Quantification of Tissues Maturation in the Infant Brain with Multi-Parametric MRI

Jessica Dubois^1,2, Cyril Poupon^3,4, Franois Leroy^1,4, Giovanna Santoro¹, Jean-Franois Mangin^3,4, Lucie Hertz-Pannier^2,5, Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz^1,4

Brain development proceeds with a specific spatio-temporal pattern across regions during early infancy and childhood. MRI has recently enabled to study this process non-invasively, but the functional significance of MRI indices is still controversial. Here we used multi-parametric quantitative MRI to investigate this issue in the developing brain of 10 healthy infants (age: 6 to 18weeks). Diffusion Tensor Imaging and T1-T2 mappings were performed over the whole brain in a short acquisition time with EPI sequences. The indices quantification highlighted variable age-related changes across different regions of grey and white matter, and specific relationships between indices according to maturational processes.