Investigating the association between conductivity and brain development over the neonatal period

Motivation: Tissue electrical properties are known to change over the neonatal period, but efforts to measure these in humans in vivo are scarce. Goal(s): This study aims at quantifying brain electrical properties by retrospectively analysing MRI data from a large study, and to explore relationships with development. Approach: We developed processing pipelines to extract conductivity measurements from three separate complex MRI datasets acquired as part of the developing human connectome project. Results: Regression analysis including 726 infants showed a significant decrease in brain conductivity between postmenstrual ages 28 and 44 weeks at a rate of -0.012 to -0.014 S/m/week consistent between the three measurements. Impact: This preliminary study showed a consistent and significant linear decrease in brain conductivity (-0.012 to -0.014 S/m/week) during the neonatal period. This is likely driven by changes in water content, but future work will explore a biophysical explanation.