| Title: | Lifespan Trajectories of Asymmetry in White Matter Tracts |
| Journal: | Human Brain Mapping |
| Published: | 1 Jun 2026 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42249731/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.70519 |
Publication 19809
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Abstract
Asymmetry in white matter is believed to give rise to the brain's capacity for specialized processing and is involved in the lateralization of various cognitive processes, such as language and visuo-spatial reasoning. Although studies of white matter asymmetry have been previously documented, they have often been constrained by limited age ranges, sample sizes, or the scope of the tracts and structural features examined. While normative lifespan charts for brain structures are emerging, comprehensive charts detailing white matter asymmetries across numerous pathways and diverse structural measures have been notably absent. This study addresses this gap by leveraging a large-scale dataset of 35,120 typically developing and aging individuals, ranging from 0 to 100 years of age, from 50 primary neuroimaging studies. We generated comprehensive lifespan trajectories for 30 lateralized association and projection white matter tracts, examining six distinct microstructural and macrostructural features of these pathways. Our findings reveal that: (1) asymmetries are widespread across the brain's white matter and are present in all 30 pathways; (2) for a given pathway, the degree and direction of asymmetry differ between features of tissue microstructure and pathway macrostructure; (3) asymmetries vary across and within pathway types (association and projection tracts); and (4) these asymmetries are not static, following unique trajectories across the lifespan, with distinct changes during development, and a general trend of becoming more asymmetric with increasing age (particularly in later adulthood) across pathways. This study represents the most extensive characterization of white matter asymmetry across the lifespan to date, charting how lateralization patterns emerge, mature, and change throughout life. It provides a foundational resource for understanding the principles of white matter organization from early to late life, its relation to functional specialization and inter-individual variability, and offers a key reference for interpreting deviations during healthy development and aging as well as those associated with clinical populations.</p>
70 Authors
- Sam Bogdanov
- Praitayini Kanakaraj
- Michael E. Kim
- Jessica Samir
- Chenyu Gao
- Karthik Ramadass
- Gaurav Rudravaram
- Nancy R. Newlin
- Derek Archer
- Timothy J. Hohman
- Angela L. Jefferson
- Victoria L. Morgan
- Alexandra Roche
- Dario J. Englot
- Susan M. Resnick
- Lori L. Beason Held
- Laurie E. Cutting
- Laura A. Barquero
- Micah A. D'Archangel
- Tin Q. Nguyen
- Kathryn L. Humphreys
- Yanbin Niu
- Sophia Vinci-Booher
- Carissa J. Cascio
- Zhiyuan Li
- Simon N. Vandekar
- Panpan Zhang
- John C. Gore
- Stephanie J. Forkel
- Bennett A. Landman
- Kurt G. Schilling
- Sid E O'Bryant
- Kristine Yaffe
- Arthur Toga
- Robert Rissman
- Leigh Johnson
- Meredith Braskie
- Kevin King
- James R Hall
- Melissa Petersen
- Raymond Palmer
- Robert Barber
- Yonggang Shi
- Fan Zhang
- Rajesh Nandy
- Roderick McColl
- David Mason
- Bradley Christian
- Nicole Phillips
- Stephanie Large
- Joe Lee
- Badri Vardarajan
- Monica Rivera Mindt
- Amrita Cheema
- Lisa Barnes
- Mark Mapstone
- Annie Cohen
- Amy Kind
- Ozioma Okonkwo
- Raul Vintimilla
- Zhengyang Zhou
- Michael Donohue
- Rema Raman
- Matthew Borzage
- Michelle Mielke
- Beau Ances
- Ganesh Babulal
- Jorge Llibre-Guerra
- Carl Hill
- Rocky Vig
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 16315 | Population Mapping of Brain, Eye, Spinal Cord, and Abdomen Anatomy in the Context of Electronic Medical Records |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health