Title
Cerebellum development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal morphometric MRI study.
Abstract
In addition to its well-established role in balance, coordination, and other motor skills, the cerebellum is increasingly recognized as a prominent contributor to a wide array of cognitive and emotional functions. Many of these capacities undergo dramatic changes during childhood and adolescence. However, accurate characterization of co-occurring anatomical changes has been hindered by lack of longitudinal data and methodologic challenges in quantifying subdivisions of the cerebellum. In this study we apply an innovative image analysis technique to quantify total cerebellar volume and 11 subdivisions (i.e. anterior, superior posterior, and inferior posterior lobes, corpus medullare, and three vermal regions) from anatomic brain MRI scans from 25 healthy females and 25 healthy males aged 5–24 years, each of whom was scanned at least three times at approximately 2-year intervals. Total cerebellum volume followed an inverted U shaped developmental trajectory peaking at age 11.8 years in females and 15.6 years in males. Cerebellar volume was 10% to 13% larger in males depending on the age of comparison and the sexual dimorphism remained significant after covarying for total brain volume. Subdivisions of the cerebellum had distinctive developmental trajectories with more phylogenetically recent regions maturing particularly late. The cerebellum's unique protracted developmental trajectories, sexual dimorphism, preferential vulnerability to environmental influences, and frequent implication in childhood onset disorders such as autism and ADHD make it a prime target for pediatric neuroimaging investigations.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.08.016
NeuroImage
Keywords
DocType
Volume
cohort studies,motor skills,image analysis,magnetic resonance imaging,sexual dimorphism,young adult,regression analysis
Journal
49
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
1
1053-8119
19
PageRank 
References 
Authors
1.82
7
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Henning Tiemeier1233.96
Rhoshel K. Lenroot2312.85
Deanna K Greenstein3191.82
Lan Tran4444.92
Ronald Pierson5895.92
Jay N Giedd637630.78