Recognition of the importance of white matter development for brain function has stimulated the development of new imaging techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and magnetization transfer (MT) which can be used to assess myelination and coherence of white matter tracts. These new techniques further confirm an increase in white matter organization during adolescence, which correlates in specific brain regions with improvements in language (Nagy et al. 2004), reading (Deutsch et al. 2005), ability to inhibit a response (Liston et al. 2006) and memory (Nagy et al. 2004).
