Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
School of Sociality and Psychology, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Apr 18;7(1):893. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-00677-9.
Achievement in school is crucial for students to be able to pursue successful careers and lead happy lives in the future. Although many psychological attributes have been found to be associated with academic performance, the neural substrates of academic performance remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the relationship between brain structure and academic performance in a large sample of high school students via structural magnetic resonance imaging (S-MRI) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approach. The whole-brain regression analyses showed that higher academic performance was related to greater regional gray matter density (rGMD) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is considered a neural center at the intersection of cognitive and non-cognitive functions. Furthermore, mediation analyses suggested that general intelligence partially mediated the impact of the left DLPFC density on academic performance. These results persisted even after adjusting for the effect of family socioeconomic status (SES). In short, our findings reveal a potential neuroanatomical marker for academic performance and highlight the role of general intelligence in explaining the relationship between brain structure and academic performance.
学业成就对于学生未来能够成功就业和过上幸福生活至关重要。尽管已经发现许多心理特征与学业成绩相关，但学业成绩的神经基础在很大程度上仍不清楚。在这里，我们通过基于体素的形态测量学（VBM）方法，使用结构磁共振成像（S-MRI），在一个大型高中生样本中研究了大脑结构与学业成绩之间的关系。全脑回归分析表明，较高的学业成绩与左侧背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）的区域灰质密度（rGMD）较高有关，该区域被认为是认知和非认知功能交汇的神经中枢。此外，中介分析表明，一般智力部分中介了左侧 DLPFC 密度对学业成绩的影响。即使在调整家庭社会经济地位（SES）的影响后，这些结果仍然存在。总之，我们的发现揭示了学业成绩的潜在神经解剖学标志物，并强调了一般智力在解释大脑结构与学业成绩之间关系中的作用。
