PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster

2013-12-19
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Karen Bidewell
press.office@ncl.ac.uk
44-019-120-86972
Newcastle University
Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster

As we grow older, our brains undergo a major reorganisation reducing the connections in the brain. Studying people up to the age of 40, scientists led by Dr Marcus Kaiser and Ms Sol Lim at Newcastle University found that while overall connections in the brain get streamlined, long-distance connections that are crucial for integrating information are preserved.

The researchers suspect this newly-discovered selective process might explain why brain function does not deteriorate – and indeed improves –during this pruning of the network. Interestingly, they also found that these changes occurred earlier in females than in males.

Explaining the work which is being published in Cerebral Cortex, Dr Kaiser, Reader in Neuroinformatics at Newcastle University, says: "Long-distance connections are difficult to establish and maintain but are crucial for fast and efficient processing. If you think about a social network, nearby friends might give you very similar information – you might hear the same news from different people. People from different cities or countries are more likely to give you novel information. In the same way, some information flow within a brain module might be redundant whereas information from other modules, say integrating the optical information about a face with the acoustic information of a voice is vital in making sense of the outside world."

The researchers at Newcastle, Glasgow and Seoul Universities evaluated the scans of 121 healthy participants between the ages of 4 and 40 years as this is where the major connectivity changes can be seen during this period of maturation and improvement in the brain. The work is part of the EPSRC-funded Human Green Brain project which examines human brain development and is being published in Cerebral Cortex.

Using a non-invasive technique called diffusion tensor imaging – a special measurement protocol for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners – they demonstrated that fibres are overall getting pruned that period.

However, they found that not all projections (long-range connections) between brain regions are affected to the same extent; changes were influenced differently depending on the types of connections.

Projections that are preserved were short-cuts that quickly link different processing modules, e.g. for vision and sound, and allow fast information transfer and synchronous processing. Changes in these connections have been found in many developmental brain disorders including autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia.

The researchers have demonstrated for the first time that the loss of white matter fibres between brain regions is a highly selective process – a phenomenon they call preferential detachment. They show that connections between distant brain regions, between brain hemispheres, and between processing modules lose fewer nerve fibres during brain maturation than expected. The researchers say this may explain how we retain a stable brain network during brain maturation.

Commenting on the fact that these changes occurred earlier in females than males, Ms Sol Lim explains: "The loss of connectivity during brain development can actually help to improve brain function by reorganizing the network more efficiently. Say instead of talking to many people at random, asking a couple of people who have lived in the area for a long time is the most efficient way to know your way. In a similar way, reducing some projections in the brain helps to focus on essential information."



INFORMATION:

Academic paper: Preferential Detachment During Human Brain Development: Age- and Sex-Specific Structural Connectivity in Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) Data. Sol Lim; Cheol E. Han; Peter J. Uhlhaas; Marcus Kaiser.Cerebral Cortex 2013; doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht333



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New magnetic behavior in nanoparticles could lead to even smaller digital memories

2013-12-19
New magnetic behavior in nanoparticles could lead to even smaller digital memories Electronic devices such as mobile phones and tablets spur on a scientific race to find smaller and smaller information processing and storage elements. One of the ...

Management of atrial fibrillation still suboptimal in Europe

2013-12-19
Management of atrial fibrillation still suboptimal in Europe ESC presents preliminary results of Atrial Fibrillation General Registry Sophia Antipolis, 19 December 2013. Results for a pilot registry on the management and treatment of atrial fibrillation ...

The first cancer operation room with a navigator is created

2013-12-19
The first cancer operation room with a navigator is created This news release is available in Spanish. The system, presented at Gregorio Marañón Hospital, permits real-time interaction with the body of the patient (with its different tissues and cancer) as well as the radiotherapy ...

Norway's quest to discover all its native species

2013-12-19
Norway's quest to discover all its native species Effort identifies 1,165 new species since project began in 2009 More than a thousand new species –nearly one-quarter of which are new to science – have been discovered in Norway ...

New compound could reverse loss of muscle mass in cancer and other diseases

2013-12-19
New compound could reverse loss of muscle mass in cancer and other diseases A new antibody could dramatically boost strength and muscle mass in patients with cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sporadic inclusion body myositis, and in elderly ...

Controlling parasitic worms with genetic selection

2013-12-19
Controlling parasitic worms with genetic selection Scientists at the University of Guelph consider drug-free alternatives to control harmful parasites in sheep Helminths are gastrointestinal parasitic worms that have become a major concern ...

Deciphering the secret of the sugar beet

2013-12-19
Deciphering the secret of the sugar beet Scientists from Germany and Spain announce the sequence of the sugar beet genome This news release is available in German. An international team of researchers from Bielefeld University, Germany, ...

Integrated approaches to customize fungal cell factories

2013-12-19
Integrated approaches to customize fungal cell factories Described in Industrial Biotechnology Journal New Rochelle, NY, December 19, 2013—The natural ability of certain fungi to break down complex substances makes them very valuable ...

Monthly appointments with pharmacists improve medication adherence

2013-12-19
Monthly appointments with pharmacists improve medication adherence Patients are more likely to take chronic medications when they meet monthly with pharmacists to coordinate medication schedules and treatments, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University ...

MRI method for measuring MS progression validated

2013-12-19
MRI method for measuring MS progression validated New imaging research from Western University (London, Canada) has demonstrated that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach called quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) can be an important tool for ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Palm oil isn’t necessarily less sustainable than other oils, say conservationists

A hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy of space immunology

Mysterious glow in Milky Way could be evidence of dark matter

Pathogenic germline variants in cancer susceptibility genes

Discrimination experiences among medical students

Pickleball-related ocular injuries among patients presenting to emergency departments

Ganoderma lucidum alleviates high-fat diet-induced hepatic lipotoxicity via modulating the unfolded protein response and endoplasmic reticulum-phagy

Circularly polarized luminescence enhancement in rare-earth MOFs due to framework chirality and host–guest energy transfer

Nickel-substituted polyoxometalate-CdS single-cluster photocatalysts for efficient plastic waste degradation coupled with H2 production

Polyoxometalate hybrid comb-like crosslinked polymer networks for anhydrous proton conductors

A research team at the Universitat Jaume I creates a robotic platform with artificial intelligence to accelerate the transition to a sustainable industry

Binghamton University researchers use nanotubes to improve blood flow in bioengineered tissues

Elizabeth Haines, DO, MSc, FACEP, appointed Chief Operating Officer of Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital and Senior Vice President of Pediatric Services, Mount Sinai Health System

Just knowing help is there makes all the difference

Gut microbiome affects alcohol preference by influencing brain’s reward system

Manchurian walnut tree holds key to eco-friendly weed control

After cancer: study explores caring-healing modalities for survivors

The paper industry can become more energy-efficient with a new measurement method

SEOULTECH researchers develop VFF-Net, a revolutionary alternative to backpropagation that transforms AI training

Pusan National University study finds pollution shifts rainfall from land to sea in Southeast Asia

Korea University researchers advance orthodontics with AI-assisted growth prediction

New low-cost, efficient single-photon source for powering future quantum internet

Helping farmers, boosting biofuels

Air pollution during pregnancy is associated with slower brain maturation in newborns

Expanding farming capabilities will not close Africa’s ‘hidden hunger’ gaps

Time crystals could power future quantum computers

Climate whiplash effects due to rapidly intensifying El Niño cycles

Quantum radio antenna

A pill that prints

New research submarine after Ran got lost under the ice

[Press-News.org] Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster