Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), 44139 Dortmund, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, United States.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 May 24;33(11):6723-6741. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac538.
Few tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) studies have investigated the relations between intelligence and white matter microstructure in healthy (young) adults, and those have yielded mixed observations, yet white matter is fundamental for efficient and accurate information transfer throughout the human brain. We used a multicenter approach to identify white matter regions that show replicable structure-function associations, employing data from 4 independent samples comprising over 2000 healthy participants. TBSS indicated 188 voxels exhibited significant positive associations between g factor scores and fractional anisotropy (FA) in all 4 data sets. Replicable voxels formed 3 clusters, located around the left-hemispheric forceps minor, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and cingulum-cingulate gyrus with extensions into their surrounding areas (anterior thalamic radiation, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus). Our results suggested that individual differences in general intelligence are robustly associated with white matter FA in specific fiber bundles distributed across the brain, consistent with the Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory of intelligence. Three possible reasons higher FA values might create links with higher g are faster information processing due to greater myelination, more direct information processing due to parallel, homogenous fiber orientation distributions, or more parallel information processing due to greater axon density.
很少有基于束路径的空间统计学 (TBSS) 研究调查过健康（年轻）成年人的智力与白质微观结构之间的关系，而且这些研究的观察结果也存在差异，但白质对于整个大脑中高效、准确的信息传递是至关重要的。我们采用多中心方法来识别与 g 因素分数呈显著正相关的白质区域，使用来自包含 2000 多名健康参与者的 4 个独立样本的数据。TBSS 分析表明，在所有 4 个数据集的 188 个体素中，g 因子分数与各向异性分数（FA）之间存在显著的正相关关系。可复制的体素形成了 3 个簇，位于左半球小内囊、上纵束以及扣带-扣带回及其周围区域（丘脑前辐射、下额枕束）。我们的研究结果表明，一般智力的个体差异与分布在大脑中的特定纤维束的白质 FA 之间存在稳健的关联，这与智力的顶-额整合理论一致。有 3 种可能的原因可以解释为什么 FA 值较高可能与 g 因素较高有关：更高的髓鞘化可能导致更快的信息处理，更直接的信息处理可能是由于纤维方向分布的平行性和同质性，或者更平行的信息处理可能是由于轴突密度更大。
