Intelligence and brain size in 100 postmortem brains: sex, lateralization and age factors
Intelligence and brain size in 100 postmortem brains: sex, lateralization and age factors
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DOI：
10.1093/brain/awh696
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发表时间：
2006-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
14.5
通讯作者：
Kigar, DL
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Witelson, SF;Beresh, H;Kigar, DL
人类智力变异的神经基础尚不清楚。许多研究将大脑大小（如脑重量、头围、CT 或 MRI 脑体积）与不同的智力测试指标联系起来，并使用不同定义的受试者样本，得出了不一致的结果，相关性从 0 到 0.6 不等，大多数相关性类似于 0.3 或 0.4。迄今为止，还没有关于智力与死后脑容量相关的研究。我们报告了对 100 例（58 名女性和 42 名男性）前瞻性获得全量表韦氏成人智力量表分数的研究结果。能力与脑容量相关，但这种关系取决于所研究的智力领域，以及受试者的性别和半球功能侧化。女性和惯用右手的男性的一般语言能力与大脑体积和每个半球的体积呈正相关，占语言智力变异的 36%。在非右利手男性中没有证据表明存在这种关系，这表明至少对于言语智力而言，功能不对称可能是男性结构功能关系的相关因素，但对于女性则不然。在女性中，一般视觉空间能力也与脑容量呈正相关，但不太强烈，约占方差的 10%。在男性中，视觉空间能力与脑容量之间存在不显着的负相关趋势，这表明视觉空间能力的神经基础可能在性别之间存在差异。对用作测试用例的其他研究对象的分析为我们的回归模型提供了支持。在男性中，视觉空间能力和脑容量通过实际年龄因素密切相关，这表明有据可查的视觉空间智力随年龄的下降与脑容量随年龄的减少有关，至少在右利手男性中是如此。我们发现，随着年龄的增长，女性的脑容量仅略有减少。这使得女性视觉空间随年龄增长而衰退的神经基础尚不清楚。研究发现，身高在各性别大脑体积差异中占 1-4%，而有据可查的大脑体积性别差异的基础却没有得到解释。通过更精细的特定认知能力测试仪器及其相关大脑区域的测量，很可能会观察到更强的结构-功能关系。我们的结果表明，在考虑使用大脑图像作为智力测试的可能性时需要承担责任。
The neural basis of variation in human intelligence is not well delineated. Numerous studies relating measures of brain size such as brain weight, head circumference, CT or MRI brain volume to different intelligence test measures, with variously defined samples of subjects have yielded inconsistent findings with correlations from similar to 0 to 0.6, with most correlations similar to 0.3 or 0.4. The study of intelligence in relation to postmortem cerebral volume is not available to date. We report the results of such a study on 100 cases (58 women and 42 men) having prospectively obtained Full Scale Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale scores. Ability correlated with cerebral volume, but the relationship depended on the realm of intelligence studied, as well as the sex and hemispheric functional lateralization of the subject. General verbal ability was positively correlated with cerebral volume and each hemisphere's volume in women and in right-handed men accounting for 36% of the variation in verbal intelligence. There was no evidence of such a relationship in non-right-handed men, indicating that at least for verbal intelligence, functional asymmetry may be a relevant factor in structure-function relationships in men, but not in women. In women, general visuospatial ability was also positively correlated with cerebral volume, but less strongly, accounting for similar to 10% of the variance. In men, there was a non-significant trend of a negative correlation between visuospatial ability and cerebral volume, suggesting that the neural substrate of visuospatial ability may differ between the sexes. Analyses of additional research subjects used as test cases provided support for our regression models. In men, visuospatial ability and cerebral volume were strongly linked via the factor of chronological age, suggesting that the well-documented decline in visuospatial intelligence with age is related, at least in right-handed men, to the decrease in cerebral volume with age. We found that cerebral volume decreased only minimally with age in women. This leaves unknown the neural substrate underlying the visuospatial decline with age in women. Body height was found to account for 1-4% of the variation in cerebral volume within each sex, leaving the basis of the well-documented sex difference in cerebral volume unaccounted for. With finer testing instruments of specific cognitive abilities and measures of their associated brain regions, it is likely that stronger structure-function relationships will be observed. Our results point to the need for responsibility in the consideration of the possible use of brain images as intelligence tests.