title: The structural basis of inter-individual differences in human behaviour and cognition.
abstract: Inter-individual variability in perception, thought and action is frequently treated as a source of 'noise' in scientific investigations of the neural mechanisms that underlie these processes, and discarded by averaging data from a group of participants. However, recent MRI studies in the human brain show that inter-individual variability in a wide range of basic and higher cognitive functions - including perception, motor control, memory, aspects of consciousness and the ability to introspect - can be predicted from the local structure of grey and white matter as assessed by voxel-based morphometry or diffusion tensor imaging. We propose that inter-individual differences can be used as a source of information to link human behaviour and cognition to brain anatomy.
authors.affiliation: The UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK. r.kanai@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kanai
authors.forename: Geraint
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rees
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D010551:Personality; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic