Population-wide Cerebellar Growth Models of Children and Adolescents

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Mar 19

PMID 38499518

Authors

Carolin Gaiser

Rick van der Vliet

Augustijn A A de Boer

Opher Donchin

Pierre Berthet

Gabriel A Devenyi

M Mallar Chakravarty

Jorn Diedrichsen

Andre F Marquand

Maarten A Frens

Ryan L Muetzel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In the past, the cerebellum has been best known for its crucial role in motor function. However, increasingly more findings highlight the importance of cerebellar contributions in cognitive functions and neurodevelopment. Using a total of 7240 neuroimaging scans from 4862 individuals, we describe and provide detailed, openly available models of cerebellar development in childhood and adolescence (age range: 6-17 years), an important time period for brain development and onset of neuropsychiatric disorders. Next to a traditionally used anatomical parcellation of the cerebellum, we generated growth models based on a recently proposed functional parcellation. In both, we find an anterior-posterior growth gradient mirroring the age-related improvements of underlying behavior and function, which is analogous to cerebral maturation patterns and offers evidence for directly related cerebello-cortical developmental trajectories. Finally, we illustrate how the current approach can be used to detect cerebellar abnormalities in clinical samples.

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