Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Investigation of brain structure in the 1-month infant

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Brain Structure and Function Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 10 March 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

The developing brain undergoes systematic changes that occur at successive stages of maturation. Deviations from the typical neurodevelopmental trajectory are hypothesized to underlie many early childhood disorders; thus, characterizing the earliest patterns of normative brain development is essential. Recent neuroimaging research provides insight into brain structure during late childhood and adolescence; however, few studies have examined the infant brain, particularly in infants under 3 months of age. Using high-resolution structural MRI, we measured subcortical gray and white matter brain volumes in a cohort (N = 143) of 1-month infants and examined characteristics of these volumetric measures throughout this early period of neurodevelopment. We show that brain volumes undergo age-related changes during the first month of life, with the corresponding patterns of regional asymmetry and sexual dimorphism. Specifically, males have larger total brain volume and volumes differ by sex in regionally specific brain regions, after correcting for total brain volume. Consistent with findings from studies of later childhood and adolescence, subcortical regions appear more rightward asymmetric. Neither sex differences nor regional asymmetries changed with gestation-corrected age. Our results complement a growing body of work investigating the earliest neurobiological changes associated with development and suggest that asymmetry and sexual dimorphism are present at birth.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 10 March 2018

    The authors regret that, in this article, there was an error in the analyses comparing infant male and female regional brain volume differences.

References

  • Allen JS, Damasio H, Grabowski TJ et al (2003) Sexual dimorphism and asymmetries in the gray-white composition of the human cerebrum. Neuroimage 18:880–894

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Andersen SL (2003) Trajectories of brain development: point of vulnerability or window of opportunity? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 27:3–18

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Avants BB, Tustison NJ, Song G et al (2011a) A reproducible evaluation of ANTs similarity metric performance in brain image registration. Neuroimage 54:2033–2044

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Avants BB, Tustison NJ, Wu J et al (2011b) An open source multivariate framework for n-tissue segmentation with evaluation on public data. Neuroinformatics 9:381–400

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Barkovich AJ, Kjos BO, Jackson DE, Norman D (1988) Normal maturation of the neonatal and infant brain: MR imaging at 1.5 T. Radiology 166:173–180

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bartzokis G (2004) Quadratic trajectories of brain myelin content: unifying construct for neuropsychiatric disorders. Neurobiol Aging 25:49–62

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Belmonte MK, Allen G, Beckel-Mitchener A et al (2004) Autism and abnormal development of brain connectivity. J Neurosci 24:9228–9231

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brody BA, Kinney HC, Kloman AS, Gilles FH (1987) Sequence of central nervous system myelination in human infancy. I. An autopsy study of myelination. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 46:283–301

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cabezas M, Oliver A, Lladó X et al (2011) A review of atlas-based segmentation for magnetic resonance brain images. Comput Meth Prog Bio 104:e158–e177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casey BJ, Tottenham N, Liston C, Durston S (2005) Imaging the developing brain: what have we learned about cognitive development? Trends Cogn Sci 9:104–110

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caviness VS Jr, Kennedy DN, Richelme C et al (1996) The human brain age 7–11 years: a volumetric analysis based on magnetic resonance images. Cereb Cortex 6:726–736

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chang YS, Owen JP, Pojman NJ et al (2015) White matter changes of neurite density and fiber orientation dispersion during human brain maturation. PLoS One 10:e0123656

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Courchesne E, Pierce K (2005) Brain overgrowth in autism during a critical time in development: implications for frontal pyramidal neuron and interneuron development and connectivity. Int J Dev Neurosci 23:153–170

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Courchesne E, Chisum HJ, Townsend J et al (2000) Normal brain development and aging: quantitative analysis at in vivo MR imaging in healthy volunteers. Radiology:672–682

  • Croteau-Chonka EC, Dean DC, Remer J et al (2016) Examining the relationships between cortical maturation and white matter myelination throughout early childhood. Neuroimage 125:413–421

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson RJ (2002) Anxiety and affective style: role of prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Biol Psychiatry 51:68–80

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson RJ (2008) Cerebral asymmetry and emotion: conceptual and methodological conundrums. Cogn Emot 7:115–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson RJ, McEwen BS (2012) Social influences on neuroplasticity: stress and interventions to promote well-being. Nat Neurosci 15:689–695

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Davison AN, Dobbing J (1966) Myelination as a vulnerable period in brain development. Br Med Bull 22:40–44

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dean DC III, Dirks H, O’Muircheartaigh J et al (2014a) Pediatric neuroimaging using magnetic resonance imaging during non-sedated sleep. Pediatr Radiol 44:64–72

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dean DC III, O’Muircheartaigh J, Dirks H et al (2014b) Modeling healthy male white matter and myelin development: 3 through 60 months of age. Neuroimage 84:742–752

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dean DC III, O’Muircheartaigh J, Dirks H et al (2014c) Characterizing longitudinal white matter development during early childhood. Brain Struct Funct:1921–1931

  • Dean DC III, O’Muircheartaigh J, Dirks H et al (2016) Mapping an index of the myelin g-ratio in infants using magnetic resonance imaging. Neuroimage 132:225–237

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dean DC III, Planalp EM, Wooten W et al (2017) Mapping white matter microstructure in the one month human brain. Sci Rep 7(1):9759

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dehaene-Lambertz G, Hertz-Pannier L, Dubois J (2006) Nature and nurture in language acquisition: anatomical and functional brain-imaging studies in infants. Trends Neurosci 29:367–373

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Demerens C, Stankoff B, Logak M et al (1996) Induction of myelination in the central nervous system by electrical activity. PNAS 93:9887–9892

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Deoni SCL, Mercure E, Blasi A et al (2011) Mapping infant brain myelination with magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci 31:784–791. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2106-10.2011

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deoni SCL, Dean DC, O’Muircheartaigh J et al (2012) Investigating white matter development in infancy and early childhood using myelin water faction and relaxation time mapping. Neuroimage 63:1038–1053

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Deoni SCL, Dean DC, Remer J et al (2015) Cortical maturation and myelination in healthy toddlers and young children. Neuroimage 115:147–161

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • DiCicco-Bloom E, Lord C, Zwaigenbaum L et al (2006) The developmental neurobiology of autism spectrum disorder. J Neurosci 26:6897–6906

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dobbing J (1990) Vulnerable periods in developing brain. In: Commentary. Springer, London, pp 1–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubois J, Hertz-Pannier L, Dehaene-Lambertz G et al (2006) Assessment of the early organization and maturation of infants’ cerebral white matter fiber bundles: a feasibility study using quantitative diffusion tensor imaging and tractography. Neuroimage 30:1121–1132

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dubois J, Hertz-Pannier L, Cachia A et al (2009) Structural asymmetries in the infant language and sensor–motor networks. Cereb Cortex 19:414–423

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dubois J, Dehaene-Lambertz G, Kulikova S et al (2014) The early development of brain white matter: a review of imaging studies in fetuses, newborns and infants. Neuroscience 276:48–71

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Durston S, Hulshoff Pol HE, Casey BJ et al (2001) Anatomical MRI of the developing human brain: what have we learned? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 40:1012–1020

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elston GN, Fujita I (2014) Pyramidal cell development: postnatal spinogenesis, dendritic growth, axon growth, and electrophysiology. Front Neuroanat 8:13644

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans AC, Brain Development Cooperative Group (2006) The NIH MRI study of normal brain development. Neuroimage 30:184–202

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fields RD (2005) Myelination: an overlooked mechanism of synaptic plasticity? Neuroscientist 11:528–531

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fields RD (2008a) White matter matters. Sci Am 298:54–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fields RD (2008b) White matter in learning, cognition and psychiatric disorders. Trends Neurosci 31:361–370

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fields RD (2015) A new mechanism of nervous system plasticity: activity-dependent myelination. Nat Rev Neurosci 16:756–767

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giedd JN, Rapoport JL (2010) Structural MRI of pediatric brain development: what have we learned and where are we going? Neuron 67:728–734

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Giedd JN, Snell JW, Lange N et al (1996) Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of human brain development: ages 4–18. Cereb Cortex 6:551–559

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giedd JN, Blumenthal J, Jeffries NO et al (1999) Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study. Nat Neurosci 2:861–863

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore JH, Lin W, Prastawa MW et al (2007) Regional gray matter growth, sexual dimorphism, and cerebral asymmetry in the neonatal brain. J Neurosci 27:1255–1260

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore JH, Shi F, Woolson SL et al (2012) Longitudinal development of cortical and subcortical gray matter from birth to 2 years. Cereb Cortex 22:2478–2485

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Glasser MF, Van Essen DC (2011) Mapping Human cortical areas in vivo based on myelin content as revealed by T1- and T2-weighted MRI. J Neurosci 31:11597–11616

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gogtay N, Thompson PM (2010) Mapping gray matter development: implications for typical development and vulnerability to psychopathology. Brain Cogn 72:6–15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gogtay N, Giedd JN, Lusk L et al (2004) Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. PNAS 101:8174–8179

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein JM, Seidman LJ, Horton NJ et al (2001) Normal sexual dimorphism of the adult human brain assessed by in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. Cereb Cortex 11:490–497

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hill J, Dierker D, Neil J et al (2010) A surface-based analysis of hemispheric asymmetries and folding of cerebral cortex in term-born human infants. J Neurosci 30:2268–2276

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Holland D, Chang L, Ernst TM et al (2014) Structural growth trajectories and rates of change in the first 3 months of infant brain development. JAMA Neurol 71:1266–1274

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Huang H, Zhang J, Wakana S et al (2006) White and gray matter development in human fetal, newborn and pediatric brains. Neuroimage 33:27–38

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hugdahl K, Davidson RJ (2004) The asymmetrical brain. MIT Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hüppi PS, Maier SE, Peled S et al (1998a) Microstructural development of human newborn cerebral white matter assessed in vivo by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. Pediatr Res 44:584–590

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hüppi PS, Warfield S, Kikinis R et al (1998b) Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of brain development in premature and mature newborns. Ann Neurol 43:224–235

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huttenlocher PR, Dabholkar AS (1997) Regional differences in synaptogenesis in human cerebral cortex. J Comp Neurol 387:167–178

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Knickmeyer RC, Gouttard S, Kang C et al (2008) A structural MRI study of human brain development from birth to 2 years. J Neurosci 28:12176–12182

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kolb B, Gibb R (2011) Brain plasticity and behaviour in the developing brain. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 20:265–276

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Koolschijn PCMP., Crone EA (2013) Sex differences and structural brain maturation from childhood to early adulthood. Dev Cogn Neurosci 5:106–118

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kulikova S, Hertz-Pannier L, Dehaene-Lambertz G et al (2014) Multi-parametric evaluation of the white matter maturation. Brain Struct Funct 1–16

  • Kunz N, Zhang H, Vasung L et al (2014) Assessing white matter microstructure of the newborn with multi-shell diffusion MRI and biophysical compartment models. Neuroimage 96:288–299

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lapate RC, Rokers B, Tromp DPM et al (2016) Awareness of emotional stimuli determines the behavioral consequences of amygdala activation and amygdala-prefrontal connectivity. Sci Rep 6:25826

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lebel C, Beaulieu C (2011) Longitudinal development of human brain wiring continues from childhood into adulthood. J Neurosci 31:10937–10947

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lebel C, Walker L, Leemans A et al (2008) Microstructural maturation of the human brain from childhood to adulthood. Neuroimage 40:1044–1055

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lebel C, Gee M, Camicioli R et al (2012) Diffusion tensor imaging of white matter tract evolution over the lifespan. Neuroimage 60:340–352

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lenroot RK, Giedd JN (2010) Sex differences in the adolescent brain. Brain Cogn 72:46–55

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lenroot RK, Gogtay N, Greenstein DK et al (2007) Sexual dimorphism of brain developmental trajectories during childhood and adolescence. Neuroimage 36:1065–1073

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lupien SJ, Parent S, Evans AC et al (2011) Larger amygdala but no change in hippocampal volume in 10-year-old children exposed to maternal depressive symptomatology since birth. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:14324–14329

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Makki MI, Hagmann C (2017) Regional differences in interhemispheric structural fibers in healthy, term infants. J Neurosci Res 95:876–884

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Makropoulos A, Gousias IS, Ledig C et al (2014) Automatic whole brain MRI segmentation of the developing neonatal brain. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 33:1818–1831

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Makropoulos A, Aljabar P, Wright R et al (2016) Regional growth and atlasing of the developing human brain. Neuroimage 125:456–478

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Morris JS, Öhman A, Dolan RJ (1998) Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala. Nature 393:467–470

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee P, Miller JH, Shimony JS et al (2001) Normal brain maturation during childhood: developmental trends characterized with diffusion-tensor MR imaging. Radiology 221:349–358

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee P, Miller JH, Shimony JS et al (2002) Diffusion-tensor MR imaging of gray and white matter development during normal human brain maturation. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 23:1445–1456

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Muircheartaigh J, Dean DC III, Dirks H et al (2013) Interactions between white matter asymmetry and language during neurodevelopment. J Neurosci 33:16170–16177

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Oishi K, Mori S, Donohue PK et al (2011) Multi-contrast human neonatal brain atlas: application to normal neonate development analysis. Neuroimage 56:8–20

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Paus T, Toro R (2009) Could sex differences in white matter be explained by g ratio? Front Neuroanat 3:14

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Paus T, Collins DL, Evans AC et al (2001) Maturation of white matter in the human brain: a review of magnetic resonance studies. Brain Res Bull 54:255–266

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perrin JS, Leonard G, Perron M et al (2009) Sex differences in the growth of white matter during adolescence. Neuroimage 45:1055–1066

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pfefferbaum A, Mathalon DH, Sullivan EV et al (1994) A quantitative magnetic resonance imaging study of changes in brain morphology from infancy to late adulthood. Arch Neurol 51:874–887

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Team (2014) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiss AL, Abrams MT, Singer HS et al (1996) Brain development, gender and IQ in children. A volumetric imaging study. Brain 119(Pt 5):1763–1774

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shi F, Yap P-T, Wu G et al (2011) Infant brain atlases from neonates to 1- and 2-year-olds. 6:e18746–e18711

  • Simmonds DJ, Hallquist MN, Asato M, Luna B (2014) Developmental stages and sex differences of white matter and behavioral development through adolescence: a longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study. Neuroimage 92:356–368

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stiles J, Jernigan TL (2010) The basics of brain development. Neuropsychol Rev 20:327–348

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Toga AW, Thompson PM (2003) Mapping brain asymmetry. Nat Rev Neurosci 4:37–48

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilke M, Krägeloh-Mann I, Holland SK (2007) Global and local development of gray and white matter volume in normal children and adolescents. Exp Brain Res 178:296–307

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yakovlev P, Lecours IR (1967) Regional development of the brain in early life. Minkowski A

  • Zhang Y, Brady M, Smith S (2001) Segmentation of brain MR images through a hidden Markov random field model and the expectation-maximization algorithm. Med Imaging IEEE Trans 20:45–57

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the children and families who participated in this research. We thank Ronald Fisher, Michael Anderle, Scott Mikkelson, Morgan Johnson, and Madeline Peters for assistance with recruitment and data collection. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health (P50 MH100031 to HHG, ALA, RJD; R01 MH101504 to HHG). DCD is supported by a Postdoctoral fellowship through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32 HD007489) and the National Institute of Mental Health (K99MH110596). EMP is supported by a Postdoctoral fellowship through the National Institutes of Mental Health (T32 MH018931-26). Infrastructure support was also provided by a core grant to the Waisman Center from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U54 HD090256).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53705, USA

    Douglas C. Dean III, E. M. Planalp, C. K. Schmidt, S. R. Kecskemeti, N. L. Schmidt, H. H. Goldsmith, A. L. Alexander & R. J. Davidson

  2. Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Douglas C. Dean III, W. Wooten, C. K. Schmidt, C. Frye, N. L. Schmidt & R. J. Davidson

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    E. M. Planalp, H. H. Goldsmith & R. J. Davidson

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA

    A. L. Alexander & R. J. Davidson

  5. Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA

    A. L. Alexander

Authors
  1. Douglas C. Dean III
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. E. M. Planalp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. W. Wooten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. C. K. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. S. R. Kecskemeti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. C. Frye
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. N. L. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. H. H. Goldsmith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. A. L. Alexander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. R. J. Davidson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas C. Dean III.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dean, D.C., Planalp, E.M., Wooten, W. et al. Investigation of brain structure in the 1-month infant. Brain Struct Funct 223, 1953–1970 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-017-1600-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-017-1600-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation