Yu Chunshui, Li Jun, Liu Yong, Qin Wen, Li Yonghui, Shu Ni, Jiang Tianzi, Li Kuncheng
Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, People's Republic of China.
Neuroimage. 2008 May 1;40(4):1533-41. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.01.063. Epub 2008 Feb 15.
It is well known that brain structures correlate with intelligence but the association between the integrity of brain white matter tracts and intelligence in patients with mental retardation (MR) and healthy adults remains unknown. The aims of this study are to investigate whether the integrity of corpus callosum (CC), cingulum, uncinate fasciculus (UF), optic radiation (OR) and corticospinal tract (CST) are damaged in patients with MR, and to determine the correlations between the integrity of these tracts and full scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) in both patients and controls. Fifteen MR patients and 79 healthy controls underwent intelligence tests and diffusion tensor imaging examinations. According to the FSIQ, all healthy controls were divided into general intelligence (GI: FSIQ<120; n=42) and high intelligence (HI: FSIQ> or =120; n=37) groups. Intelligence was assessed by Chinese Revised Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and white matter tract integrity was assessed by fractional anisotropy (FA). MR patients showed significantly lower FA than healthy controls in the CC, UF, OR and CST. However, GI subjects only demonstrated lower FA than HI subjects in the right UF. Partial correlation analysis controlling for age and sex showed that FSIQ scores were significantly correlated with the FA of the bilateral UF, genu and truncus of CC, bilateral OR and left CST. While FSIQ scores were only significantly correlated with the FA of the right UF when further controlling for group. This study indicate that MR patients show extensive damage in the integrity of the brain white matter tracts, and the right UF is an important neural basis of human intelligence.
众所周知，脑结构与智力相关，但智障（MR）患者和健康成年人脑白质束完整性与智力之间的关联尚不清楚。本研究的目的是调查胼胝体（CC）、扣带束、钩束（UF）、视辐射（OR）和皮质脊髓束（CST）的完整性在MR患者中是否受损，并确定这些束的完整性与患者及对照组的全量表智商（FSIQ）之间的相关性。15例MR患者和79名健康对照者接受了智力测试和扩散张量成像检查。根据FSIQ，将所有健康对照者分为一般智力（GI：FSIQ<120；n=42）和高智力（HI：FSIQ≥120；n=37）组。采用中国修订韦氏成人智力量表评估智力，采用分数各向异性（FA）评估白质束完整性。MR患者在CC、UF、OR和CST中的FA显著低于健康对照者。然而，GI组仅在右侧UF中显示出比HI组更低的FA。控制年龄和性别的偏相关分析显示，FSIQ得分与双侧UF、CC的膝部和体部、双侧OR以及左侧CST的FA显著相关。而在进一步控制组别的情况下，FSIQ得分仅与右侧UF的FA显著相关。本研究表明，MR患者脑白质束完整性存在广泛损伤，右侧UF是人类智力的重要神经基础。
