Intelligence and cortical morphometry: caveats in brain-behavior associations.

Publisher: Springer-Verlag Country of Publication: Germany NLM ID: 101282001 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1863-2661 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 18632653 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Brain Struct Funct Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Berlin : Springer-Verlag, c2007-

Intelligence*/physiology ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Cerebral Cortex*/diagnostic imaging ; Cerebral Cortex*/anatomy & histology; Humans ; Female ; Male ; Adult ; Child ; Intelligence Tests ; Adolescent ; Young Adult ; Brain/anatomy & histology ; Brain/diagnostic imaging

It is well-established that brain size is associated with intelligence. But the relationship between cortical morphometric measures and intelligence is unclear. Studies have produced conflicting results or no significant relations between intelligence and cortical morphometric measures such as cortical thickness and peri-cortical contrast. This discrepancy may be due to multicollinearity amongst the independent variables in a multivariate regression analysis, or a failure to fully account for the relationship between brain size and intelligence in some other way. Our study shows that neither cortical thickness nor peri-cortical contrast reliably improves IQ prediction accuracy beyond what is achieved with brain volume alone. We show this in multiple datasets, with child data, developmental data, and with adult data; we show this with data acquired either at multiple sites, or at a single site; we show this with data acquired with different MRI scanner manufacturers, or with all data acquired on a single scanner; and we show this with fluid intelligence, full-scale IQ, performance IQ, and verbal IQ. But our point is not really even about IQ; rather we proffer a methodological caveat and potential explanation of the discrepancies in previous results, and which applies broadly.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)

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DPMM University of Eastern Finland; 316258 ; 346934 Academy of Finland

Keywords: Brain size; Collinearity; Confounds; Intelligence; Morphometry

Date Created: 20240525 Date Completed: 20240613 Latest Revision: 20240729

20240729

PMC11176253

10.1007/s00429-024-02792-6

38795129