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The purpose of our study is to trace in vivo and during the perinatal period, the brain maturation process with exhaustive measures of the T₂ relaxation time values. We also compared regional myelination progress with variations of the relaxation time values and of brain signal. T₂ relaxation times were measured in 7 healthy premature newborns at the post-conceptional age of 37 weeks, using a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence (echo time 60 to 150 ms), on a 2.35 Tesla Spectro-Imaging MR system. A total of 62 measures were defined for each subject within the brain stem, the basal ganglia and the hemispheric gray and white matter. The mean and standard deviation of the T₂ values were calculated for each location. Regional T₂ values changes and brain signal variations were studied. In comparison to the adult ones, the T₂ relaxation time values of both gray and white matter were highly prolonged and a …