Cited by 712Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsFunctional Brain Connectivity StudiesCognitive Abilities and Testing

How Does Your Cortex Grow?

Open access
Raznahan, Armin, Shaw, Phillip, Lalonde, Francois, Stockman, Mike, Wallace, Gregory L., Greenstein, Dede, Clasen, Liv, Gogtay, Nitin +1 more·2011·The Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

Understanding human cortical maturation is a central goal for developmental neuroscience. Significant advances toward this goal have come from two recent strands of in vivo structural magnetic resonance imaging research: (1) longitudinal study designs have revealed that factors such as sex, cognitive ability, and disease are often better related to variations in the tempo of anatomical change than to variations in anatomy at any one time point; (2) largely cross-sectional applications of new surface-based morphometry (SBM) methods have shown how the traditional focus on cortical volume (CV) can obscure information about the two evolutionarily and genetically distinct determinants of CV: cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA). Here, by combining these two strategies for the first time and applying SBM in >1250 longitudinally acquired brain scans from 647 healthy individuals aged 3–30 years, we deconstruct cortical development to reveal that distinct trajectories of anatomical change are hidden within, and give rise to, a curvilinear pattern of CV maturation. Developmental changes in CV emerge through the sexually dimorphic and age-dependent interaction of changes in CT and SA. Moreover, SA change itself actually reflects complex interactions between brain size-related changes in exposed cortical convex hull area, and changes in the degree of cortical gyrification, which again vary by age and sex. Knowing of these developmental dissociations, and further specifying their timing and sex-biases, provides potent new research targets for basic and clinical neuroscience.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1523/jneurosci.0054-11.2011

Cites

25 of 25 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Most studies find cortical thickness decreases linearly after age four to five years, although some studies suggest an increase from age six to ten and thinning after ten to twelve.

    “Whereas some studies have suggested that cortical thickness increases from age 6 to 10 years and begins to thin after 10–12 years21,20, most studies find that cortical thickness decreases linearly after age 4–5 years25,27,28.”
  • Cortical thickness probably peaks at one to two years and declines thereafter, while surface area continues to expand well into late childhood or early adolescence.

    “Imaging studies of infants and older childen21, 20, 22 have revealed that cortical thickness probably peaks in the range of 1–2 years and declines thereafter, whereas surface area continues to expand well into late childhood or early adolescence.”
  • The postnatal sex difference in brain volume is probably driven by differences in surface area expansion, because global and regional cortical thickness trajectories are highly similar in males and females.

    “These differences are probably driven by differences in surface area expansion, as the maturational trajectories of global and regional cortical thickness are highly similar in males and females4, 20, 27.”
  • Association cortices reach peak thickness values later than sensory cortices.

    “Notably, association cortices reach peak thickness values later than sensory cortices (Brown et al., 2012, Raznahan et al., 2011, Sowell et al., 2004).”
  • Whole brain surface area follows a nonuniform 2 to 4 fold expansion from birth to adulthood, with peak surface area occurring around 8.1 years in females and 9.7 years in males.

    “Whole brain surface area has been observed to follow a nonuniform 2 to 4 fold expansion from birth to adulthood (Hill et al., 2010a, Hill et al., 2010b) with peak surface area occurring around 8.1 years in females and 9.7 years in males (Raznahan et al., 2011).”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Raznahan, A., Shaw, P., Lalonde, F., Stockman, M., Wallace, G. L., Greenstein, D., Clasen, L., Gogtay, N., & Giedd, J. N.
Affiliations
  • National Institute of Mental Health (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
Venue
The Journal of Neuroscience
Published
2011-05-11
Volume
31
Issue
19
Pages
7174-7177
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
OpenAlex
W2143463042
Cited by
712
References
25
Citations by year
2026: 30 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 67 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 62 · 2014: 41 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 30
FWCI
27.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (Z99 MH999999)
  • Medical Research Council
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
Keywords
cortical maturation, cortical development, cortical thickness, cortical surface area, cortical volume, surface-based morphometry, longitudinal brain development, sex differences, cortical gyrification, brain size, convex hull area
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Organ Size, Sex Factors

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review