Cortical and white matter myelination proceed in concert during early infancy

Abstract

The infant brain undergoes rapid myelination that is critical for healthy brain function. This development has been characterized for gray and white matter independently, but the link between gray and white matter myelination remains unexplored. To close this knowledge gap, we evaluated two complementary myelin-sensitive imaging metrics: Large-scale (N=273) T1w/T2w and quantitative (N=21) R1 data. Automated software was employed to identify 26 white matter bundles and map their cortical terminations, before evaluating T1w/T2w and R1 development shortly after birth. Here we show that for both metrics mean values as well as developmental slopes are correlated across tissues. The synchrony of brain T1w/T2w is impacted by gestational age and prematurity, whereas inter-individual differences in this synchrony predict motor outcomes at 17 - 25 months of age. As T1w/T2w and R1 are associated with myelin content, our results reveal an intricate relationship between gray and white matter myelination.