Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Neuroimage. 2021 Feb 15;227:117643. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117643. Epub 2020 Dec 15.
Understanding the development of white matter microstructure in the general population is an imperative precursor to identifying its involvement in psychopathology. Previous studies have reported changes in white matter microstructure associated with age and different developmental patterns between boys and girls. Handedness has also been related to white matter in adults. Motor performance, tightly dependent on overall neuronal myelination, has been related to the corpus callosum. However, the association between motor performance and global white matter microstructure has not been reported in the literature. In general, these age, sex, handedness, and motor performance associations have been observed using small and poorly representative samples. We examined the relationships between age, sex, handedness, and motor performance, measured with a finger tapping task, and white matter microstructure in the forceps major and minor and in 5 tracts bilaterally (cingulum, corticospinal, inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi, and uncinate) in a population-based sample of 3031 children between 8 and 12 years of age. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were acquired using a single, study-dedicated 3 Tesla scanner. We extracted and quantified features of white matter microstructure for each tract. We computed global DTI metrics by combining scalar values across multiple tracts into single latent factors using a confirmatory factor analysis. The adjusted linear regression models indicated that age was associated with global fractional anisotropy (FA), global mean diffusivity (MD), and almost all the tracts. Further, girls showed lower global MD than boys, while FA values differed by tract, and no age-sex interactions were found. No differences were observed in white matter microstructure between right- and left-handed children. We observed that FA in forceps major was associated with right-hand finger tapping performance. White matter FA in association tracts was only related to motor function before multiple testing correction. Our findings do not provide evidence for a relationship between finger tapping task performance and global white matter microstructure.
了解普通人群白质微观结构的发展是确定其与精神病理学关系的必要前提。先前的研究报告了与年龄相关的白质微观结构变化，以及男孩和女孩之间不同的发育模式。利手也与成年人的白质有关。运动表现与整体神经元髓鞘形成密切相关，与胼胝体有关。然而，运动表现与整体白质微观结构之间的关联在文献中尚未报道。一般来说，这些与年龄、性别、利手和运动表现相关的关联是在使用小样本和代表性差的样本的情况下观察到的。我们在一个基于人群的 3031 名 8-12 岁儿童样本中，检查了年龄、性别、利手和用手指敲击任务测量的运动表现与双侧主要和次要钳状部以及 5 个束（扣带束、皮质脊髓束、下和上纵束和钩束）白质微观结构之间的关系。使用单一的专用 3T 扫描仪获取弥散张量成像（DTI）数据。我们提取并量化了每个束的白质微观结构特征。我们通过将多个束的标量值组合到单个潜在因素中，使用验证性因子分析计算了全局 DTI 指标。调整后的线性回归模型表明，年龄与全局各向异性分数（FA）、全局平均扩散系数（MD）和几乎所有束都相关。此外，女孩的全局 MD 低于男孩，而 FA 值因束而异，未发现年龄-性别相互作用。右利手和左利手儿童的白质微观结构无差异。我们观察到主要钳状部的 FA 与右手手指敲击性能相关。在进行多次测试校正之前，关联束的白质 FA 仅与运动功能相关。我们的研究结果没有提供手指敲击任务表现与整体白质微观结构之间存在关系的证据。
