Cortical thickness of superior frontal cortex predicts impulsiveness and perceptual reasoning in adolescence

• Published in: Molecular psychiatry Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 624 - 630
• Main Authors: Schilling, C, Kühn, S, Paus, T, Romanowski, A, Banaschewski, T, Barbot, A, Barker, G J, Brühl, R, Büchel, C, Conrod, P J, Dalley, J W, Flor, H, Ittermann, B, Ivanov, N, Mann, K, Martinot, J-L, Nees, F, Rietschel, M, Robbins, T W, Smolka, M N, Ströhle, A, Kathmann, N, Garavan, H, Heinz, A, Schumann, G, Gallinat, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-05-2013; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/378/2649/1725; 692/699/476; Adolescent; Adolescent psychology; Adolescents; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Psychology; Brain Mapping; Cerebral hemispheres; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Computed tomography; Cortex (frontal); Demographic aspects; Europe; Female; Functional Laterality; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Impulse; Impulsive Behavior - diagnosis; Impulsivity; Information processing; Intelligence; International Classification of Diseases; Male; Medical imaging; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental disorders; Mental Processes - physiology; Monte Carlo simulation; Morphometry; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuropsychology; Neurosciences; original-article; Perception; Personality; Personality Tests; Pharmacotherapy; Physiological aspects; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - anatomy & histology; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Teenagers; Europe; France; Canada; United Kingdom > UK; Berlin Germany; Germany; Paris France; trait; superior frontal cortex; impulsiveness; cortical thickness; healthy adolescents; Human; Cerebral cortex; Impulsivity; Central nervous system; Cognition; Frontal cortex; Layer thickness; Encephalon; Reasoning; Adolescent; Perception; Predictive factor
• ISSN: 1359-4184; 1476-5578
• DOI: 10.1038/mp.2012.56

Impulsiveness is a pivotal personality trait representing a core domain in all major personality inventories. Recently, impulsiveness has been identified as an important modulator of cognitive processing, particularly in tasks that require the processing of large amounts of information. Although brain imaging studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex to be a common underlying representation of impulsiveness and related cognitive functioning, to date a fine-grain and detailed morphometric analysis has not been carried out. On the basis of ahigh-resolution magnetic resonance scans acquired in 1620 healthy adolescents (IMAGEN), the individual cortical thickness (CT) was estimated. Correlations between Cloninger's impulsiveness and CT were studied in an entire cortex analysis. The cluster identified was tested for associations with performance in perceptual reasoning tasks of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC IV). We observed a significant inverse correlation between trait impulsiveness and CT of the left superior frontal cortex (SFC; Monte Carlo Simulation
P
<0.01). CT within this cluster correlated with perceptual reasoning scores (Bonferroni corrected) of the WISC IV. On the basis of a large sample of adolescents, we identified an extended area in the SFC as a correlate of impulsiveness, which appears to be in line with the trait character of this prominent personality facet. The association of SFC thickness with perceptual reasoning argues for a common neurobiological basis of personality and specific cognitive domains comprising attention, spatial reasoning and response selection. The results may facilitate the understanding of the role of impulsiveness in several psychiatric disorders associated with prefrontal dysfunctions and cognitive deficits.