Zika Stephanie, Chang Kelly, Orhon Altan, Kruper John, Rokem Ariel, Grotheer Mareike
Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Schulstraße 12, 35037 Marburg, Germany.
Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior - CMBB, Universities of Marburg, Gießen, and Darmstadt, Germany.
bioRxiv. 2025 Jul 10:2025.07.07.663449. doi: 10.1101/2025.07.07.663449.
The infant brain undergoes rapid myelin growth that is critical for healthy brain function. This development has been characterized for gray and white matter independently, but the link between gray and white matter myelination remains unexplored. To close this knowledge gap, we processed large-scale (N=279) Developing Human Connectome Project data with automated software to identify 26 white matter bundles and map their cortical terminations, before evaluating T1w/T2w development in individuals. We found that mean T1w/T2w as well as the slope of T1w/T2w development are correlated across tissues. This synchrony of brain T1w/T2w is impacted by birth age and postnatal experience, whereas inter-individual differences in this synchrony predict motor outcomes at 17 - 25 months of age. As T1w/T2w is associated with myelin content, our results reveal an intricate relationship between gray and white matter myelination, highlighting the importance of conjointly evaluating both tissues.
婴儿大脑经历快速的髓鞘生长，这对健康的脑功能至关重要。这种发育已分别针对灰质和白质进行了表征，但灰质和白质髓鞘形成之间的联系仍未得到探索。为了填补这一知识空白，我们使用自动化软件处理了大规模（N = 279）的人类连接组发育项目数据，以识别26个白质束并绘制它们的皮质终末，然后评估个体的T1加权/ T2加权发育情况。我们发现，平均T1加权/ T2加权以及T1加权/ T2加权发育的斜率在不同组织之间具有相关性。大脑T1加权/ T2加权的这种同步性受出生年龄和出生后经历的影响，而这种同步性的个体差异可预测17至25个月大时的运动结果。由于T1加权/ T2加权与髓鞘含量相关，我们的结果揭示了灰质和白质髓鞘形成之间的复杂关系，突出了联合评估这两种组织的重要性。
