Abstract
We assessed the relationship between structural characteristics (area) and microstructure (apparent diffusion coefficient; ADC) of the corpus callosum (CC) in 57 healthy children aged 7.0 to 9.1 years, with diverse cognitive and academic abilities as well as executive functions evaluated with a neuropsychological battery for children. The CC was manually delineated and sub-segmented into six regions, and their ADC and area were measured. There were no significant differences between genders in the callosal region area or in ADC. The CC area and ADC, mainly of anterior regions, correlated with different cognitive abilities for each gender. Our results suggest that the relationship between cognitive abilities and CC characteristics is different between girls and boys and between the anterior and posterior regions of the CC. Furthermore, these findings strenghten the idea that regardless of the different interhemispheric connectivity schemes per gender, the results of cognitive tasks are very similar for girls and boys throughout childhood.
Highlights
The main function of white matter (WM) is to communicate between cortical and subcortical areas, forming the basis of largescale neuronal networks
The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) correlated differentially with other ENI subtests according to gender, but in both cases this coincided with finding correlations in the anterior section of the corpus callosum (CC)
When analyzing the cross section by regions, we found that the areas of the 6 CC regions that we used were similar in boys and girls, except the genu and splenium, which tended to be larger in girls
Summary
The main function of white matter (WM) is to communicate between cortical and subcortical areas, forming the basis of largescale neuronal networks. Einstein’s intellectual abilities may be associated with cortical folding and cytoarchitecture in certain regions of his brain, and with the greater width of his CC, likely underlying an efficient interhemispheric communication [10]. MRI studies in children and adolescents have found negative correlations between the area of some CC regions and measures of intellectual ability [6,7,8,9]. The relation between the morphology of the CC and intellectual abilities has been described as dynamic during brain maturation for male subjects, but not among females [9], suggesting either a gender difference in the neuronal pruning process resulting in improved interhemispheric communication or a decrease in myelinated axons (with greater conduction speed), corresponding to a better intrahemispheric capacity, thereby reducing the need for interhemispheric exchange
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