Brain development
How does brain development vary from person to person?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
While most teenagers show similar patterns of overall brain shrinkage and white matter growth, individuals vary widely in the timing, speed, and direction of these structural changes.
How this study connects
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Healthy adolescent development from late childhood through early adulthood is characterized by a widespread, continuous decrease in both cortical volume and cortical thickness.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
There is substantial inter-individual variability in the timing, speed, and direction of cortical thickness changes during the transition from late childhood to young adulthood.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Three-wave anatomical MRI from BrainTime, NCD, and LunaCog; only participants with three high-quality scans
- N
- N=269 · 149 females, 120 males from Leiden, Oslo, and Pittsburgh
- Population
- Typically developing youth with three longitudinal anatomical scans from late childhood onward
- Outcome
- Inter-individual variability in structural brain-development trajectories
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How does brain development vary from person to person?
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269 participants
Only participants with three high-quality anatomical brain scans were included in the present analysis, for a total of 269 participants (149 females, 120 males).
three separate longitudinal datasets
This study examined participants from three separate longitudinal datasets collected from independent research sites located in three countries: Leiden University (BrainTime), University of Oslo (Neurocognitive Development; NCD), and University of Pittsburgh (LunaCog).
Key findings
The researchers discovered that individuals show significant differences in both the speed and direction of brain changes, particularly during the transition into adolescence and early adulthood. While most adolescents showed a decrease in outer brain thickness and volume, females with larger initial brain measurements showed much faster rates of decline than those with smaller measurements. In contrast, males did not show this relationship between overall brain size and their rate of cortical change. Additionally, most participants showed increases in white matter volume during early adolescence, which then stabilized by their mid-teens.
Methodology
The researchers analyzed data from 269 participants who each received three brain scans over several years. This sample included 149 females and 120 males drawn from three distinct longitudinal datasets. The researchers calculated the yearly percentage change in cortical and subcortical structures to track individual brain growth trajectories.
Limitations
First, the study lacks sociodemographic data, making it impossible to determine how environmental factors or life experiences might drive these individual brain differences. Second, because participants only had three scans, the study could not map complex, non-linear individual growth trajectories, which typically require four or more scan points. Third, the thresholds used to define true developmental changes are statistical estimates, meaning some reported variations might reflect scan measurement errors rather than actual biological growth. Finally, the study is observational and cannot establish causal links between specific brain structures and behavioral or psychological outcomes.
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