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Abstract #2039

White Matter Properties Predict the Speed of Neural Processing and Cortical Maturation in Children

Colleen Dockstader1,2, William Gaetz3, Conrad Rockel1, Donald Mabbott1

1Dept of Psychology/Division of Haemotology/Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Dept of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 3Biomagnetic Imaging Laboratory, Children's Hospital of Phiadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States


We investigated age-related changes in the latency of the P100m visual response in occipital cortex and the biophysical properties of white matter in eleven healthy children to determine the impact of white matter growth on the maturation of neuronal signaling. Using TBSS, we found a significant relationship between FA and P100m latency in the dorsal processing stream. The latency of the P100m was inversely related to FA and positively related to age. Our findings suggest that simple measures of evoked latency on a visuomotor-attention task reflects dorsal stream integrity that is related to stage of cortical maturation in healthy children.

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