| Abstract: | Brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 104 healthy childrenand adolescents, aged 4–18, showed significant effectsof age and gender on brain morphometry. Males had larger cerebral(9%) and cerebellar (8%) volumes (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.008.respectively), which remained significant even after correctionfor height and weight After adjusting for cerebral size, theputamen and globus pallidus remained larger in males, whilerelative caudate size was larger in females. Neither cerebralnor cerebellar volume changed significantly across this agerange. Lateral ventricular volume increased significantly inmales (trend for females), with males showing an increase inslope after age 11. In males only, caudate and putamen decreasedwith age (P = 0.007 and 0.05, respectively). The left lateralventricles and putamen were significantly greater than the rightP = 0.01 and 0.0001, respectively). In contrast, the cerebralhemispheres and caudate showed a highly consistent right greater-than-leftasymmetry (P < 0.0001 for both). All volumes demonstrateda high degree of variability. These findings highlight gender-specificmaturational changes of the developing brain and the need forlarge gender-matched samples in pediatric neuropsychiatric studies. |
