Giedd J N, Snell J W, Lange N, Rajapakse J C, Casey B J, Kozuch P L, Vaituzis A C, Vauss Y C, Hamburger S D, Kaysen D, Rapoport J L
National Institute of Mental Health, Child Psychiatry Branch, Bethesda, MD 20892-1600, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 1996 Jul-Aug;6(4):551-60. doi: 10.1093/cercor/6.4.551.
Brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 104 healthy children and adolescents, age 4-18, showed significant effects of age and gender on brain morphometry. Males had larger cerebral (9%) and cerebellar (8%) volumes (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.008, respectively), which remained significant even after correction for height and weight. After adjusting for cerebral size, the putamen and globus pallidus remained larger in males, while relative caudate size was larger in females. Neither cerebral nor cerebellar volume changed significantly across this age range. Lateral ventricular volume increased significantly in males (trend for females), with males showing an increase in slope after age 11. In males only, caudate and putamen decrease with age (P = 0.007 and 0.05, respectively). The left lateral ventricles and putamen were significantly greater than the right (P = 0.01 and 0.001, respectively). In contrast, the cerebral hemispheres and caudate showed a highly consistent right-greater-than-left asymmetry (P < 0.0001 for both). All volumes demonstrated a high degree of variability. These findings highlight gender-specific maturational changes of the developing brain and the need for large gender-matched samples in pediatric neuropsychiatric studies.
对104名年龄在4至18岁的健康儿童和青少年进行的脑磁共振成像（MRI）显示，年龄和性别对脑形态测量有显著影响。男性的大脑（9%）和小脑（8%）体积更大（分别为P < 0.0001和P = 0.008），即使在对身高和体重进行校正后，这些差异仍然显著。在调整脑大小后，男性的壳核和苍白球仍然更大，而女性的相对尾状核大小更大。在这个年龄范围内，大脑和小脑体积均无显著变化。男性的侧脑室体积显著增加（女性有增加趋势），男性在11岁后斜率增加。仅在男性中，尾状核和壳核随年龄减小（分别为P = 0.007和0.05）。左侧脑室和壳核明显大于右侧（分别为P = 0.01和0.001）。相反，大脑半球和尾状核表现出高度一致的右大于左的不对称性（两者均为P < 0.0001）。所有体积均表现出高度的变异性。这些发现突出了发育中大脑的性别特异性成熟变化以及儿科神经精神病学研究中对大量性别匹配样本的需求。
