Santarnecchi Emiliano, Rossi Simone, Rossi Alessandro
Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab, University of Siena, Italy; Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab, University of Siena, Italy.
Cortex. 2015 Mar;64:293-309. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.11.005. Epub 2014 Dec 2.
Neuroimaging evidences posit human intelligence as tightly coupled with several structural and functional brain properties, also suggesting its potential protective role against aging and neurodegenerative conditions. However, whether higher order cognition might in fact lead to a more resilient brain has not been quantitatively demonstrated yet. Here we document a relationship between individual intelligence quotient (IQ) and brain resilience to targeted and random attacks, as measured through resting-state fMRI graph-theoretical analysis in 102 healthy individuals. In this modeling context, enhanced brain robustness to targeted attacks (TA) in individuals with higher IQ is supported by an increased distributed processing capacity despite the systematic loss of the most important node(s) of the system. Moreover, brain resilience in individuals with higher IQ is supported by a set of neocortical regions mainly belonging to language and memory processing network(s), whereas regions related to emotional processing are mostly responsible for lower IQ individuals. Results suggest intelligence level among the predictors of post-lesional or neurodegenerative recovery, also promoting the evolutionary role of higher order cognition, and simultaneously suggesting a new framework for brain stimulation interventions aimed at counteract brain deterioration over time.
神经影像学证据表明，人类智力与大脑的多种结构和功能特性紧密相关，这也暗示了其对衰老和神经退行性疾病可能具有的保护作用。然而，高阶认知是否实际上会导致大脑更具弹性，尚未得到定量证明。在此，我们通过对102名健康个体进行静息态功能磁共振成像的图论分析，记录了个体智商（IQ）与大脑对靶向攻击和随机攻击的弹性之间的关系。在这种建模背景下，尽管系统中最重要的节点出现系统性损失，但智商较高的个体对靶向攻击（TA）的大脑鲁棒性增强，这得益于分布式处理能力的提高。此外，智商较高的个体的大脑弹性由一组主要属于语言和记忆处理网络的新皮质区域支撑，而与情绪处理相关的区域则主要影响智商较低的个体。结果表明，智力水平是损伤后或神经退行性恢复的预测指标之一，这也促进了高阶认知的进化作用，同时为旨在对抗大脑随时间退化的脑刺激干预提出了一个新框架。
