Grant: Operating Grant

The primary goal is to develop and use state-of-the-art Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to study the development of the brain in both healthy and disabled children. As a child matures into adolescence and young adulthood, major structural changes occur in various parts of the brain. Much remains unknown on how the brain evolves with age in healthy development and how it relates to cognitive ability such as math and reading in individuals. In other words, why are some people better at certain tasks than others? Sophisticated MRI acquisition techniques and image analysis can safely and non-invasively evaluate when, where, and how much specific brain regions change in a person. A comparison of the integrity of the brain white matter (i.e. the "wiring"), the thickness of the cortical gray matter (i.e. the "computers"), and the volume of deep gray matter (i.e. the "relay stations") to cognitive assessments will be performed in a large number of healthy individuals. Understanding how the healthy brain develops is important to understand the consequences when something goes wrong. While many children develop normally, there are others who suffer from cognitive, neurological, and behavioural problems. Some children have permanent structural brain damage because of the consumption of alcohol by the mother during pregnancy, leading to a broad condition known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Children with FASD often have motor delays, and deficits in attention, learning and memory, executive functioning, mathematics, and language. Quantitative MRI may identify regions of brain abnormality that are not detected with conventional clinical MRI. Differences in the severity and location of brain changes may explain the range of cognitive deficits seen amongst FASD children. Knowledge of the responsible brain regions could lead to improved therapies and individual-based treatment strategies since all patients may not show the same structural abnormalities.