Ryman Sephira G, Yeo Ronald A, Witkiewitz Katie, Vakhtin Andrei A, van den Heuvel Martijn, de Reus Marcel, Flores Ranee A, Wertz Christopher R, Jung Rex E
Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2016 Nov;37(11):4006-4016. doi: 10.1002/hbm.23291.
While there are minimal sex differences in overall intelligence, males, on average, have larger total brain volume and corresponding regional brain volumes compared to females, measures that are consistently related to intelligence. Limited research has examined which other brain characteristics may differentially contribute to intelligence in females to facilitate equal performance on intelligence measures. Recent reports of sex differences in the neural characteristics of the brain further highlight the need to differentiate how the structural neural characteristics relate to intellectual ability in males and females. The current study utilized a graph network approach in conjunction with structural equation modeling to examine potential sex differences in the relationship between white matter efficiency, fronto-parietal gray matter volume, and general cognitive ability (GCA). Participants were healthy adults (n = 244) who completed a battery of cognitive testing and underwent structural neuroimaging. Results indicated that in males, a latent factor of fronto-parietal gray matter was significantly related to GCA when controlling for total gray matter volume. In females, white matter efficiency and total gray matter volume were significantly related to GCA, with no specificity of the fronto-parietal gray matter factor over and above total gray matter volume. This work highlights that different neural characteristics across males and females may contribute to performance on intelligence measures. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4006-4016, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
虽然总体智力方面的性别差异极小，但平均而言，男性的全脑体积以及相应的脑区体积比女性更大，而这些指标一直都与智力相关。有限的研究探讨了其他哪些大脑特征可能对女性的智力有不同的贡献，以促进在智力测试中取得同等表现。最近有关大脑神经特征性别差异的报告进一步凸显了区分男性和女性的结构神经特征与智力能力之间关系的必要性。当前的研究采用了图网络方法并结合结构方程模型，来检验白质效率、额顶叶灰质体积和一般认知能力（GCA）之间关系中潜在的性别差异。参与者为健康成年人（n = 244），他们完成了一系列认知测试并接受了结构神经成像检查。结果表明，在男性中，控制全灰质体积后，额顶叶灰质的一个潜在因子与GCA显著相关。在女性中，白质效率和全灰质体积与GCA显著相关，额顶叶灰质因子在全灰质体积之上并无特异性。这项研究强调，男性和女性不同的神经特征可能对智力测试表现有贡献。《人类大脑图谱》37:4006 - 4016，2016年。© 2016威利期刊公司。
