Niu Yanbin, Camacho M Catalina, Schilling Kurt G, Humphreys Kathryn L
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, #552, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Brain Struct Funct. 2025 Sep 25;230(8):147. doi: 10.1007/s00429-025-03007-2.
Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that measures the displacement of water molecules in tissue over time. Due to its sensitivity to micron-scale water movement, which is influenced by cellular structures like membranes, axons, and myelin, dMRI is a unique method for probing tissue microstructure. Among dMRI analysis approaches, neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) is a biophysical modeling technique that enables the characterization of cytoarchitectural and myeloarchitectural features in the brain. The early postnatal period is characterized by rapid and dynamic biological processes such as axonal growth, dendritic arborization, and synaptogenesis-changes that alter the microstructural environment in ways that are detectable by NODDI. Thus, NODDI presents a promising approach for characterizing early brain development, offering biologically specific markers of tissue organization that are responsive to these maturational events. This review presents emerging literature on NODDI applications during early infancy, demonstrating its utility in mapping normative developmental trajectories, investigating alterations in preterm populations, and linking microstructural properties to environmental influences and emerging behavioral outcomes. While current literature offers initial insights into early microstructural development patterns, NODDI applications in infancy remain limited, and existing studies are constrained by small sample sizes, limited age coverage, and lack of longitudinal data. Nonetheless, initial evidence suggests that NODDI can complement conventional diffusion metrics and may provide novel insights into early neural maturation and plasticity. Continued application and methodological refinement of NODDI in infancy may help delineate sensitive periods of brain development and improve the interpretation of emerging neurobehavioral phenotypes.
扩散磁共振成像（dMRI）是一种非侵入性神经成像技术，可测量组织中水分子随时间的位移。由于其对微米级水运动敏感，而这种运动受细胞膜、轴突和髓鞘等细胞结构的影响，dMRI是探测组织微观结构的独特方法。在dMRI分析方法中，神经突方向离散度和密度成像（NODDI）是一种生物物理建模技术，能够对大脑中的细胞结构和髓鞘结构特征进行表征。出生后早期的特点是存在快速且动态的生物学过程，如轴突生长、树突分支和突触形成，这些变化以可被NODDI检测到的方式改变微观结构环境。因此，NODDI为表征早期大脑发育提供了一种有前景的方法，提供了对这些成熟事件有反应的组织组织的生物学特异性标记。本综述介绍了关于婴儿早期NODDI应用的新文献，展示了其在绘制正常发育轨迹、研究早产人群的变化以及将微观结构特性与环境影响和新出现的行为结果联系起来方面的效用。虽然当前文献对早期微观结构发育模式提供了初步见解，但NODDI在婴儿期的应用仍然有限，现有研究受到样本量小、年龄覆盖范围有限和缺乏纵向数据的限制。尽管如此，初步证据表明NODDI可以补充传统扩散指标，并可能为早期神经成熟和可塑性提供新的见解。在婴儿期持续应用NODDI并进行方法改进，可能有助于描绘大脑发育的敏感期，并改善对新出现的神经行为表型的解释。
