EXPERIENCE-DEPENDENT PREFRONTAL WHITE MATTER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN MONKEYS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Neurobiological studies of emotional and cognitive development seldom consider white matter despite indications that these processes depend on complex neural networks and white matter interconnections. Prefrontal white matter volumes in human and nonhuman primates determined in vivo by magnetic resonance imaging increase throughout childhood and adolescence. Additional evidence for prefrontal white matter growth and development comes from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of tissue microstructure inferred from water proton diffusion. The direction of diffusion in prefrontal white matter is increasingly restricted throughout adolescence in humans by ongoing myelination of nerve fiber tracts. To confirm that similar changes occur during adolescence in monkeys, we initially collected DTI data with a single-shot echo-planar imaging (EPI) protocol that produced geometric distortions and susceptibility artifacts. Diffusion-weighted spin echo line scan imaging (LSDI) was subsequently used to acquire data at 8 cm field of view.