Best of the AANS Session-Discussant Different Principles Govern Multiple Scales of Brain Folding

Video Transcription

My name is Ellen Grant. I'm a pediatric neuroradiologist from Boston Children's Hospital. I prepared  a discussion on this paper with the help of Ki-Ho Im, Lana Vasan, and Hak-Jin Yun. I'm on the Scientific Advisory Board of Aspect Imaging.  This paper provides interesting new volumetric analyses that quantifies the spatial-temporal  differences in folding between the sylvanian fissure, the primary sulci, and the secondary  and tertiary sulci. On the right, courtesy of Lana Vasan, is a video created using pathological specimens. Here you can visualize the differences in folding in these regions.  This paper also showed that there was no evidence that the capillary provides mechanical constraint during gyrofication.  As always, there are limitations. Volume changes don't fully capture sulcal depth changes. Spatial resolution limits the ability to resolve CSF and sulci and accurately estimate its  volume. As the authors recognized, atlases remove individual variation. However, a comparison to other measures, such as a gyrofication index or sulcal depth, would be helpful.  It should be noted that the sylvanian fissure and parietal occipital sulcus begin to form before 21 weeks and are therefore not fully captured by this paper. Also, pressures in  the extraaxial spaces may need to be considered when understanding constraints on gyrofication.  In summary, gyrofication is an important biomarker of health and disease. This paper is a beautiful  example of how fetal MRI is becoming an important tool to study the in vivo human brain development  as it enables quantification of the complex spatial-temporal dynamics of gyrofication, which in turn will allow us to quantify the impact of regional gene expression and the  influence of environmental exposures. However, we do need new motion-resistant, high-resolution  acquisitions with increased signal-to-noise to enable assessment of individual variations. We also need to be able to acquire MRI data in fetuses less than 21 weeks gestational  age to fully understand the gyrofication process. Thank you.

Video Summary

The video features Ellen Grant, a pediatric neuroradiologist from Boston Children's Hospital, discussing a paper on volumetric analyses of brain folding. Grant acknowledges her colleagues Ki-Ho Im, Lana Vasan, and Hak-Jin Yun for their assistance. The paper examines differences in folding between various brain regions and concludes that the capillary does not provide mechanical constraints during gyrification. Grant highlights the limitations of the study, such as the inability to capture depth changes accurately and the exclusion of individual variations due to atlases. She emphasizes that gyrification is an important biomarker for health and disease and calls for improved MRI techniques to study individual variations and fetal brain development before 21 weeks gestational age. The video ends with a credit to Aspect Imaging for Grant's position on their Scientific Advisory Board.

Keywords

brain folding

gyrification

MRI techniques

biomarker

fetal brain development