Saltoun Karin, Yeo B T Thomas, Paul Lynn, Diedrichsen Jorn, Bzdok Danilo
The Neuro - Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):5611. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60451-8.
Human beings may have evolved the largest asymmetries of brain organization in the animal kingdom. Hemispheric left-vs-right specialization is especially pronounced in species-unique capacities, including emotional processing such as facial judgments, language-based feats such as reading books, and creativity such as musical performances. We hence chart the largest longitudinal brain-imaging resource, and provide evidence that brain asymmetry changes continuously in a manner suggestive of neural plasticity throughout adulthood. In the UK Biobank population cohort, we demonstrate that whole-brain patterns of asymmetry changes show robust phenome-wide associations across 959 distinct variables spanning 11 categories. We also find that changes in brain asymmetry over years co-occur with changes among specific lifestyle markers. We uncover specific brain asymmetry changes which systematically co-occur with entering a new phase of life, namely retirement. Finally, we reveal relevance of evolving brain asymmetry within subjects to major disease categories across ~4500 total medical diagnoses. Our findings speak against the idea that asymmetrical neural systems are conserved throughout adulthood.
人类可能进化出了动物界中最大的大脑组织不对称性。半球左右特化在物种特有的能力中尤为明显,包括面部判断等情感处理、读书等基于语言的技能以及音乐表演等创造力。因此,我们绘制了最大的纵向脑成像资源图,并提供证据表明,在整个成年期,大脑不对称性以一种暗示神经可塑性的方式持续变化。在英国生物银行人群队列中,我们证明,不对称性变化的全脑模式在跨越11个类别的959个不同变量中显示出强大的全表型关联。我们还发现,多年来大脑不对称性的变化与特定生活方式标志物的变化同时出现。我们发现了特定的大脑不对称性变化,这些变化与进入人生新阶段(即退休)系统性地同时出现。最后,我们揭示了个体大脑不对称性的演变与约4500种总医学诊断中的主要疾病类别之间的相关性。我们的研究结果反对不对称神经系统在整个成年期都保持不变的观点。
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