title: Asymmetries of the central sulcus in young adults: Effects of gender, age and sulcal pattern.
abstract: In this study, we clarified the gender and age-related asymmetries of the central sulcus (CS) in early adulthood using a parametric ribbon method. The CS was reconstructed and parameterized automatically from 3D MR images of 112 healthy right-handed subjects. The 3D anatomic morphology of the CS was presented using 5 sulcal parameters, including sulcal depth position-based profile (DPP), average depth (AD), average width (AW), top length (TL) and bottom length (BL). Asymmetry differences in DPPs were found in the medial and lateral part of the CS. In addition, significant gender differences were observed in the medial and middle parts of the right CS DPPs but scattered in the left side. We found leftward asymmetries of TL in males, but rightward asymmetries of AW in females. Males had a greater AW than females in the right hemisphere. Moreover, the females had bilateral longer TL and a longer left BL than did males. We also found significant age-related reductions in bilateral TL and increases in bilateral AW, with males presenting more obvious age-related change than females. There were sexual differences of the CS patterns, in which Type b was the most dominant sulcal pattern in males, whereas Type a was dominant in females. Three-way ANOVA revealed sexual and asymmetry changes of TL and BL among different CS patterns. Our findings indicate that the lateralization performances of the CS manifest as sexually and regionally different. In addition, it is suggested that males may undergo a faster progress of aging compared to females.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China; Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, PR China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China; Xu Zhou Medical College, School of Medical Imaging, Department of Imaging Engineer, Xuzhou 221004, Jiangsu, PR China.
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China; Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhongyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China; School of Computer Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Junhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China; Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiangtao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University School of Medicine, Jinan 250012, Shandong, PR China. Electronic address: liusw@sdu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Age; Asymmetry; Central sulcus; Gender dimorphism; Magnetic resonance imaging; Sulcal pattern