Surface area of the human cerebral cortex expands extremely dynamically and regionally heterogeneously from the third trimester of pregnancy to 2 y of age, reflecting the spatial heterogeneity of the underlying microstructural and functional development of the cerebral cortex. However, little is known about the developmental patterns and regionalization of cortical surface area during this critical stage, due to the lack of high-quality imaging data and accurate computational tools for pediatric brain MRI data. To fill this critical knowledge gap, by leveraging 1,037 high-quality MRI scans with the age between 29 post-menstrual weeks and 24 mo from 735 pediatric subjects in two complementary datasets, i.e., the Baby Connectome Project (BCP) and the developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP), and state-of-the-art dedicated image-processing tools, we unprecedentedly parcellate the cerebral cortex into a set of distinct subdivisions purely according to the developmental patterns of the cortical surface. Our discovered developmentally distinct subdivisions correspond well to structurally and functionally meaningful regions and reveal spatially contiguous, hierarchical, and bilaterally symmetric patterns of early cortical surface expansion. We also show that high-order association subdivisions, where cortical folds emerge later during prenatal stages, undergo more dramatic cortical surface expansion during infancy, compared with the central regions, especially the sensorimotor and insula cortices, thus forming a distinct central-pole division in early cortical surface expansion. These results provide an important reference for exploring and understanding dynamic early brain development in health and disease.

中文翻译：

---

绘制月经后 29 周至 2 岁皮质表面积的发育区域化和模式

从妊娠晚期到 2 岁，人类大脑皮层的表面积极其动态地和区域性地不均匀地扩展，反映了大脑皮层潜在微结构和功能发育的空间异质性。然而，由于缺乏高质量的成像数据和准确的儿科脑 MRI 数据计算工具，人们对该关键阶段皮质表面积的发育模式和区域化知之甚少。为了填补这一关键知识空白，通过利用来自两个互补数据集（即婴儿连接组计划 (BCP) 和正在开发的人类连接组）中 735 名儿科受试者的 1,037 份年龄在月经后 29 周至 24 个月之间的高质量 MRI 扫描项目 (dHCP) 和最先进的专用图像处理工具，我们史无前例地完全根据皮质表面的发育模式将大脑皮层分成一组不同的分区。我们发现的发育不同的细分与结构和功能上有意义的区域很好地对应，并揭示了早期皮质表面扩张的空间连续、分层和双侧对称模式。我们还表明，与中央区域（尤其是感觉运动和脑岛皮质）相比，高阶关联细分（皮质褶皱在产前阶段出现较晚）在婴儿期经历了更显着的皮质表面扩张，从而在婴儿期形成了明显的中央极分裂早期皮质表面扩张。