Regional Cortical Surface Area in Adolescents: A Preliminary MRI Twin Study of Genetic and Environmental Contributions

General psychopathology and cognition are likely to have a bidirectional influence on each other. Yet, the relationship between brain structure, psychopathology, and cognition remains unclear. This brief report investigates the association between structural properties of the cerebral cortex [surface area, cortical thickness, intracortical myelination indexed by the T1w/T2w ratio, and neurite density assessed by restriction spectrum imaging (RSI)] with general psychopathology and cognition in a sample of children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Higher levels of psychopathology and lower levels of cognitive ability were associated with a smaller cortical surface area. Inter-regionally—across the cerebral cortex—the strength of association between an area and psychopathology is strongly correlated with the strength of association between an area and cognition. Taken together, structural deviations particularly observed in the cortical surface area influence both psychopathology and cognition.

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White matter architecture rather than cortical surface area correlates with the EEG alpha rhythm

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.030 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 2328-2339 ◽

Cited By ~ 72

Author(s):

Pedro A. Valdés-Hernández ◽

Alejandro Ojeda-González ◽

Eduardo Martínez-Montes ◽

Agustín Lage-Castellanos ◽

Trinidad Virués-Alba ◽

...

Keyword(s):

White Matter ◽

Surface Area ◽

Alpha Rhythm ◽

Cortical Surface ◽

Cortical Surface Area ◽

Eeg Alpha

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Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2001228117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 117 (22) ◽

pp. 12411-12418 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nicholas Judd ◽

Bruno Sauce ◽

John Wiedenhoeft ◽

Jeshua Tromp ◽

Bader Chaarani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Educational Attainment ◽

Brain Development ◽

Surface Area ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Parental Education ◽

Cortical Surface ◽

Cortical Surface Area ◽

Regional Association ◽

Polygenic Scores

Genetic factors and socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used a polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS), as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r= 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to nonverbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This study demonstrates a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES with cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence.

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Tonotopic and functional organization in the auditory cortex of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1993.70.5.1988 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 70 (5) ◽

pp. 1988-2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 100

Author(s):

S. P. Dear ◽

J. Fritz ◽

T. Haresign ◽

M. Ferragamo ◽

J. A. Simmons

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Neurons ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Target Range ◽

Cortical Surface ◽

Behavioral Experiments ◽

Cortical Surface Area ◽

Harmonic Ratio

1. In Eptesicus the auditory cortex, as defined by electrical activity recorded from microelectrodes in response to tone bursts, FM sweeps, and combinations of FM sweeps, encompasses an average cortical surface area of 5.7 mm2. This area is large with respect to the total cortical surface area and reflects the importance of auditory processing to this species of bat. 2. The predominant pattern of organization in response to tone bursts observed in each cortex is tonotopic, with three discernible divisions revealed by our data. However, although cortical best-frequency (BF) maps from most of the individual bats are similar, no two maps are identical. The largest division contains an average of 84% of the auditory cortical surface area, with BF tonotopically mapped from high to low along the anteroposterior axis and is part of the primary auditory cortex. The medium division encompasses an average of 13% of the auditory cortical surface area, with highly variable BF organization across bats. The third region is the smallest, with an average of only 3% of auditory cortical surface area and is located at the anterolateral edge of the cortex. This region is marked by a reversal of the tonotopic axis and a restriction in the range of BFs as compared with the larger, tonotopically organized division. 3. A population of cortical neurons was found (n = 39) in which each neuron exhibited two BF threshold minima (BF1 and BF2) in response to tone bursts. These neurons thus have multipeaked frequency threshold tuning curves. In Eptesicus the majority of multipeaked frequency-tuned neurons (n = 27) have threshold minima at frequencies that correspond to a harmonic ratio of three-to-one. In contrast, the majority of multipeaked neurons in cats have threshold minima at frequencies in a ratio of three-to-two. A three-to-one harmonic ratio corresponds to the "spectral notches" produced by interference between overlapping echoes from multiple reflective surfaces in complex sonar targets. Behavioral experiments have demonstrated the ability of Eptesicus to use spectral interference notches for perceiving target shape, and this subpopulation of multipeaked frequency-tuned neurons may be involved in coding of spectral notches. 4. The auditory cortex contains delay-tuned neurons that encode target range (n = 99). Most delay-tuned neurons respond poorly to tones or individual FM sweeps and require combinations of FM sweeps. They are combination sensitive and delay tuned.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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