Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents
Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents
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DOI：
10.1038/nature04513
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发表时间：
2006-03-30
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Giedd, J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shaw, P;Greenstein, D;Giedd, J
擅长三项学术技能(阅读、写作和算术)中任何一项的孩子往往会擅长其他技能，并成长为同样擅长各种智力要求活动的成年人(1-3)。事实证明，很难确定这种相对稳定的一般智力个体特征的神经解剖学相关性，特别是在儿童和青少年快速发育的大脑中。在这里，我们证明了大脑皮质厚度的变化轨迹，而不是皮质厚度本身，与智力水平最密切相关。使用纵向设计，我们发现智力与皮质厚度之间的显著发展转变，从儿童早期的主要负相关到儿童后期及以后的正相关。此外，智力水平与大脑皮质发育的轨迹有关，主要是与智能活动成熟有关的额叶区域(4，5)。更聪明的儿童表现出一种特别的可塑性皮质，最初皮质增加的加速和延长阶段，导致青春期早期同样强烈的皮质变薄。本研究表明，儿童智力的神经解剖学表达是动态的。
Children who are adept at any one of the three academic 'R's ( reading, writing and arithmetic) tend to be good at the others, and grow into adults who are similarly skilled at diverse intellectually demanding activities(1-3). Determining the neuroanatomical correlates of this relatively stable individual trait of general intelligence has proved difficult, particularly in the rapidly developing brains of children and adolescents. Here we demonstrate that the trajectory of change in the thickness of the cerebral cortex, rather than cortical thickness itself, is most closely related to level of intelligence. Using a longitudinal design, we find a marked developmental shift from a predominantly negative correlation between intelligence and cortical thickness in early childhood to a positive correlation in late childhood and beyond. Additionally, level of intelligence is associated with the trajectory of cortical development, primarily in frontal regions implicated in the maturation of intelligent activity(4,5). More intelligent children demonstrate a particularly plastic cortex, with an initial accelerated and prolonged phase of cortical increase, which yields to equally vigorous cortical thinning by early adolescence. This study indicates that the neuroanatomical expression of intelligence in children is dynamic.