Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2020 Mar 21;30(2):786-800. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhz126.
Cortical structure has been consistently related to cognitive abilities in children and adults, yet we know little about how the cortex develops to support emergent cognition in infancy and toddlerhood when cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) are maturing rapidly. In this report, we assessed how regional and global measures of CT and SA in a sample (N = 487) of healthy neonates, 1-year-olds, and 2-year-olds related to motor, language, visual reception, and general cognitive ability. We report novel findings that thicker cortices at ages 1 and 2 and larger SA at birth, age 1, and age 2 confer a cognitive advantage in infancy and toddlerhood. While several expected brain-cognition relationships were observed, overlapping cortical regions were also implicated across cognitive domains, suggesting that infancy marks a period of plasticity and refinement in cortical structure to support burgeoning motor, language, and cognitive abilities. CT may be a particularly important morphological indicator of ability, but its impact on cognition is relatively weak when compared with gestational age and maternal education. Findings suggest that prenatal and early postnatal cortical developments are important for cognition in infants and toddlers but should be considered in relation to other child and demographic factors.
皮质结构与儿童和成人的认知能力一直密切相关，但我们对皮质在婴儿期和幼儿期迅速发育以支持新兴认知的发展知之甚少，此时皮质厚度（CT）和表面积（SA）正在迅速成熟。在本报告中，我们评估了健康新生儿、1 岁和 2 岁儿童样本（N=487）中 CT 和 SA 的区域和整体测量值与运动、语言、视觉接收和一般认知能力之间的关系。我们报告了新的发现，即 1 岁和 2 岁时皮质较厚，以及出生时、1 岁时和 2 岁时 SA 较大，在婴儿期和幼儿期具有认知优势。虽然观察到了几个预期的大脑-认知关系，但认知领域也涉及重叠的皮质区域，这表明婴儿期是皮质结构可塑性和精细化的一个时期，以支持新兴的运动、语言和认知能力。CT 可能是能力的一个特别重要的形态指标，但与胎龄和母亲教育相比，其对认知的影响相对较弱。研究结果表明，产前和产后早期的皮质发育对婴儿和幼儿的认知很重要，但应考虑到其他儿童和人口统计学因素。
