University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Brain Res. 2013 Nov 6;1537:59-68. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2013.08.053. Epub 2013 Sep 4.
Significant cortical thinning and neural resource allocation changes emerge during adolescence; however, little is known of how morphometric changes influence neural response to cognitive demands. This study used a novel multimodal imaging registration technique to examine the relationship between brain structure and function during adolescence.
156 healthy 12-14 year-olds (44% female) participants underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cortical surface reconstruction was performed via FreeSurfer, and neural activation was measured from a blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast during visual working memory (VWM) via AFNI. AFNI Surface Mapper aligned segmented volumetric and functional datasets to a common template space. Hierarchical linear regressions determined the effect of cortical thickness on VWM BOLD contrast in brain regions that activated during the VWM task, controlling for age, pubertal development, gender, IQ, and intracranial volume.
Power analyses suggest this study was able to detect small effect sizes. However, in no region was cortical thickness related to BOLD activation (ps>.01; R(2)Δ<.02). Gender did not moderate effects.
Cortical thickness, although variable across individuals, was not related to BOLD response, suggesting that structural and functional maturation do not have the same developmental trajectory during early adolescence. These findings are important, as imaging studies that report group differences in regards to cortical thickness should not necessarily assume co-occurring behavioral or functional changes. The methodology used in this study could be of interest to other developmental neuroimaging researchers using multimodal imaging to understand adolescent brain development.
在青春期，大脑皮质会出现明显的变薄和神经资源分配的改变；然而，对于形态变化如何影响神经对认知需求的反应，我们知之甚少。本研究使用一种新的多模态成像配准技术来研究青少年时期大脑结构和功能之间的关系。
156 名健康的 12-14 岁青少年（44%为女性）参与者接受了结构和功能磁共振成像。通过 FreeSurfer 进行皮质表面重建，通过 AFNI 在视觉工作记忆（VWM）期间测量血氧水平依赖（BOLD）对比的神经激活。AFNI Surface Mapper 将分段容积和功能数据集与公共模板空间对齐。分层线性回归确定皮质厚度对 VWM 任务激活的大脑区域中 VWM BOLD 对比的影响，同时控制年龄、青春期发育、性别、智商和颅内体积。
功效分析表明，本研究能够检测到小的效应量。然而，在没有一个区域，皮质厚度与 BOLD 激活相关（ps>.01；R(2)Δ<.02）。性别没有调节作用。
尽管个体之间的皮质厚度存在差异，但与 BOLD 反应无关，这表明结构和功能成熟在青少年早期没有相同的发展轨迹。这些发现很重要，因为那些报告皮质厚度存在组间差异的影像学研究不应理所当然地认为存在同时发生的行为或功能变化。本研究中使用的方法可能对其他使用多模态成像来理解青少年大脑发育的发展神经影像学研究人员感兴趣。
