Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of developmental disabilities. Advanced analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used to find brain abnormalities and their relationship to neurocognitive impairments in children and adolescents with DS. Because genetic factors affect brain development in early fetal life, there is a growing interest in analyzing brains from living fetuses with DS. In this study, we investigated regional sulcal folding depth as well as global cortical gyrification from fetal brain MRIs. Nine fetuses with DS (29.1 ± 4.24 gestational weeks [mean ± standard deviation]) were compared with 17 typically developing [TD] fetuses (28.4 ± 3.44). Fetuses with DS showed lower whole-brain average sulcal depths and gyrification index than TD fetuses. Significant decreases in sulcal depth were found in bilateral Sylvian fissures and right central and parieto-occipital sulci. On the other hand, significantly increased sulcal depth was shown in the left superior temporal sulcus, which is related to atypical hemispheric asymmetry of cortical folding. Moreover, these group differences increased as gestation progressed. This study demonstrates that regional sulcal depth is a sensitive marker for detecting alterations of cortical development in DS during fetal life, which may be associated with later neurocognitive impairment.

中文翻译：

---

患有唐氏综合症的活胎儿皮质沟深度的区域变化。

唐氏综合症（DS）是发育障碍最常见的遗传原因。脑磁共振成像 (MRI) 的高级分析已用于发现 DS 儿童和青少年的大脑异常及其与神经认知障碍的关系。由于遗传因素会影响胎儿早期的大脑发育，因此人们对分析患有 DS 的活胎儿的大脑越来越感兴趣。在这项研究中，我们通过胎儿脑 MRI 调查了区域脑沟折叠深度以及整体皮质回旋。将 9 名 DS 胎儿（29.1 ± 4.24 孕周 [平均值 ± 标准差]）与 17 名典型发育 [TD] 胎儿 (28.4 ± 3.44) 进行比较。DS 胎儿的全脑平均脑沟深度和回旋指数低于 TD 胎儿。双侧外侧裂、右中央沟和顶枕沟深度显着减小。另一方面，左侧颞上沟的沟深度明显增加，这与皮质折叠的非典型半球不对称有关。此外，这些群体差异随着妊娠的进展而增加。这项研究表明，局部脑沟深度是检测胎儿期 DS 皮质发育变化的敏感标志，这可能与后来的神经认知障碍有关。