Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2013 Dec;34(12):3216-32. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22139. Epub 2012 Jul 17.
Sustained attention develops during childhood and has been linked to the right fronto-parietal cortices in functional imaging studies; however, less is known about its relation to white matter (WM) characteristics. Here we investigated whether the microstructure of the WM underlying and connecting the right fronto-parietal cortices was associated with sustained attention performance in a group of 76 typically developing children aged 7-13 years. Sustained attention was assessed using a rapid visual information processing paradigm. The two behavioral measures of interest were the sensitivity index d' and the coefficient of variation in reaction times (RTCV ). Diffusion-weighted imaging was performed. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) was extracted from the WM underlying right dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) and parietal cortex (PC), and the right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), as well as equivalent anatomical regions-of-interest (ROIs) in the left hemisphere and mean global WM FA. When analyzed collectively, right hemisphere ROIs FA was significantly associated with d' independently of age. Follow-up analyses revealed that only FA of right SLF and the superior part of the right PC contributed significantly to this association. RTCV was significantly associated with right superior PC FA, but not with right SLF FA. Observed associations remained significant after controlling for FA of equivalent left hemisphere ROIs or global mean FA. In conclusion, better sustained attention performance was associated with higher FA of WM in regions connecting right frontal and parietal cortices. Further studies are needed to clarify to which extent these associations are driven by maturational processes, stable characteristics and/or experience.
持续注意力在儿童时期发展，并在功能成像研究中与右额顶叶皮质有关;然而，关于它与白质（WM）特征的关系知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了在一组 76 名年龄在 7-13 岁的典型发育儿童中，连接右额顶叶皮质的 WM 的微观结构是否与持续注意力表现有关。使用快速视觉信息处理范式评估持续注意力。两个感兴趣的行为测量指标是敏感性指数 d'和反应时（RTCV）的变异系数。进行了扩散加权成像。从 WM 下的右背外侧前额叶（DLPFC）和顶叶皮层（PC）以及右上纵束（SLF）中提取平均分数各向异性（FA），以及左半球和平均全局 WM FA 的等效解剖 ROI。当进行综合分析时，右半球 ROI 的 FA 与 d'显著相关，与年龄无关。后续分析表明，只有右 SLF 和右 PC 的上部分的 FA 对此关联有显著贡献。RTCV 与右顶叶 PC FA 显著相关，但与右 SLF FA 无关。在控制等效左半球 ROI 的 FA 或全局平均 FA 后，观察到的关联仍然显著。总之，更好的持续注意力表现与连接右额和顶叶皮质的 WM 的更高 FA 有关。需要进一步的研究来阐明这些关联在多大程度上是由成熟过程、稳定特征和/或经验驱动的。
