Sulcal pits are thought to represent the first cortical folds of primary sulci during neurodevelopment. The uniform spatial distribution of sulcal pits across individuals is hypothesized to be predetermined by a human-specific protomap which is related to functional localization under genetic controls in early fetal life. Thus, it is important to characterize temporal and spatial patterns of sulcal pits in the fetal brain that would provide additional information of functional development of the human brain and crucial insights into abnormal cortical maturation. In this paper, we investigated temporal patterns of emergence and spatial distribution of sulcal pits using 48 typically developing fetal brains in the second half of gestation. We found that the position and spatial variance of sulcal pits in the fetal brain are similar to those in the adult brain, and they are also temporally uniform against dynamic brain growth during fetal life. Furthermore, timing of pit emergence shows a regionally diverse pattern that may be associated with the subdivisions of the protomap. Our findings suggest that sulcal pits in the fetal brain are useful anatomical landmarks containing detailed information of functional localization in early cortical development and maintaining their spatial distribution throughout the human lifetime.

中文翻译：

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胎儿生命期间沟坑出现和空间分布的时间模式。

脑沟被认为代表了神经发育过程中初级脑沟的第一个皮质褶皱。假设个体间沟坑的均匀空间分布是由人类特定的原图预先确定的，该原图与胎儿早期遗传控制下的功能定位有关。因此，重要的是表征胎儿大脑中沟坑的时间和空间模式，这将提供人类大脑功能发育的额外信息和对异常皮质成熟的重要见解。在本文中，我们使用 48 个典型发育的胎儿大脑在妊娠后半期研究了 sulcal pit 出现和空间分布的时间模式。我们发现胎儿大脑中沟坑的位置和空间变化与成人大脑中的相似，并且它们在胎儿生命期间对动态大脑生长在时间上也是一致的。此外，坑出现的时间显示出区域不同的模式，这可能与原图的细分有关。我们的研究结果表明，胎儿大脑中的脑沟是有用的解剖标志，包含早期皮质发育中功能定位的详细信息，并在整个人类一生中保持其空间分布。