Developmental aspects of pediatric fMRI: Considerations for image acquisition, analysis, and interpretation

Functional MRI provides a powerful means to identify and trace the evolutio n, development, and consolidation of cognitive neural networks through norm al childhood. Neural network perturbations due to disease and other adverse factors during development can also be explored. Studies performed to date suggest that normal children older than 5 years show activation maps compa rable to adults for similar cognitive paradigms. Minor differences in adult and pediatric activation maps may reflect age dependent strategies or matu ration of cognitive networks. However, there are important physiologic and anatomic differences in children, varying with age, that may affect the acq uisition, analysis, and interpretation of pediatric fMRI data. Differences between children and adult fRIRI comparison studies may reflect technical a spects of data acquisition as much as developmental and brain maturation fa ctors. (C) 2001 Academic Press.