Abstract #1402

Distinctive microstructural changes of association white matter tracts during preterm human brain development

Minhui Ouyang¹, Austin Ouyang², Qiaowen Yu², Lina Chalak³, and Hao Huang^1,4

¹Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ³Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Association white matter tracts connecting different cortical regions underlie initial brain circuit formation from mid-fetal to normal time of birth. We examined the microstructure changes of association tracts and compare them to those of commissural, limbic and projection tracts with high resolution diffusion MRI of 10 fetal brains specimens at 20 postmenstrual weeks, 19 in vivo preterm brains at 35 weeks and 17 in vivo brains at 40 weeks. Distinctive microstructural developmental patterns were found in association tract groups compared to other tract groups during 35-40 weeks with DTI-derived metrics (including fractional anisotropy, mean, axial and radial diffusivity measurements).

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