Abstract #2472

Distinctive Temporal Changes of FA at Different Cortical Areas of Human Fetal Brain

Hao Huang¹, Goran Sedmak², Tina Jeon¹, Paul Yarowsky³, Nenad Sestan²

¹Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; ²Department of Neurobiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States; ³Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, United States

During brain development, the organized columnar structures in the immature cortex are disrupted by synapse formation and dendrite growth. This process can be revealed with decreased FA in the cortical plate. In this abstract, we aimed to characterize the 4D spatial and temporal FA changes all over the cortical plate and during the second trimester fetal development. The FA distribution is overall inhomogeneous across the cortical plate. Distinctive temporal changes of FA were observed at different functional cortical areas and they may serve as biomarkers of development of these functional areas.