Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2010 Jun;31(6):891-903. doi: 10.1002/hbm.21069.
Population neuroscience endeavours to identify environmental and genetic factors that shape the function and structure of the human brain; it uses tools and knowledge of genetics, epidemiology, and cognitive neuroscience. Here, I focus on the application of population neuroscience in studies of brain development. By describing in some detail four existing large-scale magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies of typically developing children and adolescents, I provide an overview of their design, including population sampling and recruitment, assessments of environmental and genetic "exposures," and measurements of brain and behavior "outcomes." I then discuss challenges faced by investigators carrying out such MR-based studies, including quality assurance, quality control and intersite coordination, and provide a brief overview of the achievements made so far. I conclude by outlining future directions vis-à-vis population neuroscience, such as design strategies that can be used to evaluate the presence of absence of causality in associations discovered by observational studies.
人群神经科学致力于识别塑造人类大脑功能和结构的环境和遗传因素；它利用遗传学、流行病学和认知神经科学的工具和知识。在这里，我专注于人群神经科学在大脑发育研究中的应用。通过详细描述四项现有的针对典型发展儿童和青少年的大型磁共振（MR）成像研究，我概述了它们的设计，包括人群抽样和招募、环境和遗传“暴露”的评估，以及大脑和行为“结果”的测量。然后，我讨论了进行此类基于磁共振的研究的研究人员所面临的挑战，包括质量保证、质量控制和站点间协调，并简要概述了迄今为止取得的成就。最后，我概述了人群神经科学的未来方向，例如可以用于评估观察性研究中发现的关联是否存在因果关系的设计策略。
