Cortical thickness
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In brain anatomy, cortical thickness is a global measure used to describe the combined thickness of the layers of the cerebral cortex in mammals. It is commonly determined from the grey matter set in segmented neuroimaging data and changes only minimally with brain size, both within and across species. Typical values in adult humans are (2.7±0.2) mm. Its variation across the human brain follows small-world principles[1], and during aging, a decrease of about 0.01 mm per year can be observed (a phenomenon termed cortical thinning). Deviations from these patterns can be used as diagnostic indicators for brain disorders, e.g. in lissencephaly or Williams syndrome[2].
References
- ↑ He, Yong; Zhang J. Chen & Alan C. Evans (2007), "Small-World Anatomical Networks in the Human Brain Revealed by Cortical Thickness from MRI", Cerebral Cortex 17 (10): 2407-2419, DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhl149 [e]
- ↑ Thompson, Paul M.; Agatha D. Lee & Rebecca A. Dutton et al. (2005), "Abnormal Cortical Complexity and Thickness Profiles Mapped in Williams Syndrome", Journal of Neuroscience 25 (16): 4146–4158, DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0165-05.2005 [e]