Inside growing brains

Inside
growing
brains
“In the past, it wouldn’t have
been ethically responsible to expose
children to even the small amount of
radiation that CT scanners emit unless
there was a clinical indication to do
so,” explains Donald, a paediatric
neurologist based at the Red Cross
War Memorial Children’s Hospital in
Cape Town. “But magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) has made it possible for
us to conduct this kind of research.”
“One major benefit of MRI – which
is completely safe, non-invasive and
does not involve any harmful, ionising
radiation – is that we can ethically
study brain development and ageing in
14
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They have shown that exposure to HIV can alter
the health and maturity of white matter in babies’ brains,
even if they have not been infected by the virus.
normal, healthy populations from birth,
throughout childhood, into adulthood
and beyond,” agrees Meintjes, the
South African Department of Science
and Technology/National Research
Foundation Research Chair in Brain
Imaging.
“This allows us to establish
trajectories of normal brain
development and ageing – critical if
we want to examine how disease alters
brain development and function.”
Donald and Meintjes are involved
in several long-term studies looking
at how children’s brains develop –
both in the womb and after birth
– in the context of high-risk factors
like alcohol use, cigarette smoking,
methamphetamine use, poor maternal
mental health and exposure to HIV.
For example, they have shown that
exposure to HIV can alter the health and
maturity of white matter – which affects
learning and brain functions – in babies’
brains, even if they have not been
infected by the virus.
“It looks like this is also leading
to structural changes later on,” says
Donald.
Meintjes explains that recent
research from the Cape Universities
Body Imaging Centre, of which she
PHOTOGRAPH: TINA FLOERSCH/UNSPLASH
Recent growth in
availability of safe and
non-invasive techniques
for visualising the brain
has had a huge impact on
how we study children’s
brains. UCT researchers
Professor Kirsty Donald
and Professor Ernesta
Meintjes explain what they
have learnt about how
young brains develop in
high-risk contexts.

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