The hidden link between cerebral white matter development and somatic height growth

Motivation: Developmental pruning of neural connectivity allows energy to be allocated for somatic growth spurts. Goal(s): To investigate whether children with earlier growth spurts have undergone more pruning of their cerebral white matter (WM). Approach: Compare diffusion kurtosis imaging metrics in age-matched children of different growth spurt stages. Results: Children with earlier onset of somatic growth exhibit diffusion metrics associated with less advanced WM growth. Impact: This work challenges the interpretation of WM developmental trajectories as reflecting insular monotonic growth. Instead, WM development appears to comprise not only WM growth but also WM pruning that allocates energy for somatic growth.