Thalamocortical Connectivity in Healthy Children: Asymmetries and Robust Developmental Changes between Ages 8 and 17 Years

Images showing the seed and target definition for fiber tracking. A, Regions of interest were drawn on 7 consecutive planes of each subject's FA images to outline the thalamus. These representative images of 1 subject show the 3D seed region of the left thalamus loaded in the native FSPGR space. B, Representative image of the target layer (white color) in one of the subjects. The target mask contained the layer between the cortical surface and the 2-mm shrunken white matter mask. FTEs were obtained by extending the surface elements 30 mm deeper into the brain to select the underlying portion of the target mask. C, Superior, lateral, and inferior views of the ICBM152 template brain surface with the 8 cortical target regions on each side encompassing sets of surface elements. The cortical regions were defined by using main sulci as references. Those surface elements that extended a landmark sulcus were assigned to the region to which their largest part belonged. Importantly, the territory outlined with magenta (on the inferior surface) was not analyzed.