Mechanics of the Formation of Cortical Folding Patterns in the Developing Human Brain

This project aims to understand the mechanics of growth and folding of the human brain at the early fetal stages of development. This work will advance the fundamental understanding of the relationship between brain folding, brain connectivity, and brain function. Brain folding provides important information about both normal and abnormal development of the human brain.

Currently, the development of folds is based on simple simulation models that do not reflect the complicated structure of the human brain. This research will use advanced brain imaging and innovative computational simulations to elucidate how the human brain grows and folds during the early development of a normal fetal brain. The results of this work will characterize folding in normal brain development.

Future studies may reveal the origin of brain disorders that have structural discrepancies and connectivity disruptions such as autism and schizophrenia. The outcome of this research will promote the progress of health science and benefit national health. In addition to the scientific outcomes, this research will be integrated into a range of educational and outreach programs aimed at attracting underrepresented groups to engineering, improving undergraduate and graduate learning on biomechanics and mechanobiology.

The overarching objective of this research is to discover the roles of differential tangential growth and neural wiring on the morphogenesis of the developing human brain, and their contributions to the variability and regularity of folding patterns. The research will contribute an in-depth understanding of the underlying mechanism that forms the secondary and tertiary folding patterns in the developing human brain on a comprehensive human brain scale.

This research will use an innovative image-based multiscale modeling approach to the simulation of brain development, linking the mechanics at the tissue and organ level with the effect of axonal fiber bundles on the cellular level. The outcomes of this study are expected to fundamentally advance the field of brain folding mechanics and lay a foundation for investigating abnormal brain folding processes for brain disorders.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.