Children's Intellectual Ability is Associated with Structural Network Integrity

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Intelligence, Children, Connectivity, Network, Diffusion tensor imaging

Abstract

Recent structural and functional neuroimaging studies of adults suggest that efficient patterns of brain connectivity are fundamental to human intelligence. Specifically, whole brain networks with an efficient small-world organization, along with specific brain regions (i.e., Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory, P-FIT) appear related to intellectual ability. However, these relationships have not been studied in children using structural network measures. This cross-sectional study examined the relation between non-verbal intellectual ability and structural network organization in 99 typically developing healthy preadolescent children. We showed a strong positive association between the network's global efficiency and intelligence, in which a subtest for visuo-spatial motor processing (Block Design, BD) was prominent in both global brain structure and local regions included within P-FIT as well as temporal regions involved with pattern and form processing. BD was also associated with rich club organization, which encompassed frontal, occipital, temporal, hippocampal, and neostriatal regions. This suggests that children's visual construction ability is significantly related to how efficiently children's brains are globally and locally integrated. Our findings indicate that visual construction and reasoning may make general demands on globally integrated processing by the brain.

Copyright Date

9-15-2015

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by Elsevier Inc. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Kim, D.-J., Davis, E. P., Sandman, C. A., Sporns, O., O'Donnell, B. F., Buss, C., & Hetrick, W. P. (2016). Children's intellectual ability is associated with structural network integrity. NeuroImage, 124(Pt A), 550-556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.09.012

Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.

The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.

Rights Holder

Elsevier Inc.

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

7 pgs

File Size

767 KB

Publication Title

NeuroImage

Volume

124

Issue

Part A

First Page

550

Last Page

556

ISSN

1095-9572

PubMed ID

26385010

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