Amygdala and hippocampal volumes in children with Down syndrome: A high-resolution MRI study

The objective of this study was to use high-resolution MRI techniques to de termine whether children with Down syndrome exhibit decreases in hippocampa l and amygdala volumes similar to those demonstrated in recent studies of a dults with this condition. When corrected for overall brain volumes, amygda la volumes did not differ between groups but hippocampal volumes were signi ficantly smaller in the Down syndrome group. These findings suggest that th e hippocampal volume reduction seen in adults with Down syndrome may he pri marily due to early developmental differences rather than neurodegenerative changes.