OSCR

Lifespan Trajectories of Asymmetry in White Matter Tracts.

Overview

Authors: Sam Bogdanov1, Praitayini Kanakaraj2, Michael E. Kim2, Jessica Samir3, Chenyu Gao4, Karthik Ramadass2,4, Gaurav Rudravaram4, Nancy R. Newlin2, Derek Archer5,6,7, Timothy J. Hohman5,6, Angela L. Jefferson5,8,9,10,11, Victoria L. Morgan12,13,14, Alexandra Roche13, Dario J. Englot2,4,12,14,15, Susan M. Resnick16, Lori L. Beason Held16, Laurie E. Cutting7,17, Laura A. Barquero17, Micah A. D'Archangel17, Tin Q. Nguyen7,13,17
and 14 other authorsKathryn L. Humphreys10, Yanbin Niu10, Sophia Vinci‐Booher10, Carissa J. Cascio18, The HABS‐HD Study Team, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, The BIOCARD Study Team, Zhiyuan Li19, Simon N. Vandekar20, Panpan Zhang5,20, John C. Gore12,13,14, Stephanie J. Forkel21,22,23, Bennett A. Landman2,4,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,20, Kurt G. Schilling12,13
ORCID iDs: Sam Bogdanov, Praitayini Kanakaraj, Victoria L. Morgan, Laura A. Barquero, Kathryn L. Humphreys, Panpan Zhang, Stephanie J. Forkel, Bennett A. Landman, Kurt G. Schilling
23 affiliations
  1. Medical Scientist Training Program Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
  2. Department of Computer Science Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
  3. Department of Psychological Science and Neuroscience Belmont University Nashville Tennessee USA
  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
  5. Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer's Center Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  6. Vanderbilt Genetics Institute Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  7. Vanderbilt Brain Institute Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
  8. Department of Medicine Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  9. Department of Neurology Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  10. Department of Psychology and Human Development Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
  11. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  12. Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  13. Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science Nashville Tennessee USA
  14. Department of Biomedical Engineering Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
  15. Department of Neurological Surgery Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  16. Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health Baltimore Maryland USA
  17. Department of Special Education Peabody College of Education and Human Development Nashville Tennessee USA
  18. Life Span Institute and Department of Psychology University of Kansas Lawrence Kansas USA
  19. Department of Computer Science Park University Parkville Missouri USA
  20. Department of Biostatistics Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville Tennessee USA
  21. Donders Centre for Cognition Radboud University Nijmegen the Netherlands
  22. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen the Netherlands
  23. Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Laboratory Paris France
Institutions: Vanderbilt University (United States); Belmont University (United States); Vanderbilt University Medical Center (United States); National Institutes of Health (United States); National Institute on Aging (United States); University of Kansas (United States); Park University (United States); Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands); Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Netherlands); Donders Centre for Cognition (Netherlands)
Journal: Human brain mapping, volume 47, issue 8, article e70519
Dates: received 30 September 2025; accepted 14 March 2026; published online 6 June 2026; in print June 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1002/hbm.70519 · PMID 42249731 · PMCID PMC13241809 · OpenAlex W7163736066
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: dead link
Categories: structural MRI / diffusion (modality), human (organism), developmental (subfield)
Methods: Connectivity, Statistics, Machine learning, fMRI & imaging, Physiology & signal measures
Keywords: asymmetry, diffusion MRI, lateralization, lifespan development, tractography, white matter
MeSH: Aging*, Brain*, Functional Laterality*, Human Development*, White Matter*, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Child, Child, Preschool, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Neural Pathways, Young Adult (* major topic)
Topic: Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience (Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: NIH (K01‐EB032898, K01‐AG073584, 1R01EB017230‐01A1, K24‐AG046373, 1S10OD020154‐01, 1S10OD023680‐01, U01‐AG024904, U24 AG072122, 1S10OD021771‐01); Vanderbilt University (VR3029, UL1‐TR000445, UL1‐TR002243, VR53419); U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (U.S. National Institute on Aging) (R01‐AG034962, R01‐AG056534, R01‐AG062826, U24 AG074855, U01 AG068057, R01 AG059716, R01AG017917, P30AG10161, P30AG072975, R01AG022018); Alzheimer's Association (IIRG‐08‐88733); U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (RC2DA029475‐01, R01HD055741‐01, R01 HD089474, R37 HD095519, R01 HD044073, R01 HD067254, P50 HD103537); National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007347, T32GM152284); Donders Mohrmann Fellowship (2401515); Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; HHS | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (BRAINS R01MH094639‐01, R01MH129634); Child Mind Institute
Citations: cited by 3 papers (Europe PMC); 118 references in the paper

Abstract

Asymmetry in white matter is believed to give rise to the brain's capacity for specialized processing and is involved in the lateralization of various cognitive processes, such as language and visuo‐spatial reasoning. Although studies of white matter asymmetry have been previously documented, they have often been constrained by limited age ranges, sample sizes, or the scope of the tracts and structural features examined. While normative lifespan charts for brain structures are emerging, comprehensive charts detailing white matter asymmetries across numerous pathways and diverse structural measures have been notably absent. This study addresses this gap by leveraging a large‐scale dataset of 35,120 typically developing and aging individuals, ranging from 0 to 100 years of age, from 50 primary neuroimaging studies. We generated comprehensive lifespan trajectories for 30 lateralized association and projection white matter tracts, examining six distinct microstructural and macrostructural features of these pathways. Our findings reveal that: (1) asymmetries are widespread across the brain's white matter and are present in all 30 pathways; (2) for a given pathway, the degree and direction of asymmetry differ between features of tissue microstructure and pathway macrostructure; (3) asymmetries vary across and within pathway types (association and projection tracts); and (4) these asymmetries are not static, following unique trajectories across the lifespan, with distinct changes during development, and a general trend of becoming more asymmetric with increasing age (particularly in later adulthood) across pathways. This study represents the most extensive characterization of white matter asymmetry across the lifespan to date, charting how lateralization patterns emerge, mature, and change throughout life. It provides a foundational resource for understanding the principles of white matter organization from early to late life, its relation to functional specialization and inter‐individual variability, and offers a key reference for interpreting deviations during healthy development and aging as well as those associated with clinical populations.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

masilab/asymmetry

License: none: the authors keep all their rights
State: the link is dead, verified on 27 September 2026
Evidence: found in the paper
Software Heritage: not archived
Found in: “Data Availability Statement”
Not found: README, license file, CITATION.cff, environment file, tests, continuous integration, documentation
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 27 September 2026: the link is dead
  • 27 September 2026: the link is dead
At the source: github.com/MASILab/Asymmetry/src/fit_model_pynm.py

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

What the map holds:

  • 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
  • 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
  • no match between paragraphs and code yet;
  • neither the text of the paper nor the code itself.

Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

Datasets cited

Data Availability Statement

Population curves for each pathway and each feature are in npy format and available on Zenodo [https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18202413]. Code for GAMLSS fitting is at https://github.com/MASILab/Asymmetry/src/fit_model_pynm.py and https://github.com/MASILab/Asymmetry/src/fit_model_handedness_pynm.py. Code to generate figures is at https://github.com/MASILab/Asymmetry/src/main_text_figures.ipynb, https://github.com/MASILab/Asymmetry/src/handedness_figures.ipynb, and https://github.com/MASILab/Asymmetry/src/dataset_plots.ipynb. Additionally, the GAMLSS models for each pathway and each feature are available on Zenodo.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 34 authors, 6 keywords, 20 MeSH terms, 10 funders, 114 references.

Cite

This paper

Bogdanov, S., Kanakaraj, P., Kim, M. E., Samir, J., Gao, C., Ramadass, K., Rudravaram, G., Newlin, N. R., Archer, D., Hohman, T. J., Jefferson, A. L., Morgan, V. L., Roche, A., Englot, D. J., Resnick, S. M., Beason Held, L. L., Cutting, L. E., Barquero, L. A., D'Archangel, M. A., . . . Schilling, K. G. (2026). Lifespan Trajectories of Asymmetry in White Matter Tracts. Human brain mapping, 47(8), e70519. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.70519

BibTeX

@article{bogdanov2026lifespan,
author = {Bogdanov, Sam and Kanakaraj, Praitayini and Kim, Michael E. and Samir, Jessica and Gao, Chenyu and Ramadass, Karthik and Rudravaram, Gaurav and Newlin, Nancy R. and Archer, Derek and Hohman, Timothy J. and Jefferson, Angela L. and Morgan, Victoria L. and Roche, Alexandra and Englot, Dario J. and Resnick, Susan M. and Beason Held, Lori L. and Cutting, Laurie E. and Barquero, Laura A. and D'Archangel, Micah A. and Nguyen, Tin Q. and Humphreys, Kathryn L. and Niu, Yanbin and Vinci‐Booher, Sophia and Cascio, Carissa J. and {The HABS‐HD Study Team} and {Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative} and {The BIOCARD Study Team} and Li, Zhiyuan and Vandekar, Simon N. and Zhang, Panpan and Gore, John C. and Forkel, Stephanie J. and Landman, Bennett A. and Schilling, Kurt G.},
title = {{Lifespan Trajectories of Asymmetry in White Matter Tracts}},
journal = {Human brain mapping},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
volume = {47},
number = {8},
pages = {e70519},
publisher = {Wiley},
issn = {1065-9471},
doi = {10.1002/hbm.70519},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.70519},
pmid = {42249731},
pmcid = {PMC13241809}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Bogdanov, Sam
AU - Kanakaraj, Praitayini
AU - Kim, Michael E.
AU - Samir, Jessica
AU - Gao, Chenyu
AU - Ramadass, Karthik
AU - Rudravaram, Gaurav
AU - Newlin, Nancy R.
AU - Archer, Derek
AU - Hohman, Timothy J.
AU - Jefferson, Angela L.
AU - Morgan, Victoria L.
AU - Roche, Alexandra
AU - Englot, Dario J.
AU - Resnick, Susan M.
AU - Beason Held, Lori L.
AU - Cutting, Laurie E.
AU - Barquero, Laura A.
AU - D'Archangel, Micah A.
AU - Nguyen, Tin Q.
AU - Humphreys, Kathryn L.
AU - Niu, Yanbin
AU - Vinci‐Booher, Sophia
AU - Cascio, Carissa J.
AU - The HABS‐HD Study Team
AU - Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
AU - The BIOCARD Study Team
AU - Li, Zhiyuan
AU - Vandekar, Simon N.
AU - Zhang, Panpan
AU - Gore, John C.
AU - Forkel, Stephanie J.
AU - Landman, Bennett A.
AU - Schilling, Kurt G.
TI - Lifespan Trajectories of Asymmetry in White Matter Tracts
T2 - Human brain mapping
J2 - Hum Brain Mapp
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/01
VL - 47
IS - 8
SP - e70519
SN - 1065-9471
PB - Wiley
DO - 10.1002/hbm.70519
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.70519
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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