A salient neuroanatomical feature of the human brain is its pronounced cortical folding, and there is mounting evidence that sulcal morphology is relevant to functional brain architecture and cognition. However, the relationships between sulcal anatomy, brain activity, and behavior are still poorly understood. We previously found that the depth of three small, shallow sulci in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) was linked to reasoning performance during development (Voorhies et al., 2021). These findings beg the question: What is the linking mechanism between sulcal morphology and cognition? Here, we investigated functional connectivity among sulci in LPFC and the lateral parietal cortex in participants drawn from the same sample as our previous study. We leveraged manual parcellations (21 sulci/hemisphere, 1,806 total) and functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a reasoning task from 43 participants aged 7–18 years (20 females). We conducted clustering and classification analyses of individual-level functional connectivity among sulci. Broadly, we found that (1) connectivity patterns of individual sulci could be differentiated and more accurately than cortical patches equated for size and shape; (2) sulcal connectivity did not consistently correspond with that of probabilistic labels or large-scale networks; (3) sulci clustered based on connectivity patterns, not dictated by spatial proximity; and (4) across individuals, greater depth was associated with higher network centrality for several sulci under investigation. These results illustrate how sulcal morphology can be functionally relevant and provide proof of concept that using sulci to define an individual coordinate space for functional connectomes is a promising future direction.
more »
« less
Neuroanatomical and Functional Dissociations between Variably Present Anterior Lateral Prefrontal Sulci
Abstract The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is an evolutionarily expanded region in humans that is critical for numerous complex functions, many of which are largely hominoid specific. Although recent work shows that the presence or absence of specific sulci in anterior LPFC is associated with cognitive performance across age groups, it is unknown whether the presence of these structures relates to individual differences in the functional organization of LPFC. To fill this gap in knowledge, we leveraged multimodal neuroimaging data from two samples encompassing 82 young adult humans (aged 22–36 years) and show that the dorsal and ventral components of the paraintermediate frontal sulcus, or pimfs, present distinct morphological (surface area), architectural (thickness and myelination), and functional (resting-state connectivity networks) properties. We further contextualize the pimfs components within classic and modern cortical parcellations. Taken together, the dorsal and ventral pimfs components mark transitions in LPFC anatomy and function, across metrics and parcellations. These results emphasize that the pimfs is a critical structure to consider when examining individual differences in the anatomical and functional organization of LPFC and suggest that future individual-level parcellations could benefit from incorporating sulcal anatomy when delineating LPFC cortical regions.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2042251
- PAR ID:
- 10538761
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Volume:
- 35
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 0898-929X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1846 to 1867
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract The neuroanatomical changes that underpin cognitive development are of major interest in neuroscience. Of the many aspects of neuroanatomy to consider, tertiary sulci are particularly attractive as they emerge last in gestation, show a protracted development after birth, and are either human- or hominoid-specific. Thus, they are ideal targets for exploring morphological-cognitive relationships with cognitive skills that also show protracted development such as working memory (WM). Yet, the relationship between sulcal morphology and WM is unknown—either in development or more generally. To fill this gap, we adopted a data-driven approach with cross-validation to examine the relationship between sulcal depth in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and verbal WM in 60 children and adolescents between ages 6 and 18. These analyses identified 9 left, and no right, LPFC sulci (of which 7 were tertiary) whose depth predicted verbal WM performance above and beyond the effect of age. Most of these sulci are located within and around contours of previously proposed functional parcellations of LPFC. This sulcal depth model outperformed models with age or cortical thickness. Together, these findings build empirical support for a classic theory that tertiary sulci serve as landmarks in association cortices that contribute to late-maturing human cognitive abilities.more » « less
-
Abstract The brain is composed of networks of interacting brain regions that support higher-order cognition. Among these, a core network of regions has been associated with recollection and other forms of episodic construction. Past research has focused largely on the roles of individual brain regions in recollection or on their mutual engagement as part of an integrated network. However, the relationship between these region- and network-level contributions remains poorly understood. Here, we applied multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the functional organization of the posterior medial (PM) network and its relationship to episodic memory outcomes. We evaluated two aspects of functional heterogeneity in the PM network: first, the organization of individual regions into subnetworks, and second, the presence of regionally specific contributions while accounting for network-level effects. Our results suggest that the PM network is composed of ventral and dorsal subnetworks, with the ventral subnetwork making a unique contribution to recollection, especially to recollection of spatial information, and that memory-related activity in individual regions is well accounted for by these network-level effects. These findings highlight the importance of considering the functions of individual brain regions within the context of their affiliated networks.more » « less
-
Abstract The relationship between structural variability in late-developing association cortices like the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the development of higher-order cognitive skills is not well understood. Recent findings show that the morphology of LPFC sulci predicts reasoning performance; this work led to the observation of substantial individual variability in the morphology of one of these sulci, the para-intermediate frontal sulcus (pimfs). Here, we sought to characterize this variability and assess its behavioral significance. To this end, we identified the pimfs in a developmental cohort of 72 participants, ages 6–18. Subsequent analyses revealed that the presence or absence of the ventral component of the pimfs was associated with reasoning, even when controlling for age. This finding shows that the cortex lining the banks of sulci can support the development of complex cognitive abilities and highlights the importance of considering individual differences in local morphology when exploring the neurodevelopmental basis of cognition.more » « less
-
Abstract Despite their anatomical and functional distinctions, there is growing evidence that the dorsal and ventral visual pathways interact to support object recognition. However, the exact nature of these interactions remains poorly understood. Is the presence of identity-relevant object information in the dorsal pathway simply a byproduct of ventral input? Or, might the dorsal pathway be a source of input to the ventral pathway for object recognition? In the current study, we used high-density EEG—a technique with high temporal precision and spatial resolution sufficient to distinguish parietal and temporal lobes—to characterise the dynamics of dorsal and ventral pathways during object viewing. Using multivariate analyses, we found that category decoding in the dorsal pathway preceded that in the ventral pathway. Importantly, the dorsal pathway predicted the multivariate responses of the ventral pathway in a time-dependent manner, rather than the other way around. Together, these findings suggest that the dorsal pathway is a critical source of input to the ventral pathway for object recognition.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

