title: Children's intellectual ability is associated with structural network integrity.
abstract: Recent structural and functional neuroimaging studies of adults suggest that efficient patterns of brain connectivity are fundamental to human intelligence. Specifically, whole brain networks with an efficient small-world organization, along with specific brain regions (i.e., Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory, P-FIT) appear related to intellectual ability. However, these relationships have not been studied in children using structural network measures. This cross-sectional study examined the relation between non-verbal intellectual ability and structural network organization in 99 typically developing healthy preadolescent children. We showed a strong positive association between the network's global efficiency and intelligence, in which a subtest for visuo-spatial motor processing (Block Design, BD) was prominent in both global brain structure and local regions included within P-FIT as well as temporal regions involved with pattern and form processing. BD was also associated with rich club organization, which encompassed frontal, occipital, temporal, hippocampal, and neostriatal regions. This suggests that children's visual construction ability is significantly related to how efficiently children's brains are globally and locally integrated. Our findings indicate that visual construction and reasoning may make general demands on globally integrated processing by the brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Dae-Jin
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Denver, 2155 South Race Street, Denver, CO 80208, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866, USA.
authors.forename: Elysia Poggi
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866, USA.
authors.forename: Curt A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Sandman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; Indiana University Network Science Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sporns
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Brian F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Psychologie, Charité Centrum für Human-und Gesundheitswissenschaften, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buss
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, 1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. Electronic address: whetrick@indiana.edu.
authors.forename: William P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Hetrick
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D065855:Spatial Processing / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Children; Connectivity; Diffusion tensor imaging; Intelligence; Network