Structural MRI to Infer Intelligence and Neurocognition
Typical brain MRIs include structural, diffusion, functional, and other sequences. This section starts with structural MRI (sMRI) and its inference of human intelligence and neurocognition. sMRI includes T1-, T2-weighted MRI (T1/T2-MRI), proton density, and other sequences. Subsections below will introduce morphometric features from sMRI (see review for more details50) and their use of them to infer neurocognition and intelligence.
Regional Brain Volume to Infer Neurocognition/Intelligence. Software packages such as FreeSurfer,51 FSL,52 AFNI,53 and others (see review54) allow us to automatically segment the T1- or T2-weighted brain MRIs into hemispheres (left and right), tissue types (white matter, gray matter, cerebrospinal fluid), and regions using single/multi-atlas55 or machine learning56 approaches. The volumes of these structures have been used to correlate with neurocognition or intelligence test scores.
Early studies argued that the attentional control mechanism, the linkage between sensory discrimination and intelligence,
57 corresponds to the volumes in brain regions such as lateral fronto-parietal cortex
58 (includes BAs 6, 8, 9), dorsal anterior cingulate
58,59 (includes BA 32), and lateral posterior cerebellum.
58 As summarized in
Table 3 of the supplementary materials, recent structural MRI-based predictive methods
55,60–70 that used brain regional volumes found that the fronto-parietal (includes BAs 6, 8, and 9), cingulo opercular (includes BAs 22, 41, and 42), visual (includes BAs 17, 18, and 19), somatosensory (includes BAs 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7), right posterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 23, 31), left caudate nucleus, entorhinal white matter (BA 28), globus pallidus, precentral gyrus (BA 4), corpus callosum, left/right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus (BA 34), thalamus, precentral gyrus (BA 4), caudate nucleus, pons, and motor (includes BAs 4 and 6) cortex areas are related to the fluid intelligence in adolescents. This study predicted the residual fluid intelligence score of more than 3500 adolescents with a mean square error (MSE) ranging from 92 to 101 (for a range of true residual fluid intelligence score of [-40, 30]),
55,60–69 or a correlation of 10% (p <0.05),
70 which further strengthens the arguments from the previous studies
58,71,72 as well as the P-FIT theory. Another study
73 involving a comparatively smaller adult data cohort (N = 211) reported a positive correlation of overall gray matter volume with fluid intelligence (r = 0.16; p < 0.01), working memory (r = 0.21; p < 0.01), and quantitative reasoning (r = 0.26; p < 0.01). Similar findings are reported for an infant data cohort,
74 where the pre-term fetal growth restricted (P-FGR) infants group had lower mean gray matter, white matter, thalamic, cerebellar white matter, and hippocampal volumes compared to that of pre-term appropriate gestational age (PT-AGA) and term AGA (T-AGA). This difference in brain volumes is reflected in the mean FSIQ scores of PT-FGR and PT-AGA groups, 80 and 103, respectively.
74 Insight test battery (ITB)-based cognitive scores can also be predicted (p < 0.001) from gray matter volumes in the right insula, right middle cingulate cortex/precuneus (BAs 13, 14, 16, 4).
75 Another study
76 used relative gray matter volume per voxels from the region of fronto-parietal network (includes BAs 6, 8, and 9), default mode network (includes BAs 38, 25, 23, 31, and 4), dorsal attention network (includes BAs 17, 18, 19, 8, 7, and 6), and cerebellum in principal component analysis (PCA) and showed an MSE and correlation between the actual and estimated FSIQ is 320 (p = 0.279) and r = 0.11, respectively (for true residual FSIQ in the range of [39, 136]). The caudate also plays a vital role in the rewarding system of human reinforcement learning during making a choice and action,
77,78 and a significant positive correlation (r = 0.24; p = 0.01) between the caudate volume and FSIQ is also reported.
79
Cortical Surface Metrics to Infer Neurocognition/Intelligence. In addition to the regional brain volumes, metrices on cortical surface also play a vital role in inferring human intelligence. Automated software such as FreeSurfer can reconstruct brain cortical surfaces, and extract cortical surface areas, cortical thickness, cortical folding curvatures, and gyrification indices. Previous studies reported that information integration and processing happen in the parahippocampal gyrus (includes BA 34) and precuneus/cuneus cortex11,80 (includes BAs 4, 19), visual identification and recognition happen in the ventral temporal cortex81,82 and integration and retrieval of semantic knowledge happen in the medial temporal lobes83 (includes BA 38).
Table 3.
Summary of sMRI studies correlating regional brain volumes with neurocognition/intelligence. Acronyms- ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NKI: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, PCA: Principal Component Analysis, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, SVM: Support Vector Machine, SVR: Support Vector Regression, RF: Random Forest, LR: linear regression, RR: ridge regression, MLP: multi-layer perceptron, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, ROI: Region of Interest, KNN: K-Nearest Neighbors, MSE: Mean Square Error, RMSE: Root MSE, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, BOMAT: Bochum Matrices Test, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, P-FGR: Pre-term Fetal Growth Restricted, PT-AGA: Pre-term Appropriate Gestational Age, T-AGA: Term AGA, DTI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, ICV: intracranial volume, WM: white matter, GM: gray matter, CSF: cerebrospinal fluid, N/A: not available, not mentioned. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Table 3.
Summary of sMRI studies correlating regional brain volumes with neurocognition/intelligence. Acronyms- ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NKI: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, PCA: Principal Component Analysis, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, SVM: Support Vector Machine, SVR: Support Vector Regression, RF: Random Forest, LR: linear regression, RR: ridge regression, MLP: multi-layer perceptron, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, ROI: Region of Interest, KNN: K-Nearest Neighbors, MSE: Mean Square Error, RMSE: Root MSE, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, BOMAT: Bochum Matrices Test, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, P-FGR: Pre-term Fetal Growth Restricted, PT-AGA: Pre-term Appropriate Gestational Age, T-AGA: Term AGA, DTI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, ICV: intracranial volume, WM: white matter, GM: gray matter, CSF: cerebrospinal fluid, N/A: not available, not mentioned. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Study |
Year |
N |
Age (years)
|
Dataset |
MRI type |
MRI features |
Regions |
Probable BAs |
IQ/ Neuro. Test
|
Normal/ Abnormal
|
Method |
Correlation/ Finding
|
Saha et al.70
|
2021 |
7709 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
CNN learned features and volumes of manually identified brain regions |
GM regions of left/right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, thalamus, precentral gyrus and caudate nucleus; WM region of the pons. |
34, 4 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN and MLP |
Correlation between the actual and predicted gF = 0.1 (p < 0.05) |
Hilger et al.76 |
2020 |
380 |
18-60 |
NKI-Rockland-Enhanced |
T1-w |
GM volume per voxel |
Frontoparietal network, default mode network, Dorsal attention network, and cerebellum |
38, 25, 23, 31, 4, 17, 18, 19, 8, 7, 6, 9 |
WASI |
Normal |
PCA |
MSE and correlation between the actual and estimated FSIQ is 320 (p = 0.279) and 0.11, respectively (for true residual FSIQ in the range of [39, 136]) |
Chiang et al.60
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Total volume, mean signal intensity, and entropy |
Visual, frontoparietal, somatosensory, motor, default mode network, and cingulo opercular network. |
6, 8, 9, 22, 41, 42, 17, 18, 19, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN, and LASSO |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 95.38 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Shrivastava et al.61
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Volume, mean intensity, and count of GM voxels |
Gyrus rectus, hippocampus, inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, precentral gyrus, precuneus, superior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN, SVR, RF, gradient boosting, and XGBoost |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.68 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Ren et al.62
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
ROI volumes |
GM |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Bagging and boosting of LR, RR, RF, envelope-based reduced-rank regression, LASSO, Elastic-Net regressor, and KNN |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 92.99 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Tamez-Pena et al.63
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
ROI volumes |
GM, WM, CSF, and cerebellum |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Ensemble of SVM, RF, and bootstrapped step wise model selection |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 100.89 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Brueggeman et al.64
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
122 ROI volumes |
GM, WM, CSF |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
RF |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 92.49 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Mihalik et al.65
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Voxel intensities and probabilistic tissue-type labels |
GM, WM |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Kernel ridge regressor |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 92.13 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Ranjbar et al.66
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
122 ROI volumes |
GM, WM, CSF |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN and RF |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.64 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Wlaszczyk et al.67
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
ROI volumes, signal intensity, anterior and posterior cross-sectional area from corpus callosum |
GM and corpus callosum
|
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
RF |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 92.93 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Zhang-James et al.55
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
122 ROI volumes |
GM, WM, CSF |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Nu SVM |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 95.63 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Kao et al.68
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
122 ROI volumes |
GM, WM, CSF |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
StackNet consisting of random forest, random tree, ridge regressor, and gradient boosting |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 94.25 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Li et al.69
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
ROI volumes, # detected surface holes, the globus pallidus volume, the mean curvatures of precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and banks of Superior Temporal Sulcus |
Right posterior cingulate gyrus, left caudate nucleus, entorhinal white matter, globus pallidus, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and superior temporal sulcus |
23, 31, 28, 4, 1, 2, 3, 22 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
BlockPC-XGBoost |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.16 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Morsing et al.74 |
2018 |
74 |
7-8 |
Skane University Hospital in Lund, Sweden |
T1-w |
ROI volumes |
ICV, GM, WM, CSF, and thalamus. |
N/A |
WISC-III |
P-FGR, PT-AGA, and T-AGA |
Chi-square and ANOVA |
The mean (SD) FSIQ was 80 (17) in the PT-FGR group and 103 (12) in the PT-AGA group |
Ogawa et al.
75
|
2018 |
232 |
21-69 |
Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International, Kyoto |
T1-w |
GM volume |
Right insula, right middle cingulate cortex/precuneus |
13, 14, 16, 4 |
Insight test battery (ITB) |
Normal |
Pearson correlation |
ITB score was positively correlated with the GM volumes in the mentioned region (p < 0.001) |
Paul et al.73
|
2016 |
211 |
18-44 |
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
T2-w |
Volume fractions across tissue types |
GM, WM, CSF |
23, 31 |
BOMAT, Number Series, and Letter Set |
Normal |
Bivariate correlation |
GM volume is found positively correlated with quantitative reasoning (r = 0.26; p < 0.01) and working memory (r = 0.21; p < 0.01), and gF (r = 0.16; p < 0.01) |
Grazioplene et al.
79
|
2015 |
517 |
18-40 |
University of Minnesota, University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Yale University |
T1-w MPRAGE |
Caudate volume |
Caudate nucleus |
N/A |
WAIS-III, WAIS-IV, WASI
|
Normal |
LR |
Regression of IQ onto bilateral caudate volume indicated a significant positive correlation between caudate volume and FSIQ (r = 0.24; p = 0.01) |
Cortical metrics are often combined with regional volumes to predict neurocognition. Studies using the ABCD dataset predicted the residual fluid intelligence score of more than 4500 adolescents with an MSE ranging from 93 to 95 (for a range of true residual fluid intelligence score of [-40, 30]), as summarized in
Table 4 of the supplementary materials. These studies used cortical thicknesses, curvatures, and surface areas in conjugation with the regional volumes from the left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), the right superior temporal gyrus (BA 22), left/right parahippocampal gyrus (BA 34), pons white matter, hippocampus, posterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 23, 31), cuneus (BA 19), left lingual gyrus (BA 19), left middle frontal gyrus (BA 10), supramarginal gyrus (BA 40), right fusiform gyrus (BA 37), superior temporal gyrus (BA 22), right anterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 24, 32, 33), and other brain structures.
84–89
Significant positive correlations were also observed between the Reynolds intellectual assessment scales (RIAS) composite IQ scores and cortical gray matter volumes in the orbitofrontal gyrus (BAs 11, 12) (r = 0.41; p = 0.03), transverse temporal gyri (BAs 41, 42) (r = 0.42; p = 0.02), left superior temporal gyrus (BA 22) (r = 0.41; p = 0.04), and right anterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 24, 32, 33) (r = 0.42; p = 0.03).90 The local gyrification and surface area in the superior parietal (BA 7), left supramarginal (BA 40), left caudal middle frontal (BA 22), left pars-opercularis (BA 44), left inferior temporal (BA 20), right inferior and middle temporal (BA 21), right medial orbitofrontal (BAs 11, 12), and right rostral middle frontal (BA 10) regions are also found correlated to gF (r = 0.29; p < 0.001) and (r = 0.22; p < 0.001), respectively, and to gC (r = 0.28; p < 0.001) and (r = 0.28; p < 0.001), respectively, on a healthy young dataset (age = 21-35 years).91 In another study,92 significant positive relationship between cortical thickness in the superior parietal lobe (BA 7) and FSIQ, PIQ, and VIQ is seen at a cluster-forming threshold (CFT) of p < 0.05. Similarly, positive relationship between cortical volume in the inferior parietal lobe (BAs 39, 40) and FSIQ and PIQ is seen at a CFT of p < 0.05. Additionally, cortical volume is found positively associated with VIQ in the left insula (BAs 13, 14, 16) and FSIQ within the inferior frontal gyrus (BAs 44, 45, 47).92
Mullen scales of early learning (MSEL) cognitive ability such as visual reception, fine motor, receptive language, expressive language, and early learning composite, has also been found positively correlated with cortical thickness (r = 0.14, p = 0.025; r = 0.186, p = 0.002; r = 0.147, p = 0.016; r = 0.120, p = 0.049, respectively) of the infants at age 1 year, especially in the bilateral superior frontal and middle frontal gyri (BA 10), right medial superior frontal gyrus (BA 10), right occipital superior gyrus (BA 19), bilateral superior parietal cortices (BA 7), left primary motor cortex (BA 4), bilateral anterior cingulate (BAs 24, 32, 33) and precuneus (BA 4), and right superior and middle temporal cortices (BA 22) areas.93 Similar findings are also reported for MSEL-based future (at 4 years of age) cognitive score prediction using sMRI brain features at birth such as cortical thickness, mean curvature, local gyrification index, vertex area, vertex volume, sulcal depth in string distance and sulcal depth in Euclidean distance with a mean root square error of 0.067-0.18.94–96
Better FSIQ level has also been reported for thinner parietal association cortices, especially left/right inferior parietal (BAs 39, 40) and left/right superior parietal (BA 7) cortices.97 Overall FSIQ has been found98–100 correlated (r = 0.3~0.7; p < 0.01) with the cortical thickness, surface area, sulcal depth, curvature from the left and right parahippocampal gyrus (BA 34), left olfactory cortex (BA 35), right fusiform gyrus (BA 37), bilateral transverse temporal gyri (BAs 41, 42), bilateral thalamus, left parahippocampal gyrus (BA 34), left hippocampus, right opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus (BAs 44, 45, 47), left anterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 24, 32, 33), right amygdala, left lingual gyrus (BA 19), left superior parietal lobule (BA 7), right inferior parietal lobule (BAs 39, 40), left angular gyrus (BA 39), left paracentral lobule, and left caudate nucleus (BAs 1-4).
Voxel- and Surface-based Morphometry to Infer Neurocognition/Intelligence. VBM
101 and SBM
102 allows the correlation of MRI volume or surface metrics at the voxel or surface vertex level. They are extensions of the correlation at the regional or surface area levels.
103 In
Table 5 of the supplementary materials, we summarized existing VBM and SBM-based neurocognitive predictive studies.
Table 4.
Summary of sMRI studies correlating cortical surface metrices with neurocognition/intelligence. Acronyms- ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, SVM: Support Vector Machine, SVR: Support Vector Regression, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, ROI: Region of Interest, KNN: K-Nearest Neighbors, MSEL: Mullen Scale of Early Learning, PMAT: Penn Progressive Matrices, RIAS: Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, RPM: Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices Set, GM: Gross Motor, VR: Visual Reception, FM: Fine Motor, RL: Receptive Language, EL: Expressive Language, ELC: Early Learning Composite, CFT: Cluster Forming Threshold, RMSE: Root Mean Square Error, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, ABIDE: Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange, BOLD: Blood-oxygenation Level-dependent, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, DWI: Diffusion-weighted Imaging. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Table 4.
Summary of sMRI studies correlating cortical surface metrices with neurocognition/intelligence. Acronyms- ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, SVM: Support Vector Machine, SVR: Support Vector Regression, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, ROI: Region of Interest, KNN: K-Nearest Neighbors, MSEL: Mullen Scale of Early Learning, PMAT: Penn Progressive Matrices, RIAS: Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, RPM: Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices Set, GM: Gross Motor, VR: Visual Reception, FM: Fine Motor, RL: Receptive Language, EL: Expressive Language, ELC: Early Learning Composite, CFT: Cluster Forming Threshold, RMSE: Root Mean Square Error, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, ABIDE: Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange, BOLD: Blood-oxygenation Level-dependent, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, DWI: Diffusion-weighted Imaging. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Study |
Year |
N |
Age (years)
|
Dataset |
MRI type |
MRI features |
Regions |
Probable BAs |
IQ/ Neuro. Test
|
Normal/ Abnormal
|
Method |
Correlation/ Finding
|
Zhang et al.96
|
2020 |
23 |
0-4 |
UNC Chapel Hill Early Brain Development Study |
T1-w, T2-w |
Cortical thickness, mean curvature, local gyrification index, vertex area, vertex volume, sulcal depth in string distance, and sulcal depth in Euclidean distance |
Parcellation of the cerebral cortex into 70 anatomically meaningful ROIs |
Not specified |
VR, FM, RL, EL, and ELC (MSEL) |
Normal |
CNN |
RMSE between the predicted and actual VR, FM, RL, and EL scores is 0.067 |
Li et al.90
|
2020 |
68 |
8 |
Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center |
T1-w |
Gray matter volume, surface area, and cortical thickness |
Orbitofrontal gyrus, transverse temporal gyri, left superior temporal gyrus, and right anterior cingulate gyrus |
11, 12, 41, 42, 22, 24, 32, 33 |
RIAS |
Normal |
Spearman’s correlation test |
RIAS scores showed significant correlations (r = [0.38-0.44], p = [0.005-0.046]) with cortical metrices |
Tadayon et al.91
|
2020 |
740 |
21-35 |
HCP |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and cortical gyrification |
Superior parietal, left supramarginal, left caudal middle frontal, left pars-opercularis, left inferior temporal, right inferior and middle temporal, right medial orbitofrontal, and right rostral middle frontal regions |
7, 40, 22, 44, 20, 21, 11, 12, 10 |
PMAT and NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Linear regression |
Correlation between the local gyrification, and surface area with gF and gC are 0.29 and 0.22 (p < 0.001), 0.28 and 0.28 (p < 0.001), respectively |
Oxtoby et al.84
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Cortical morphology as graph |
A structural co-variance network graph considers small cortical regions (3 voxels cubed) as nodes, and structural similarity (morphology) between nodes as edges. |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Event-based model of progression, and SVR |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.83 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Rebsamen et al.85
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Subcortical volumes, cortical thicknesses, curvatures, and surface areas |
Middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus
|
21, 22 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
SVR |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.03 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Valverde et al.86
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
122 ROI volumes in the gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid, 78 contrast and 78 cortical thickness measures, gender, age, and scanner manufacturer |
Gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid |
Not specified |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Fully connected neural network |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 94.02 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Pölsterl et al.87
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness and volumes of 122 ROIs in the gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid |
Left/right parahippocampal gyrus, pons white matter, hippocampus, posterior cingulate gyrus, cuneus, left lingual gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, right anterior cingulate gyrus, etc. |
34, 23, 31, 19, 10, 40, 37, 22, 24, 32, 33 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
An ensemble of gradient boosted trees, and a linear ridge regressor. |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 94.25 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Pölsterl et al.88
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness and volumes of 122 ROIs in the gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid |
Left/right parahippocampal gyrus, pons white matter, hippocampus, posterior cingulate gyrus, cuneus, left lingual gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, right anterior cingulate gyrus, etc. |
34, 23, 31, 19, 10, 40, 37, 22, 24, 32, 33 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
AutoML ensembles of 14 classifiers |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 94.25 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Guerdan et al.89
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Volume, elongation, surface area, roundness, and flatness of grey matter ROIs. |
Gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid
|
Not specified |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
LASSO, ridge regressor, SVR, gradient boosting, and AdaBoost regressors. |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 94.48 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Girault et al.93
|
2019 |
487 |
1-2 |
University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill Early Brain Development Study |
T1-w, T2-w |
Cortical thickness, and surface area |
Bilateral superior frontal and middle frontal gyri, right medial superior frontal gyrus, right occipital superior gyrus, bilateral superior parietal cortices, left primary motor cortex, bilateral anterior cingulate and precuneus, and right superior and middle temporal cortices areas |
10, 19, 7, 4, 24, 32, 33. 22
|
GM, VR, FM, RL, EL, and ELC (MSEL) |
Normal |
Pearson correlation, Linear mixed effect model |
Correlations between average cortical thickness at age 1 and GM, FM, EL, and RL scores at age 1 (r = 0.137, p = 0.025; r = 0.186, p = 0.002; r = 0.147, p = 0.016; r = 0.120, p = 0.049, respectively), |
Adeli et al.94
|
2019 |
24 |
0-4 |
UNC Chapel Hill Early Brain Development Study |
T1-w, T2-w, DWI |
Cortical thickness, mean curvature, local gyrification index, vertex area, vertex volume, sulcal depth in string distance, and sulcal depth in Euclidean distance |
Parcellation of the cerebral cortex into 70 anatomically meaningful ROIs |
Not specified |
VR, FM, RL, EL, and ELC (MSEL) |
Normal |
Multi-task multi-linear regression |
RMSE between the predicted and actual VR, FM, RL, and EL scores is 0.18. |
Zhang et al.95 |
2018 |
23 |
0-4 |
UNC Chapel Hill Early Brain Development Study |
T1-w, T2-w |
Cortical thickness, mean curvature, local gyrification index, vertex area, vertex volume, sulcal depth in string distance, and sulcal depth in Euclidean distance |
Parcellation of the cerebral cortex into 70 anatomically meaningful ROIs |
Not specified |
VR, FM, RL, EL, and ELC (MSEL) |
Normal |
Multi-task multi-linear regression |
RMSE between the predicted and actual VR, FM, RL, and EL score is 0.158. |
Bajaj et al.92
|
2018 |
56 |
18-45 |
McLean Hospital and Partners Healthcare, and the U.S. Army Human Research Protections Office |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness, cortical surface area, cortical volume, and cortical gyrification |
Posterior frontal, superior and inferior parietal lobes, left insula, and inferior frontal gyrus |
7, 39, 40, 13, 14, 16, 44, 45, 47 |
WASI-II |
Normal |
Generalized linear model |
Significant positive relationships between thicker cortex and higher IQ at a liberal CFT of p < 0.05 as well as at a strict CFT of p < 0.01 is observed. |
Wang et al.
99
|
2015 |
164 |
6-15 |
ABIDE |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness, surface area, sulcal depth, curvature
|
Bilateral transverse temporal gyri, bilateral thalamus, left parahippocampal gyrus, left hippocampus, right opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, right amygdala, left lingual gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, right inferior parietal lobule, left angular gyrus, left paracentral lobule, and left caudate nucleus |
41, 42, 34, 44, 45, 47, 32, 7, 40, 39, 1, 2, 3, 4 |
- |
Normal |
Multi/single kernel support vector regressor |
Correlation between the actual and estimated IQ is 68.4%
|
Squeglia et al.97
|
2013 |
185 |
12-14 |
San Diego area public middle schools |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness |
Left and right inferior parietal cortices, and left and right superior parietal cortices |
39, 40, 7 |
WISC-III, WAIS-IV
|
Normal |
Hierarchical linear regressions |
For both males and females, thinner parietal association cortices corresponded with better neurocognitive functioning above and beyond age alone. |
Yang et al.
98
|
2013 |
78 |
17-27 |
Seoul National University, Catholic University of Korea |
T1-w |
Cortical thickness, surface area, sulcal depth and absolute mean curvature in 78 parcellated ROIs |
Cerebral cortex
|
34, 35, 37 |
WAIS |
Normal |
Partial least square regression
|
Correlation between the Actual and predicted FSIQ is 30% (p < 0.01)
|
Choi et al.
100
|
2008 |
225 |
20.9±2.9 |
Seoul National University, Catholic University of Korea |
T1-w |
The thickness of the gray matter of the cerebral cortex |
Gray matter of cerebral cortex |
38, 20, 21, 40 |
WASI, RPM-II |
Normal |
Multivariate regression model |
gC is correlated to cortical thickness and gF is related to BOLD signals. |
Table 5.
Summary of sMRI study using brain morphometry in inferring/relating to human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- COPD: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, DD: Developmental Dyslexia, FA: fractional anisotropy, VBM: Voxels-based Morphometry, MDD: major Depressive Disorder, NCANDA: National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, VIQ: Verbal IQ, PIQ: Performance IQ, ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI.
Table 5.
Summary of sMRI study using brain morphometry in inferring/relating to human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- COPD: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, DD: Developmental Dyslexia, FA: fractional anisotropy, VBM: Voxels-based Morphometry, MDD: major Depressive Disorder, NCANDA: National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, VIQ: Verbal IQ, PIQ: Performance IQ, ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI.
Study |
Year |
N |
Age (years)
|
Dataset |
MRI type |
MRI features |
Regions |
Probable BAs |
IQ/ Neuro. Test
|
Normal/ Abnormal
|
Method |
Correlation/ Finding
|
Hidese et al.104
|
2020 |
266 |
45.6±12.9 |
Volunteer data from Kodaira city, Tokyo |
T1-w, DTI |
Regional gray matter volumes in the VBM and the white matter FA values in the DTI |
Left gyrus rectus and anterior cingulate gyrus, left posterior insula, left superior and middle frontal gyri |
11, 24, 32, 33, 13, 14, 16, 10 |
WAIS-III |
Normal |
Pearson correlation |
VIQ correlated positively with the specified brain regional volumes with p < 0.005. |
McDermott et al.105
|
2019 |
623 |
5-25 |
National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program |
T1-w |
Surface-based shape |
Left inferior and middle temporal, left inferior parietal, and left medial frontal regions |
20, 21, 39, 40, 25 |
WASI, WISC, WAIS |
Normal |
Linear mixed-effect model |
Positive associations (β > 100; p < 0.001) between FSIQ and cortical anatomy is observed. |
Ramsden et al.106
|
2011 |
33 |
14.1±1.0 |
Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London |
T1-w |
Changes in gray matter density |
Motor speech area, and anterior cerebellum |
4, 6 |
WISC, WAIS |
Normal |
Linear regression |
Correlation between change in VIQ and change in grey matter density were 0.876 (p < 0.01) for high, 0.797 (p < 0.05) for average and 0.660 (p < 0.05) for low ability groups, respectively. For PIQ, correlation was 0.492 (p > 0.05) for high, 0.788 (p < 0.05) for average and 0.715 (p < 0.01) for low ability groups, respectively. |
Briefly, VBM-based gray matter volumes in the left gyrus rectus (BA 11) and anterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 24, 32, 33), left posterior insula (BAs 13, 14, 16), left superior and middle frontal gyri (BA 10) are found to be positively correlated (p < 0.005) to VIQ scores.104 Similarly SBM-base shape features in the left inferior and middle temporal (BAs 20, 21), left inferior parietal (BAs 39, 40), and left medial frontal (BA 25) regions showed positive associations (β > 100; p < 0.001) with FSIQ.105 Another study106 divided their study population into average (FSIQ = [80, 119]), low, and high (FSIQ > 119) groups, and observed that the correlation between the change in VIQ and change in the grey matter density in the motor area (BAs 4, 6) and anterior cerebellum is 0.876 (p < 0.01) for high ability, 0.797 (p < 0.05) for average ability and 0.660 (p < 0.05) for low ability groups, respectively. Similarly, the corresponding effects were seen for PIQ as 0.492 (p > 0.05) for high ability, 0.788 (p < 0.05) for average ability, and 0.715 (p < 0.01) for low ability groups.
Deep Features from sMRI to Infer Intelligence/Neurocognition. Regional, surface-area, voxel, and vertex-level features, as described above, are so-called handcrafted or hand-engineered features. They carry neuroanatomic meanings and are easy to interpret. On the other hand, the rise of deep learning extracts tens of thousands or even millions of “deep features” from the whole MRI or image patches. Those deep features are extracted from convolutions of images with filters (3×3×3, 5×5×5, or other sizes). Several studies
60,66,107–110 used a convolutional neural network (CNN), a specific type of image-based deep learning technique, on T1-MRI to predict fluid intelligence in adolescents. They predicted the residual fluid intelligence score of more than 4500 adolescents with an MSE ranging from 92 to 103 (for a range of true residual fluid intelligence score of [-40, 30]), as summarized in
Table 6 of the supplementary materials. However, the interpretation of deep features is difficult. A potential solution is to choose brain regions beforehand and those regions to deep learning models. For example, Zou et al.
109 used regions from bilateral transverse temporal gyri (BAs 41, 42), bilateral thalamus, left parahippocampal gyrus (BA 34), left hippocampus, right opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus (BAs 44, 45, 47), left anterior cingulate gyrus (BAs 24, 32, 33), right amygdala, left lingual gyrus (BA 19), left superior parietal lobule (BA 7), right inferior parietal lobule (BAs 39, 40), left angular gyrus (BA 39), left paracentral lobule, and left caudate nucleus (BAs 1-4) in their deep learning model to predict
gF score. However, the choice of such regions may be subjective, the accuracy of prediction was not significantly different from inputting the whole image, and treating regions separately may miss the opportunity to consider those regions jointly in the convolutions. Interpretation of deep learning models can be also achieved by masking or replacing different regions, adding random noise to images, or calculating the saliency, activating, or attention maps.
111–113 Their use in interpreting deep learning prediction of intelligence or neurocognition is yet to be studied.
Summary of sMRI Inference of Neurocognition and Intelligence. In
Figure 4, we show a bar plot representing the proportion of our reviewed sMRI papers that used different Brodmann areas in inferring intelligence and neurocognition. For simplicity, we only used the Brodmann areas without mentioning the hemisphere sides.
Table 6.
Summary of sMRI studies inferring/relating to human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, SVM: Support Vector Machine, SVR: Support Vector Regression, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, ROI: Region of Interest, KNN: K-Nearest Neighbors, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, ABIDE: Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, DWI: Diffusion-weighted Imaging, DTI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, TRUST: T2-relaxation under spin tagging. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Table 6.
Summary of sMRI studies inferring/relating to human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- ANCOVA: Analysis of Covariance, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, SVM: Support Vector Machine, SVR: Support Vector Regression, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, ROI: Region of Interest, KNN: K-Nearest Neighbors, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, ABIDE: Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, DWI: Diffusion-weighted Imaging, DTI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, TRUST: T2-relaxation under spin tagging. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Study |
Year |
N |
Age (years)
|
Dataset |
MRI type |
MRI features |
Regions |
Probable BAs |
IQ/ Neuro. Test
|
Normal/ Abnormal
|
Method |
Correlation/ Finding
|
Chiang et al.60
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
Total volume, mean signal intensity, and entropy |
Visual, fronto-parietal, somatosensory, motor, default mode network, and cingulo opercular network. |
6, 8, 9, 22, 41, 42, 17, 18, 19, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 4, 6 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN, and LASSO |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 95.38 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Ranjbar et al.66
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
122 ROI volumes in the gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid |
Gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid |
11, 44, 45, 47, 4, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN and random forest |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.64 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Vang et al.107
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
CNN-learned features |
Gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid
|
Not specified |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
CNN with gradient boosting machine |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 96.18 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Pominova et al.108
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
CNN-learned features |
Gray matter |
Not specified |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
VoxCNN |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 93.838 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Zou et al.109
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
CNN-learned features |
Bilateral transverse temporal gyri, bilateral thalamus, left parahippocampal gyrus, left hippocampus, right opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, right amygdala, left lingual gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, right inferior parietal lobule, left angular gyrus, left paracentral lobule, and left caudate nucleus. |
41, 42, 34, 44, 45, 47, 24, 32, 33, 19, 7, 39, 40, 1, 2, 3, 4 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
3D CNN |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 92.74 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Liu et al.110
|
2019 |
8669 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
T1-w |
CNN-learned features |
Skull-stripped whole brain |
Not specified |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
UNet-like encoder/decoder |
Mean Square Error (gF) = 102.25 (for true residual gF in the range of [-40, 30]) |
Diffusion MRI to Infer Intelligence and Neurocognition
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures water flow at every voxel in the brain. Its parameter maps include Fractional Anisotropy (FA), which measures the directionality of water diffusion (ranging between 0 for complete diffusion in all directions and 1 for single-directional flow), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), which measures the magnitude of water diffusion at each voxel. DTI can also construct tractography, which quantifies white matter tracts that water flows through, and is also known as structural connectivity. In
Table 7 of the supplementary materials, we summarized existing Diffusion MRI-based neurocognitive predictive studies.
FA is found to be correlated to neurocognitive function. For example, full-scale IQ is shown to be correlated (r = 0.53; 95% CI 0.35–0.66) to the FA values in the right anterior thalamic radiation, left superior longitudinal fasciculus, left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and left uncinate fasciculus (collectively, BAs 1, 3-9, 11, 13, 17, 18, 22, 24, 25, 29, 32, 34-36, 38, 39, 41, 42-47).114 It is also found that FA at 2 weeks of age is correlated (r = 0.35-0.48) to the BSID-based neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age in infants.115 Similarly, Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation (r = -0.73; p < 0.001) between VIQ and FA in the left-hemispheric Brocaʼs area (BAs 44, 45).116 In addition, correlation analysis of VIQ and mean diffusivity (MD) revealed a positive correlation in the left hemispheric Brocaʼs area (BAs 44, 45).116 Another study117 used FA to find chronic neurological damage in 30-60 years old retired national football league players and its association with mini-mental state examination (MMSE) evaluation of cognitive functions, which revealed a neurophysiological impairment in about 24% of the studied population.
Table 7.
Summary of diffusion MRI studies inferring human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- FA: Fractional Anisotropy, MD: Mean Diffusivity, RD: Radial Diffusivity, BSID: Bayley Scales of Infant Development, MSEL: Mullen Scale of Early Learning, MMSE: Mini-Mental Status Examination, VR: Visual Reception, FM: Fine Motor, RL: Receptive Language, EL: Expressive Language, ELC: Early Learning Composite, RMSE: Root Mean Square Error, HCP: Human Connectome Project, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, PIQ: Performance IQ, VIQ: Verbal IQ, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, DWI: Diffusion-weighted Imaging, DTI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Table 7.
Summary of diffusion MRI studies inferring human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- FA: Fractional Anisotropy, MD: Mean Diffusivity, RD: Radial Diffusivity, BSID: Bayley Scales of Infant Development, MSEL: Mullen Scale of Early Learning, MMSE: Mini-Mental Status Examination, VR: Visual Reception, FM: Fine Motor, RL: Receptive Language, EL: Expressive Language, ELC: Early Learning Composite, RMSE: Root Mean Square Error, HCP: Human Connectome Project, WASI: Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, PIQ: Performance IQ, VIQ: Verbal IQ, T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, T2-w: T2-weighted MRI, DWI: Diffusion-weighted Imaging, DTI: Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Probable BAs are not specified for either left or right hemisphere.
Study |
Year |
N |
Age (years)
|
Dataset |
MRI type |
MRI features |
Regions |
Probable BAs |
IQ/ Neuro. Test
|
Normal/ Abnormal
|
Method |
Correlation/ Finding
|
Malpas et al.114
|
2016 |
91 |
18-55 |
Nathan Kline Institute/Rockland Sample |
DTI |
FA |
42 Brodmann regions were specified in each hemisphere |
1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 24, 25, 29, 32, 44, 45, 46, 47, 13, 22, 34, 35, 36, 38, 41, 42, 39, 40, 43, 17, 18 |
WASI |
Normal |
t statistic regression analysis
|
FA was positively correlated with FSIQ with r = 0.53 (95% CI 0.35–0.66). |
Konrad et al.
116
|
2012 |
30 |
22.8±1.5 |
Institute of Neuroradiology of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany |
T1-w, DTI |
FA, MD |
Left-hemispheric Brocaʼs area
|
44, 45, 22 |
Hamburg–Wechsler Intelligenztest (HAWIE-R) - equivalent to WAIS-R |
Normal |
Voxel-wise t statistic regression analysis, Pearson correlation
|
VIQ performance is negatively correlated to the FA in the mentioned regions (r = - 0.73; p < 0.001). |
Feng et al.115
|
2019 |
38 |
0-2 |
Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center |
DTI |
FA |
White matter tracts |
Not specified |
BSID-III |
Normal |
Voxel-wise tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS)
|
Correlations between FA at 2 weeks of age and BSID subfields scores at 2 years of age are 0.35~0.48. |
Casson et al.117
|
2014 |
45 |
30-60 |
Wayne State University |
T1-w, SWI, DTI |
FA-based dysarthria, pyramidal system dysfunction, extrapyramidal system dysfunction, and cerebellar dysfunction |
Gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid |
Not specified |
MMSE |
Normal/ abnormal |
Chi-square test |
The number of football-related concussions was associated with isolated neurocognitive abnormalities in 24% of population. |
Adeli et al.94
|
2019 |
24 |
0-4 |
UNC Chapel Hill Early Brain Development Study |
T1-w, T2-w, DWI |
Cortical thickness, mean curvature, local gyrification index, vertex area, vertex volume, sulcal depth in string distance, and sulcal depth in Euclidean distance |
Parcellation of the cerebral cortex into 70 anatomically meaningful ROIs |
Not specified |
VR, FM, RL, EL, and ELC (MSEL) |
Normal |
Multi-task multi-linear regression |
Correlation between predicted and true ELC is 0.70 (p < 0.001) |
Lee et al.118 |
2017 |
535 |
0-2 |
UNC Chapel Hill Early Brain Development Study |
DTI |
Axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD), and FA
|
White matter |
Not specified |
MSEL: ELC |
Normal |
Distance correlation coefficient |
Correlation between AD, RD and FA with ELC are 0.13~0.20 (p < 0.05) |
Zhang et al.
119
|
2019 |
1076 |
- |
HCP |
DWI |
Count of streamlines, connected surface area (CSA) and weighted CSA, mean and maximum values of FA and MD, cluster number, average length, and mean deviations from a template streamline |
ROIs in the whole cortex
|
Not specified |
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
Tensor network principal components analysis
|
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 24.11% (p < 0.001). |
Other study94 used different cortical features from the whole brain such as the sulcal depth as Euclidian distance from the cerebral hull surface, local gyrification index, curved sulcal depth along the streamlines constrained in cerebral fluid, mean curvature, and cortical thickness, corresponding to working memory, attention, verbal learning and memory, visuospatial functioning, spatial planning, and problem-solving, and inhibition as features and found a correlation between predicted and true early learning composite (ELC) od 0.70 (p < 0.001). A similar study118 but using DTI-based features from the whole brain such as axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD), and FA found a correlation between the DT features (i.e., AD, RD, and FA) and ELC of 0.13~0.20 (p < 0.05). Another study119 used several DWI features from the whole brain such as count of streamlines, connected surface area (CSA), weighted CSA, mean and maximum FA and MD, cluster number, average length, and mean deviations from a template streamline to predict gF, and reported a correlation between actual and estimated gF of 24.11% (p < 0.001).
Functional MRI to Infer Intelligence and Neurocognition
Functional MRI (fMRI) utilizes the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) effect to reveal the brain connectivity during a stimulation (task-fMRI) or in a resting state (rs-fMRI).120 Major large-scale brain networks as found in resting-state fMRI include the dorsal and ventral default mode, right and left executive control, dorsal and ventral attention, anterior and posterior salience, basal ganglia, language, high and primary visual, precuneus, auditory and somatosensory networks, and others.121
Functional connectivity strength among different parts of the brain, estimated from fMRI, can be used to predict neurocognitive and intelligence scores. As summarized in
Table 8 of the supplementary materials, functional connectivity in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (BA 9) is significantly correlated (r = 0.47; p = 0.0002) to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) intelligence scores.
122 Also, the functional connectivity in the frontoparietal network region (including BAs 9, 4, 39, 40, 46, 10, 13 and other regions) and central brain regions (i.e., somatosensory region; BAs 1, 2, 3) is used for later life neuropsychological test performance prediction with a correlation between the actual and predicted behavioral scores of r = 0.12~0.44 (p < 0.001).
123 Frontoparietal network (BAs 9, 4, 39, 40, 46, 10, 13, etc.) connectivity is also found significantly correlated to fluid intelligence (r = 0.50; p < 0.01),
124 memory (r = 0.097; p < 0.001),
125 general neurocognitive ability (r = 0.31; p < 0.0001),
126 and FSIQ (r = 0.51; p < 0.001)
127 performance. Any disease (e.g. Turner syndrome
128) related impairment in the fronto-parietal network also causes a deficit in the
gF/VIQ, compared to a healthy population (p < 0.0001).
Some other studies used fMRI-based functional connectivity data from Human Connectome Project (HCP) to show a correlation between the actual and estimated fluid intelligence (0.19-33)129–133 and cognitive ability (0.95).134
In
Figure 5, we show a bar plot representing the proportion of our reviewed fMRI papers that used different Brodmann areas in inferring intelligence and neurocognition. For simplicity, here also, we only used the Brodmann areas without mentioning the hemisphere sides. We see in this figure that AI approaches also utilized those Brodmann areas, which were previously reported to be correlated to the intelligence and neurocognition of humans. In addition, we see in this figure that the AI approaches used many Brodmann areas, which are in fact a part of the well-known P-FIT model.
Table 8.
Summary of functional MRI inferring human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- OASIS: Open Access Series of Imaging Studies, KSHAP: Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, FC: Functional Connectivity, MMSE: Mini-Mental Status Examination, BOLD: Blood-oxygen-level-dependent, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, ANOVA: Analysis of Variance, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, PIQ: Performance IQ, VIQ: Verbal IQ, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, HCP: Human Connectome Project, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, WASI: Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, MMSE: Mini-mental State Examination, CPM: Connectome-Based Predictive Modeling; T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, fMRI: functional MRI.
Table 8.
Summary of functional MRI inferring human neurocognition and intelligence. Acronyms- OASIS: Open Access Series of Imaging Studies, KSHAP: Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, FC: Functional Connectivity, MMSE: Mini-Mental Status Examination, BOLD: Blood-oxygen-level-dependent, ABCD: Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, NIH-TCB: NIH toolbox of neurocognitive battery, ANOVA: Analysis of Variance, FSIQ: Full-scale Intelligent Quotient, PIQ: Performance IQ, VIQ: Verbal IQ, LASSO: Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, CNN: Convolutional Neural Network, HCP: Human Connectome Project, WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, WASI: Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, MMSE: Mini-mental State Examination, CPM: Connectome-Based Predictive Modeling; T1-w: T1-weighted MRI, fMRI: functional MRI.
Study |
Year |
N |
Age (years)
|
Dataset |
MRI type |
MRI features |
Regions |
Probable BAs |
IQ/ Neuro. Test
|
Normal/ Abnormal
|
Method |
Correlation/ Finding
|
Song et al.
122
|
2008 |
59 |
18.5–33.3 |
Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University |
fMRI |
Functional connectivity |
bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices |
9 |
WAIS |
Normal |
Stepwise linear regression |
FSIQ is correlated to the functional connectivity in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (r = 0.47; p = 0.0002). |
Kwak et al.123 |
2021 |
795 |
46-96 |
OASIS-3, KSHAP |
T1-w, fMRI |
Functional connectivity from BOLD signals |
Region of frontoparietal network and central brain |
9, 4, 39, 40, 46, 10, 13, 1, 2, 3 |
MMSE |
Normal |
Ridge regression |
Correlation between behavioral test scores and FC-predicted score is 0.12~0.44 (p < 0.001). |
Finn et al.
124
|
2015 |
126 |
22-35 |
Human Connectome Project (HCP) |
fMRI |
Positive and negative edges, frontoparietal networks |
Frontoparietal region |
9, 4, 39, 40, 46, 10, 13 |
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
CPM |
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 0.5 (p < 0.01) |
Powell et al.
125
|
2017 |
841 |
22-37 |
HCP |
fMRI |
Voxel-wise local structural connectome |
Region of frontoparietal network |
9, 4, 39, 40, 46, 10, 13 |
NIH-TCB
|
Normal |
LASSO Principal Component Regressor |
Correlation between the actual and predicted NIH picture sequence memory test is 0.097 (p < 0.001) |
Sripada et al.
126
|
2020 |
2013 |
9-10 |
ABCD |
fMRI |
Resting-state functional connectivity pattern |
Default mode network, frontoparietal network, salience network, dorsal attention network |
8, 9, 10, 21, 28, 36, 23, 24, 32, 29, 30, 31, 39, 40 |
NIH-TCB |
Normal |
Brain basis set (BBS) modeling (combination of PCA and linear regression) |
General neurocognitive ability score is highly correlated to the mentioned networks (r = 0.31; p < 0.0001) |
Jiang et al.
127
|
2017 |
360 |
17-24 |
University of Electronic Science and Technology, China |
fMRI |
Functional connectivity |
Superior frontal gyrus, inferior and superior parietal lobules
|
10, 11, 12, 39, 40, 7 |
WAIS-RC |
Normal |
RelieF+LASSO |
Correlation between actual and estimated FSIQ is 51% (p < 0.001) |
Hart et al.128
|
2006 |
25 |
14-29 |
UNC Pediatric Endocrinology Turner Syndrome Clinic |
fMRI |
Activated voxels in fMRI |
Left and right middle frontal gyri, inferior frontal gyri, intraparietal sulci and inferior temporal gyri |
10, 44, 45, 47, 20 |
WASI |
Normal/ abnormal |
ANOVA |
Individuals with Turner syndrome and controls had significantly different verbal IQs (p < 0.0001) |
Greene et al.
129
|
2018 |
1086 |
8-36 |
HCP, Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) |
fMRI |
Whole brain functional connectivity |
Cortical and subcortical grey matter, cerebellum |
Not specified
|
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
CPM
|
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 19% in resting state (p = 0.039) |
He et al.
131
|
2018 |
9821 |
22-69 |
HCP, UK-Biobank |
fMRI |
Functional Connectivity Matrix |
Whole-brain spatially independent components |
Not specified
|
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
Kernel Regression, Feedforward NN, CNN |
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 23.9% (p < 0.001) using the Kernel regression |
Li et al.
132
|
2018 |
100 |
- |
HCP |
fMRI |
Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation of left anterior cingulate cortex |
Right prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex |
8, 24, 32, 33
|
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
Support vector regressor |
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 32.5% (p = 0.031) |
Dubois et al.
133
|
2018 |
884 |
22-36 |
HCP |
fMRI |
Functional Connectivity Matrix |
Cortical and subcortical grey matter |
Not specified
|
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
Univariate correlation filtering + Elastic net regression |
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 22% using the univariate model (p < 0.001) |
Yoo et al.
134
|
2019 |
575 |
22-56 |
HCP |
fMRI |
Functional Connectivity Matrix |
Regions of frontoparietal and default mode networks |
9, 4, 39, 40, 46, 10, 13, 38, 25, 23, 31 |
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
CPM-based Multivariate distance correlation |
Correlation between actual and estimated cognitive ability is 9.5% (p < 0.01) |
Noble et al.
135
|
2017 |
618 |
22-56 |
HCP |
fMRI |
10 functionally coherent networks |
Whole gray matter |
Not specified
|
Raven's Progressive Matrices
|
Normal |
CPM |
Correlation between actual and estimated gF is 22% (p < 0.0001) |
Opportunities and Challenges
Precision and Individual Variability. Earlier studies associated MRI metrics with neurocognition in a population. Population-level association does not explain individual variability. There is a need to use MRI to estimate or predict neurocognition for individual subjects. A fundamental question remains open for which MRI metrics, out of hundreds of s/d/fMRI metrics, from which neuroanatomy, carry the neurocognitive information for individual differences. The answers to this question may vary by the neurocognitive domains.
Neuroscientific Interpretation. Sex differences exist widely in diseases136 and in normal brain MRIs.137 Hemispheric differences exist and contribute to brain development. Besides sex and hemispheric differences, brain development presents spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Spatially, maturation occurs in a posterior-to-anterior and inferior-to-superior direction138,139. Temporally, sensory and motor cortices develop earlier, while the prefrontal, amygdala, and hippocampus continue to get matured during adolescence139,140, and working memory141 and reasoning142 continue to evolve over childhood and adolescence. Yet, it remains open to ‘localizing’ the regional brain biomarkers in space, in time, and specific to sex, age, and brain hemisphere. Elucidating the neural substrate of inter-individual intelligence difference will also differ across neurocognitive domains.
Nature and nurture beyond MRI data. A mystery is which extent is human intelligence or neurocognition decided by nature (i.e., genetics) and by nurture. For nurture, social upbringing143 and neighborhood environment144 have effects on neurodevelopment, so do demographics (age, sex, body mass index or BMI, etc.), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol, reading, exercise, etc.), nutrition, socioeconomic status (education, income, etc.), and other factors. Thus, we need to combine MRI with other nature and nurture data to better understand individual variability in neurocognition.3,145–150 There are technical challenges for (i) how to best combine 3D MRIs with 1D non-MRI features151; (ii) how to identify the best subset of variables that best estimate neurocognitive abilities152,153; and (iii) eventually quantify the contribution of nature versus nurture.
Merging Datasets. Artificial intelligence requires a large training dataset, which, for brain MRI, means 1,000 or more subjects.
154 Recent studies have combined public or private datasets to form a large database of thousands or even tens of thousands of brain MRIs, for age prediction,
155,156 quantification of normal brain development,
131 genotype-phenotype mapping
157 and other tasks. We have found at least 38 public datasets with a total of about 35,000 unique individuals with both brain MRIs and neurocognitive/intelligence test scores (
Table 2). Challenges arise, however, for (a) multi-site, multi-scanner, multi-protocol MRI harmonization; (b) dealing with different types or versions of neurocognitive tests as used in different datasets; (c) tackling uncertainties in the test scores for neurocognition/intelligence; and (d) coping with incompleteness or inconsistency in other variables (demographics, socioeconomic status, genetics, environment, etc.) across datasets.
Table 2.
We have found at least 38 public datasets with a total of about 35,000 unique individuals with both brain MRIs and neurocognitive/intelligence test scores.
Table 2.
We have found at least 38 public datasets with a total of about 35,000 unique individuals with both brain MRIs and neurocognitive/intelligence test scores.
Evaluation of the Present versus Prediction of the Future. Predicting future neurocognitive outcomes and intelligence level is more difficult but as, if not more, important than evaluating the current status. Early prediction of later-life neurocognitive outcomes will create a precious time window for early intervention.7,8 It will identify high-risk patients for targeted intervention, avoiding unnecessary interventions for patients at low risk for future neurocognitive impairments.158 Both the early and the targeted interventions are key unmet needs in clinical trials that aim to improve patients’ long-term neurocognitive outcomes.8,159 For the last three decades, there have been many studies that used medical imaging (e.g., MRI) and computer-aided mathematical models (e.g., multivariate analysis, machine learning, deep learning, etc.) to identify neurocognitive impairments in patients with various diseases, e.g., traumatic brain injuries,160 schizophrenia,161 Alzheimer's Disease,162 and diabetes.163 Yet, predicting normal and abnormal neurocognitive development trajectories remains a largely unanswered question.
Linking Healthy and Diseased. Do machine intelligence models that predict human intelligence in normal controls help us to predict abnormal neurocognitive outcomes in diseased populations? Do neurocognitive outcome prediction models share similar MRI and non-MRI features across diseases? Current studies are mostly on diseased populations but studying one specific disease at a time. Linking healthy and diseased, or merging data across diseases, may offer new insight for the common support of normal and abnormal neurocognitive development.