Coherent Cortical Pruning and Axonal Integrity Enhancement During Brain Development Accessed by DTI Tractography from Parcellated Cortex

Tina Jeon¹, Virendra Mishra¹, Hao Huang¹

Cortical thinning during brain development is due to complicated cellular and molecular processes including synaptic pruning, apoptosis and cell shrinkage during development. In parallel, association and commissural white matter tracts project from a group of selected and preserved neurons and connect certain cortical regions. These parallel processes are essential for the formation of the brain circuits which enable certain brain functions, especially those related to mental disorders. In this study, we investigated the relationship of the change of fractional anisotropy of these axons and change of the corresponding cortical thickness with DTI and T1-weighted images from 39 normal children.