Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013 May;14(5):322-36. doi: 10.1038/nrn3465. Epub 2013 Mar 27.
Brain structure varies between people in a markedly organized fashion. Communities of brain regions co-vary in their morphological properties. For example, cortical thickness in one region influences the thickness of structurally and functionally connected regions. Such networks of structural co-variance partially recapitulate the functional networks of healthy individuals and the foci of grey matter loss in neurodegenerative disease. This architecture is genetically heritable, is associated with behavioural and cognitive abilities and is changed systematically across the lifespan. The biological meaning of this structural co-variance remains controversial, but it appears to reflect developmental coordination or synchronized maturation between areas of the brain. This Review discusses the state of current research into brain structural co-variance, its underlying mechanisms and its potential value in the understanding of various neurological and psychiatric conditions.
大脑结构在人与人之间呈现出明显的组织方式的差异。脑区群落的形态属性共同变化。例如，一个区域的皮质厚度会影响结构上和功能上与之相连的区域的厚度。这种结构共变网络部分再现了健康个体的功能网络和神经退行性疾病中灰质损失的焦点。这种结构是可遗传的，与行为和认知能力相关，并在整个生命周期中系统地变化。这种结构共变的生物学意义仍存在争议，但它似乎反映了大脑区域之间的发育协调或同步成熟。本综述讨论了当前关于大脑结构共变的研究状况、其潜在机制以及它在理解各种神经和精神疾病中的潜在价值。
