Quantifying and modelling tissue maturation in the living human fetal brain

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Developmental Biology

Background:

• Current understanding of early human brain growth relies on animal and post-mortem studies.
• Medical imaging advances enable in vivo quantification of fetal brain maturation.
• Bridging macroscopic and microscopic views of brain development is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current research on Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging of the living fetal brain.
• To highlight opportunities for interdisciplinary research between macroscopic and microscopic imaging fields.
• To motivate improved integration of fetal brain imaging techniques.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing faster MRI techniques to overcome fetal head motion during imaging.
• Employing advanced post-processing algorithms to construct 3D images from acquired slices.
• Developing automated techniques for labeling and quantifying developing tissue zones in fetal MRI data.

Main Results:

• Successful creation of 3D and 4D quantitative data of tissue zones in normally developing fetal brains.
• Generation of the first in-utero maps of tissue growth rate and cortical folding.
• Demonstration of MRI's capability to complement post-mortem anatomical findings.

Conclusions:

• Fetal MRI provides unprecedented insights into early human brain development.
• Quantitative mapping of in-utero brain growth is now possible.
• This approach facilitates large-scale studies on genetic and environmental influences on fetal brain development.