Cerebellum development during childhood and adolescence: A longitudinal morphometric MRI study

Abstract

In addition to its well established role in balance, coordination, and other motor skills, the cerebellum is increasingly recognized as a prominent contributor to a wide array of cognitive and emotional functions. Many of these capacities undergo dramatic changes during childhood and adolescence. However, accurate characterization of co-occurring anatomical changes has been hindered by lack of longitudinal data and methodologic challenges in quantifying subdivisions of the cerebellum. In this study we apply an innovative image analysis technique to quantify total cerebellar volume and 11 subdivisions (i.e. anterior, superior posterior, and inferior posterior lobes, corpus medullare, and three vermal regions) from anatomic brain MRI scans from 25 healthy females and 25 healthy males aged 5-24 years, each of whom was scanned at least three times at approximately two year intervals. Total cerebellum volume followed an inverted U shaped developmental trajectory peaking at age 11.8 years in females and 15.6 years in males. Cerebellar volume was 10% to 13% larger in males depending on the age of comparison and the sexual dimorphism remained significant after covarying for total brain volume. Subdivisions of the cerebellum had distinctive developmental trajectories with more phylogenetically recent regions maturing particularly late. The cerebellum's unique protracted developmental trajectories, sexual dimorphism, preferential vulnerability to environmental influences, and frequent implication in childhood onset disorders such as autism and ADHD make it a prime target for pediatric neuroimaging investigations.

Regional volumes and spatial volumetric distribution of gray matter in the gender dysphoric brain

“…In accordance with these volumetric differences, men were found to have a higher number of Purkinje cells than women (Hall et al, 1975). In children and adolescents, cerebellar volume is between 10 to 13% larger in boys than girls (Tiemeier et al, 2010). Interestingly, the superior posterior lobe of the cerebellum, which was bilaterally enlarged in adolescent boys in comparison to girls in our study, represents a site of especially robust sex differences in volumetric properties and developmental trajectory across adolescence (Tiemeier et al, 2010).…”

“…It is well established that adult men have larger absolute and relative cerebellar volumes than women (Chung et al, 2005;Escalona et al, 1991;Filipek et al, 1994;Good et al, 2001;Raz et al, 2001;Tiemeier et al, 2010). In accordance with these volumetric differences, men were found to have a higher number of Purkinje cells than women (Hall et al, 1975).…”

Ataxia rating scales are age‐dependent in healthy children

“…15 For instance, growth of the vermis (determining axial stability) is completed at the eighth year of life, whereas growth of the anterior and superior posterior-cerebellar regions (determining kinetic and executive functions, respectively) stabilizes at 14 to 17 years of age. 15 Whether this differential cerebellar growth underlies the presently observed developmental order of sub-scores remains largely speculative. 16 However, when comparing age-dependency between individual sub-score items, we observed that the highest scores (i.e.…”

Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health Longitudinal Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Human Brain Development

“…Manual tracing of 183 scans from a subset of 25 males and 25 females that each had X3 longitudinally acquired scans indicated that total cerebellum size peaks at 11.3 years in girls and 15.6 years in boys (Tiemeier et al, 2010). Total cerebellum is 10-13% larger in males depending on the age of comparison.…”