Brain Development in Down Syndrome during Fetal and Early Postnatal Ages

Abnormal brain development in DS begins in utero. It is critical to be aware of an altered initial brain anatomy in DS for better predicting what aspects of brain function will likely preferentially/precociously deteriorate, which would allow for potentially earlier/better prevention and treatment. Based on our promising results from in vivo MRI, we plan to confirm the findings using ex vivo MRI with significantly higher spatial resolution as well as polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography which provides micron-level spatial resolution, in order to identify detailed basis of the DS early brain abnormality.