Post-adolescent developmental changes in cortical complexity

Anca-Larisa Sandu; Edouard Izard; Karsten Specht; Harald Beneventi; Arvid Lundervold; Martin Ystad

doi:10.1186/1744-9081-10-44

Post-adolescent developmental changes in cortical complexity

Anca-Larisa Sandu, Edouard Izard, Karsten Specht, Harald Beneventi, Arvid Lundervold, Martin Ystad

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Post-adolescence is known to be a period of general maturation and development in the human brain. In brain imaging, volumetric and morphologic cortical grey-matter changes can easily be assessed, but the analysis of cortical complexity seems to have been broadly neglected for this age interval.

METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to acquire structural brain images. The study involved 17 adolescents (mean age 14.1 ± 0.27, 11 girls) who were compared with 14 young adults (mean age 24.24 ± 2.76, 7 women) for measures of brain complexity (fractal dimension--FD), grey matter (GM) volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon. FD was calculated using box-counting and Minkowski-Bouligand methods; FD and GM volume were measured for the whole brain, each hemisphere and lobes: frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal.

RESULTS: The results show that the adults have a lower cortical complexity than the adolescents, which was significant for whole brain, left and right hemisphere, frontal and parietal lobes for both genders; and only for males in left temporal lobe. The GM volume was smaller in men than in boys for almost all measurements, and smaller in women than in girls just for right parietal lobe. A significant Pearson correlation was found between FD and GM volume for whole brain and each hemisphere in both genders. The decrease of the GM surface-area was significant in post-adolescence for males, not for females.

CONCLUSIONS: During post-adolescence there are common changes in cortical complexity in the same regions for both genders, but there are also gender specific changes in some cortical areas. The sex differences from different cortical measurements (FD, GM volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon) could suggest a maturation delay in specific brain regions for each gender in relation to the other and might be explained through the functional role of the corresponding regions reflected in gender difference of developed abilities.

Original language	English
Article number	44
Number of pages	9
Journal	Behavioral and Brain Functions
Volume	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-10-44
Publication status	Published - 27 Nov 2014

Bibliographical note

The present study was supported financially by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen
und Halbach-Stiftung, Germany through a grant to Professor Kenneth Hugdahl.
Professor Astri Johansen Lundervold is acknowledged for reading the
manuscript and providing valuable suggestions.

Keywords

Grey matter
Fractal dimension
Development
Dimorphism
Magnetic resonance imaging

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10.1186/1744-9081-10-44Licence: CC BY

Anca-Larisa Sandu-Giuraniuc
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Medical Sciences - Lecturer
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Post-adolescent developmental changes in cortical complexity",

abstract = "BACKGROUND: Post-adolescence is known to be a period of general maturation and development in the human brain. In brain imaging, volumetric and morphologic cortical grey-matter changes can easily be assessed, but the analysis of cortical complexity seems to have been broadly neglected for this age interval.METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to acquire structural brain images. The study involved 17 adolescents (mean age 14.1 ± 0.27, 11 girls) who were compared with 14 young adults (mean age 24.24 ± 2.76, 7 women) for measures of brain complexity (fractal dimension--FD), grey matter (GM) volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon. FD was calculated using box-counting and Minkowski-Bouligand methods; FD and GM volume were measured for the whole brain, each hemisphere and lobes: frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal.RESULTS: The results show that the adults have a lower cortical complexity than the adolescents, which was significant for whole brain, left and right hemisphere, frontal and parietal lobes for both genders; and only for males in left temporal lobe. The GM volume was smaller in men than in boys for almost all measurements, and smaller in women than in girls just for right parietal lobe. A significant Pearson correlation was found between FD and GM volume for whole brain and each hemisphere in both genders. The decrease of the GM surface-area was significant in post-adolescence for males, not for females.CONCLUSIONS: During post-adolescence there are common changes in cortical complexity in the same regions for both genders, but there are also gender specific changes in some cortical areas. The sex differences from different cortical measurements (FD, GM volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon) could suggest a maturation delay in specific brain regions for each gender in relation to the other and might be explained through the functional role of the corresponding regions reflected in gender difference of developed abilities.",

keywords = "Grey matter, Fractal dimension, Development, Dimorphism, Magnetic resonance imaging",

author = "Anca-Larisa Sandu and Edouard Izard and Karsten Specht and Harald Beneventi and Arvid Lundervold and Martin Ystad",

note = "The present study was supported financially by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, Germany through a grant to Professor Kenneth Hugdahl. Professor Astri Johansen Lundervold is acknowledged for reading the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions.",

year = "2014",

month = nov,

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doi = "10.1186/1744-9081-10-44",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

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T1 - Post-adolescent developmental changes in cortical complexity

AU - Sandu, Anca-Larisa

AU - Izard, Edouard

AU - Specht, Karsten

AU - Beneventi, Harald

AU - Lundervold, Arvid

AU - Ystad, Martin

N1 - The present study was supported financially by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, Germany through a grant to Professor Kenneth Hugdahl. Professor Astri Johansen Lundervold is acknowledged for reading the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions.

PY - 2014/11/27

Y1 - 2014/11/27

N2 - BACKGROUND: Post-adolescence is known to be a period of general maturation and development in the human brain. In brain imaging, volumetric and morphologic cortical grey-matter changes can easily be assessed, but the analysis of cortical complexity seems to have been broadly neglected for this age interval.METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to acquire structural brain images. The study involved 17 adolescents (mean age 14.1 ± 0.27, 11 girls) who were compared with 14 young adults (mean age 24.24 ± 2.76, 7 women) for measures of brain complexity (fractal dimension--FD), grey matter (GM) volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon. FD was calculated using box-counting and Minkowski-Bouligand methods; FD and GM volume were measured for the whole brain, each hemisphere and lobes: frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal.RESULTS: The results show that the adults have a lower cortical complexity than the adolescents, which was significant for whole brain, left and right hemisphere, frontal and parietal lobes for both genders; and only for males in left temporal lobe. The GM volume was smaller in men than in boys for almost all measurements, and smaller in women than in girls just for right parietal lobe. A significant Pearson correlation was found between FD and GM volume for whole brain and each hemisphere in both genders. The decrease of the GM surface-area was significant in post-adolescence for males, not for females.CONCLUSIONS: During post-adolescence there are common changes in cortical complexity in the same regions for both genders, but there are also gender specific changes in some cortical areas. The sex differences from different cortical measurements (FD, GM volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon) could suggest a maturation delay in specific brain regions for each gender in relation to the other and might be explained through the functional role of the corresponding regions reflected in gender difference of developed abilities.

AB - BACKGROUND: Post-adolescence is known to be a period of general maturation and development in the human brain. In brain imaging, volumetric and morphologic cortical grey-matter changes can easily be assessed, but the analysis of cortical complexity seems to have been broadly neglected for this age interval.METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to acquire structural brain images. The study involved 17 adolescents (mean age 14.1 ± 0.27, 11 girls) who were compared with 14 young adults (mean age 24.24 ± 2.76, 7 women) for measures of brain complexity (fractal dimension--FD), grey matter (GM) volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon. FD was calculated using box-counting and Minkowski-Bouligand methods; FD and GM volume were measured for the whole brain, each hemisphere and lobes: frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal.RESULTS: The results show that the adults have a lower cortical complexity than the adolescents, which was significant for whole brain, left and right hemisphere, frontal and parietal lobes for both genders; and only for males in left temporal lobe. The GM volume was smaller in men than in boys for almost all measurements, and smaller in women than in girls just for right parietal lobe. A significant Pearson correlation was found between FD and GM volume for whole brain and each hemisphere in both genders. The decrease of the GM surface-area was significant in post-adolescence for males, not for females.CONCLUSIONS: During post-adolescence there are common changes in cortical complexity in the same regions for both genders, but there are also gender specific changes in some cortical areas. The sex differences from different cortical measurements (FD, GM volume and surface-area of cortical ribbon) could suggest a maturation delay in specific brain regions for each gender in relation to the other and might be explained through the functional role of the corresponding regions reflected in gender difference of developed abilities.

KW - Grey matter

KW - Fractal dimension

KW - Development

KW - Dimorphism

KW - Magnetic resonance imaging

U2 - 10.1186/1744-9081-10-44

DO - 10.1186/1744-9081-10-44

M3 - Article

C2 - 25431294

SN - 1744-9081

VL - 10

JO - Behavioral and Brain Functions

JF - Behavioral and Brain Functions

M1 - 44

ER -

Post-adolescent developmental changes in cortical complexity

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Anca-Larisa Sandu-Giuraniuc

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