC：N = 101名儿童，112次观察；LTP：N = 95名儿童，318次观察）。我们发现，两个区域的tNAA均随年龄增长而增加，而两个区域的tCho均随年龄增长而减少。仅在LTP中，tCr随年龄增长而增加。Glx在两个区域均未显示出线性年龄效应，但对LTP中具有≥3个数据点的参与者进行的后续分析显示，年龄呈倒U形的二次效应。儿童期神经化学的这些显著变化可能是大脑结构和功能发育的各种过程的基础。
