Relationship between subcortical volumes and cognitive abilities in young healthy adults

Abstract

The relationship between the brain structures and cognition has been studied extensively. There are some evidences that a larger brain is associated with higher cognitive abilities and brain atrophy usually results as cognitive deficit s. Interested in this relationship, I examined healthy young adults to get insights of their subcortical volumes association with their performances in cognitive tasks in a non-pathological condition. For more effective investigation, I limited my study on the fluid intelligence, a cognitive ability essential for daily life problems coping. Data of 125 subjects were employed. Magnetic resonance imaging data of these participants were processed and subcortically segmented. I also focused on studying the striatum and hippocampus, which are subcortical structures, with more emphasis putting on the hippocampus. Partial correlation detected a significant correlation between hippocampal volumes and fluid intelligence scores when adjusting for age, education and intracranial volumes. Further examination revealed that it was the right hemispheric volumes of hippocampus that correlate with the cognitive performance in the male group. This result highlighted the contribution of hippocampus in fluid intelligence.