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Dissociating prefrontal circuitry in intelligence and memory: neuropsychological correlates of magnetic resonance and diffusion tensor imaging

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Abstract

We examined intelligence and memory in 25 healthy participants who had both prior magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of gray matter volumes of medial orbital frontal cortex (mOFC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), along with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of posterior and anterior mOFC-rACC white matter microstructure, as assessed by fractional anisotropy (FA). Results showed distinct relationships between these basic structural brain parameters and higher cognition, highlighted by a highly significant correlation of left rACC gray matter volume with memory, and to a lesser extent, though still statistically significant, correlation of left posterior mOFC-rACC FA with intelligence. Regression analyses showed that left posterior mOFC-rACC connections and left rACC gray matter volume each contributed to intelligence, with left posterior mOFC-rACC FA uniquely accounting for between 20.43 and 24.99 % of the variance in intelligence, in comparison to 13.54 to 17.98 % uniquely explained by left rACC gray matter volume. For memory, only left rACC gray matter volume explained neuropsychological performance, uniquely accounting for a remarkably high portion of individual variation, ranging from 73.61 to 79.21 %. These results pointed to differential contributions of white mater microstructure connections and gray matter volumes to individual differences in intelligence and memory, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute of Health R01 MH102377 to MK

Conflicts of interest

Paul G. Nestor, Toshiyuki Ohtani, Sylvain Bouix, Taiga Hosokawa, Yukiko Saito, Dominick T. Newell, and Marek Kubicki declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the applicable revisions at the time of the investigation. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA

    Paul G. Nestor

  2. Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Toshiyuki Ohtani, Sylvain Bouix, Taiga Hosokawa, Yukiko Saito, Dominick T. Newell & Marek Kubicki

  3. Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System, Harvard Medical School Brockton, Brockton, MA, USA

    Paul G. Nestor, Toshiyuki Ohtani & Yukiko Saito

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  1. Paul G. Nestor
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Correspondence to Paul G. Nestor.

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Nestor, P.G., Ohtani, T., Bouix, S. et al. Dissociating prefrontal circuitry in intelligence and memory: neuropsychological correlates of magnetic resonance and diffusion tensor imaging. Brain Imaging and Behavior 9, 839–847 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-014-9344-6

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