Linking Changes in Sulcal Morphology to Cognitive Development from Childhood to Adolescence

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Abstract

Throughout childhood and adolescence, the development of motor skills and cognitive functions is accompanied by concurrent changes in the morphology of cortical sulci. In this study, we analyzed structural MRI (sMRI) data from a longitudinal cohort of 312 children (145 females) aged 6 to 14 years to reconstruct and label the brain's sulci, followed by mixed-effects modeling to assess age-related morphological changes. We further investigated the relationship between morphological changes and cognitive development during this period via the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method. Our results revealed a significant increase in the width of secondary/tertiary sulci compared with primary sulci. An increased width of the secondary intermediate ramus of the intraparietal sulcus in children predicted improvements in Attention Network Test performance, whereas an increased width of the posterior intralingual sulcus was most strongly associated with improvements in working memory performance. Through gene enrichment analysis, we discovered that the age-related changes in sulcal morphology are linked to underlying biological processes, including synaptic reorganization and myelination. This study enhances our understanding of the relationship between sulcal morphology and cognitive function, highlighting mechanisms that may influence brain development from childhood to adolescence.

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