Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
Neuroimage. 2023 Jun;273:120117. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120117. Epub 2023 Apr 14.
Maximal grip strength is associated with a variety of health-related outcome measures and thus may be reflective of the efficiency of foundational brain-body communication. Non-human primate models of grip strength strongly implicate the cortical lateral grasping network, but little is known about the translatability of these models to human children. Further, it is unclear how supplementary networks that provide proprioceptive information and cerebellar-based motor command modification are associated with maximal grip strength. Therefore, this study employed high resolution, multi-shell diffusion and quantitative T1 imaging to examine how variations in lateral grasping, proprioception input, and cortico-cerebellar modification network white matter microstructure are associated with variations in grip strength across 70 children. Results indicated that stronger grip strength was associated with higher lateral grasping and proprioception input network fractional anisotropy and R1, indirect measures consistent with stronger microstructural coherence and increased myelination. No relationships were found in the cerebellar modification network. These results provide a neurobiological mechanism of grip behavior in children which suggests that increased myelination of cortical sensory and motor pathways is associated with stronger grip. This neurobiological mechanism may be a signature of pediatric neuro-motor behavior more broadly as evidenced by the previously demonstrated relationships between grip strength and behavioral outcome measures across a variety of clinical and non-clinical populations.
最大握力与多种与健康相关的测量结果相关，因此可能反映了基础大脑-身体通讯的效率。非人类灵长类动物的握力模型强烈暗示了皮质外侧抓握网络，但对于这些模型在人类儿童中的可翻译性知之甚少。此外，尚不清楚提供本体感受信息和基于小脑的运动指令修改的补充网络与最大握力有何关联。因此，本研究采用高分辨率、多壳扩散和定量 T1 成像技术，研究了外侧抓握、本体感受输入和皮质-小脑修正网络白质微观结构的变化如何与 70 名儿童的握力变化相关。结果表明，握力越强，外侧抓握和本体感受输入网络的各向异性分数和 R1 越高，这是与更强的微观结构一致性和增加的髓鞘化一致的间接测量指标。小脑修正网络中未发现相关性。这些结果为儿童握力行为提供了神经生物学机制，表明皮质感觉和运动通路的髓鞘化增加与握力增强有关。这种神经生物学机制可能是儿科神经运动行为的特征，这一点从先前在各种临床和非临床人群中表现出的握力与行为结果测量之间的关系中得到了证明。
