Brain development is a protracted and dynamic process. Many studies have charted the trajectory of white matter development, but here we sought to map these effects in greater detail, based on a large set of fiber tracts automatically extracted from HARDI (high angular resolution diffusion imaging) at 4 tesla. We used autoMATE (automated multi-atlas tract extraction) to extract diffusivity measures along 18 of the brain's major fiber bundles in 667 young adults, aged 18-30. We examined linear and non-linear age effects on diffusivity measures, pointwise along tracts. All diffusivity measures showed both linear and non-linear age effects. Tracts with the most pronounced age effects were those that connected the temporal lobe to the rest of the brain. Nonlinear age effects were picked up strongly in the anterior corpus callosum and right temporo-parietal tracts.
Keywords: development; diffusion weighted imaging; structural connectivity; tractography.