Abstract #0381

New insights into the development of white matter microstructure across childhood and adolescence from ultra-strong gradients

Sila Genc^1,2,3, Chantal Tax², Erika Raven², Maxime Chamberland², Greg Parker², and Derek K Jones^2,4

¹Developmental Imaging, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Australia, ²Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ³Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia, ⁴School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia

Recent advancements in diffusion-weighted imaging analysis techniques, such as fixel-based analysis (FBA), have improved our understanding of fibre-specific patterns of white matter development over childhood. Here, we investigate differential patterns of fibre properties with age and sex, using multiple b-value sampling schemes. The body of the corpus callosum and cingulum undergo significant development over the ages of 8-18, and FBA was robust to these patterns across sampling schemes. However, apparent fibre density (AFD) may be overestimated in clinical sampling schemes for older children, suggesting that higher b-values may improve AFD estimation in emerging complex fibre configurations developing with age.

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