In this diagram, functional connections between brain regions that grow stronger with age are shown in orange, those that weaken are in blue
'Five-minute scan' to check child's brain development
By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News
They have devised a way of mapping development using an MRI machine and a mathematics programme.
The tool can be used to place children on a "maturation curve" just like we do with height and weight.
The scientists claim the technique might one day be used to spot early signs of disorders such as schizophrenia or autism.
Brain scoreLast year, the team from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis published a study on how brain function develops with age. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to trace blood and neuron flows within the brain.
That study suggested that in young children, connections within the brain appeared to be largely localised in particular regions. As we grow, we lose those short-range connections and develop longer-range connections.
Continue reading the main storThese signals are fewer but sharper in the adult brain, the researchers believe.
What the same team has now done is to map this neurological development in 238 individuals aged seven to 30.
The individuals' brains were scanned using an MRI machine and then the mass of data was put through a complex algorithmic computer program to produce a single "score" representing brain maturity.
"From a five-minute scan we get 13,000 measurements of functional brain connections," says Dr Nico Dosenbach, who led the study.
"Then we can take the whole pattern for a given individual and boil it down essentially to a single measure which tells us something about an individual and in our case we were interested in how functionally mature an individual's brain is."
These single measures can then be placed on a maturation curve, where the researchers can plot the relationship between age and this development of longer-range brain connections.
What the data gives you is an indicator of how quickly or slowly relative to a median, a child's brain is developing.
Details of the new study are reported in the journal Science.
READ MORE
By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News
They have devised a way of mapping development using an MRI machine and a mathematics programme.
The tool can be used to place children on a "maturation curve" just like we do with height and weight.
The scientists claim the technique might one day be used to spot early signs of disorders such as schizophrenia or autism.
Brain scoreLast year, the team from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis published a study on how brain function develops with age. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to trace blood and neuron flows within the brain.
That study suggested that in young children, connections within the brain appeared to be largely localised in particular regions. As we grow, we lose those short-range connections and develop longer-range connections.
Continue reading the main storThese signals are fewer but sharper in the adult brain, the researchers believe.
What the same team has now done is to map this neurological development in 238 individuals aged seven to 30.
The individuals' brains were scanned using an MRI machine and then the mass of data was put through a complex algorithmic computer program to produce a single "score" representing brain maturity.
"From a five-minute scan we get 13,000 measurements of functional brain connections," says Dr Nico Dosenbach, who led the study.
"Then we can take the whole pattern for a given individual and boil it down essentially to a single measure which tells us something about an individual and in our case we were interested in how functionally mature an individual's brain is."
These single measures can then be placed on a maturation curve, where the researchers can plot the relationship between age and this development of longer-range brain connections.
What the data gives you is an indicator of how quickly or slowly relative to a median, a child's brain is developing.
Details of the new study are reported in the journal Science.
READ MORE
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