Multiscale Neurodevelopment
About
The Multiscale Neurodevelopment team, led by Dr. Casey Paquola, is dedicated to the study of brain development from childhood through adulthood. The group aims to use innovative in vivo imaging techniques, such as structural and functional MRI, to better understand the healthy and pathological development of the brain. The focus is on analyzing the microstructure, connectivity and functional dynamics of the brain. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between structural changes and the functional differentiation of the brain at different stages of development.
Research Topics
We centre our research on childhood and adolescence because, firstly, the vast majority of psychiatric illnesses prior to 24yrs, and secondly, from a scientific perspective, neurodevelopment offers us a unique opportunity to unravel the temporal relationships between neuroanatomy and cognitive capabilities, as both the brain and cognition change dramaticailly throughout early life. Our studies on neurodevelopment span a range of topics, such as:
- Understanding cognitive maturation and psychiatric risk via multi-scale neuroscience
Contemporary neuroscience has excelled at describing where certain psychological capabilities are produced in the brain, but we lack understanding of how these regions contribute to cognition. We contend that we can close this mechanistic gap by combining information from multiple biological scales. Leveraging multi-modal MRI, as well as post mortem histology, our team studies how the microstructure, connectivity and function of brain networks interact to enable the most complex aspects of human cognition, such as the formation of abstract concepts.
- Cortical development at the micro-scale
Cortical architecture (i.e. the organisation of neurons and glia) determines how a region processes and distributes information. Thus, the microstructure of a cortical area provides important insight into its functional potential. Recent innovations in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have paved the way for measuring cortical microstructure in living humans. Building upon these advances, our team studies how intracortical microstructure changes across the lifespan. In doing so, we’re gaining a deeper understanding of brain maturation – a complex, multi-factorial process – and we’re learning about the structural basis of neurodiversity.
- Hierarchies of brain organisation: grasping the complexity of human cognition
The mammalian brain is often conceptualised as a hierarchy, whereby information is increasingly integrated as it flows from sensory areas towards higher-order association cortex and memories centres. Our team has pioneered new approaches to map this “sensory-fugal” axis using MRI, thereby allowing us to investigate how this organisation differs across individuals and how it matures during youth. We’re also working on expanding our understanding of cortical hierarchies to more comprehensively grasp the complexity of the human brain.
