Early postnatal development of corpus callosum and corticospinal white matter assessed with quantitative tractography.

Background And Purpose: The early postnatal period is perhaps the most dynamic phase of white matter development. We hypothesized that the early postnatal development of the corpus callosum and corticospinal tracts could be studied in unsedated healthy neonates by using novel approaches to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and quantitative tractography.

Materials And Methods: Isotropic 2 x 2 x 2 mm(3) DTI and structural images were acquired from 47 healthy neonates.

Regional gray matter growth, sexual dimorphism, and cerebral asymmetry in the neonatal brain.

Although there has been recent interest in the study of childhood and adolescent brain development, very little is known about normal brain development in the first few months of life. In older children, there are regional differences in cortical gray matter development, whereas cortical gray and white matter growth after birth has not been studied to a great extent. The adult human brain is also characterized by cerebral asymmetries and sexual dimorphisms, although very little is known about how these asymmetries and dimorphisms develop.