Smart Ageing International Research Center, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e25532. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025532. Epub 2011 Sep 29.
Recently, much scientific attention has been focused on resting brain activity and its investigation through such methods as the analysis of functional connectivity during rest (the temporal correlation of brain activities in different regions). However, investigation of the magnitude of brain activity during rest has focused on the relative decrease of brain activity during a task, rather than on the absolute resting brain activity. It is thus necessary to investigate the association between cognitive factors and measures of absolute resting brain activity, such as cerebral blood flow (CBF), during rest (rest-CBF). In this study, we examined this association using multiple regression analyses. Rest-CBF was the dependent variable and the independent variables included two essential components of cognitive functions, psychometric general intelligence and creativity. CBF was measured using arterial spin labeling and there were three analyses for rest-CBF; namely mean gray matter rest-CBF, mean white matter rest-CBF, and regional rest-CBF. The results showed that mean gray and white matter rest-CBF were significantly and positively correlated with individual psychometric intelligence. Furthermore, mean white matter rest-CBF was significantly and positively correlated with creativity. After correcting the effect of mean gray matter rest-CBF the significant and positive correlation between regional rest-CBF in the perisylvian anatomical cluster that includes the left superior temporal gyrus and insula and individual psychometric intelligence was found. Also, regional rest-CBF in the precuneus was significantly and negatively correlated with individual creativity. Significance of these results of regional rest-CBF did not change when the effect of regional gray matter density was corrected. The findings showed mean and regional rest-CBF in healthy young subjects to be correlated with cognitive functions. The findings also suggest that, even in young cognitively intact subjects, resting brain activity (possibly underlain by default cognitive activity or metabolic demand from developed brain structures) is associated with cognitive functions.
最近，人们对静息态脑活动及其研究给予了高度关注，研究方法包括分析静息状态下的功能连接（不同脑区活动的时间相关性）。然而，静息态脑活动幅度的研究主要集中在任务状态下脑活动的相对减少，而不是绝对的静息脑活动。因此，有必要研究静息状态下认知因素与脑血流（CBF）等绝对静息脑活动测量值之间的相关性。在这项研究中，我们使用多元回归分析来检验这种相关性。静息态 CBF 是因变量，自变量包括认知功能的两个基本组成部分，即心理计量一般智力和创造力。CBF 使用动脉自旋标记法进行测量，有三种静息态 CBF 分析；即平均灰质静息态 CBF、平均白质静息态 CBF 和区域静息态 CBF。结果表明，平均灰质和白质静息态 CBF 与个体心理计量智力呈显著正相关。此外，平均白质静息态 CBF 与创造力呈显著正相关。在校正平均灰质静息态 CBF 的影响后，发现包括左侧颞上回和岛叶在内的围侧裂解剖簇的区域静息态 CBF 与个体心理计量智力呈显著正相关。此外，楔前叶的区域静息态 CBF 与个体创造力呈显著负相关。当校正区域灰质密度的影响时，区域静息态 CBF 的这些结果的显著性并没有改变。这些发现表明，健康年轻受试者的平均和区域静息态 CBF 与认知功能相关。这些发现还表明，即使在年轻认知正常的受试者中，静息态脑活动（可能由默认认知活动或发达的大脑结构的代谢需求所支撑）与认知功能相关。
