Patterns of white-matter microstructure found by diffusion-tensor MRI (DTI-MRI) at birth can predict cognitive function in the first two years of a child's life, according to a study published online December 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) said the findings could help identify cognitive problems and psychiatric disorders at a very early age and prompt appropriate interventions and treatment (PNAS, December 19, 2016).
This study may be the first effort to measure and describe the development of white-matter microstructure in children and its relationship to cognitive development from birth until the age of 2 years, said senior author Dr. John H. Gilmore, director of the Early Brain Development Program in UNC's department of psychiatry.
A total of 685 children underwent DTI scans to evaluate the microstructure of 12 white-matter fiber tracts involved in cognitive function. The researchers found that all 12 of the fiber tracts in newborns were highly related to each other. By age 1, these fiber tracts already had begun to differentiate themselves from each other, and this differentiation was further advanced by age 2.
Most important, the common relationship between white-matter tracts at birth predicted overall cognitive development at age 1 and language development at age 2, the researchers concluded. That finding would indicate that it could be possible to use brain imaging at birth to better understand how a child's cognitive development will proceed in the first years after birth.
