Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced that it has been chosen as one of seven pediatric study centers designated by the National Institutes of Health to participate in the first comprehensive MRI study of normal brain development in children.
The study’s goal is to establish standard anatomical measurements of normal, developing brain structures, and to correlate those measures with the development of cognitive and behavioral skills, according to the hospital. Children in two major age groups will be studied: infants and preschoolers (up to age four), and children and adolescents (ages five to 18).
Children's Hospital will study 50 to 60 children from a total of 500 chosen for the multicenter project. All but the oldest children will be followed over a five-year period, according to the institution.
The children will be assessed with a battery of behavioral, language, motor skills, and cognitive tests that will be correlated with MRI findings. Having systematic data from normal, healthy children will provide a basis for comparison to children with developmental or neurologic problems, according to the hospital.
Some of the children to be studied at Children’s Hospital will also be examined by MR spectroscopy to provide normal data on brain metabolites. The $1.7 million NIH grant to Children’s Hospital runs from 2000 to 2006.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersJuly 12, 2000
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