Using MRI, researchers at Drexel University discovered a thicker cerebral cortex in the brains of young people with Down syndrome.
The images, published online June 17 in Cerebral Cortex, show that the cortex is thicker, on average, in those with Down syndrome, compared with subjects who are developing typically, even though the overall volume of the cortex is smaller in those with Down syndrome.
The findings could provide new insight into why individuals with Down syndrome are highly susceptible to early-onset Alzheimer's disease later in life, according to lead author Nancy Raitano Lee, PhD, an assistant professor at Drexel, and colleagues at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
The researchers compared MRI measurements from 31 youths with Down syndrome and 45 typically developing peers. They found increased cortical thickness in the form of nodes in the default mode network, which has been associated with Alzheimer's disease.
The cause of the increased cortical thickness is uncertain, but one possibility is that the brain doesn't "prune" excess neural connections as effectively in those with Down syndrome.
