Brain structure differences between Chinese and Caucasian cohorts: A comprehensive morphometry study

Abstract

Numerous behavioral observations and brain function studies have demonstrated that neurological differences exist between East Asians and Westerners. However, the extent to which these factors relate to differences in brain structure is still not clear. As the basis of brain functions, the anatomical differences in brain structure play a primary and critical role in the origination of functional and behavior differences. To investigate the underlying differences in brain structure between the two cultural/ethnic groups, we conducted a comparative study on education-matched right-handed young male adults (age = 22-29 years) from two cohorts, Han Chinese (n = 45) and Caucasians (n = 45), using high-dimensional structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Using two well-validated imaging analysis techniques, surface-based morphometry (SBM) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM), we performed a comprehensive vertex-wise morphometric analysis of the brain structures between Chinese and Caucasian cohorts. We identified consistent significant between-group differences in cortical thickness, volume, and surface area in the frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital, and insular lobes as well as the cingulate cortices. The SBM analyses revealed that compared with Caucasians, the Chinese population showed larger cortical structures in the temporal and cingulate regions, and smaller structural measures in the frontal and parietal cortices. The VBM data of the same sample was well-aligned with the SBM findings. Our findings systematically revealed comprehensive brain structural differences between young male Chinese and Caucasians, and provided new neuroanatomical insights to the behavioral and functional distinctions in the two cultural/ethnic populations.

Unbiased Age-Appropriate Structural Brain Atlases for Chinese Pediatrics

“…The regions showed obvious anatomical differences that were mainly located in the sensorimotor regions and several highorder function regions such as the dorsal attention and language-related regions (e.g., Broca's and Wernicke's areas). These regional differences were quite similar to the previous multicultural brain studies in which Chinese adults showed significantly thinner cortical thickness in the premotor cortex, inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus (Chee, et al, 2011); smaller cortical volume; and larger surface areas in the bilateral superior and medial prefrontal and the bilateral orbitofrontal gyrus (Tang, et al, 2018) compared with Western. These consistent regional differences are reasonable because the high-order functions related to cultural and educational factors such as the language abilities have developed prominently in children at school age.…”

“…However, the existing children brain templates are constructed mostly based on Western pediatric populations (Fonov, et al, 2011;Oishi, et al, 2018;Richards, et al, 2016;Sanchez, et al, 2012;Wilke, et al, 2008;Wilke, et al, 2002), with a typical case being the widely used National Institutes of Health pediatric atlases (NIH-PD) (Fonov, et al, 2011). These existing brain templates are not ideal for use in Chinese pediatrics studies , since Chinese adults and children have unique neuroanatomical features in the brain size and shape as compared to Western people (Bai, et al, 2012;Liang, et al, 2015;Tang, et al, 2010;Tang, et al, 2018;Xie, et al, 2015). Different growth trajectories of some brain structures between Chinese and North American children have also been reported (Guo, et al, 2007;Xie, et al, 2014).…”

Cultural variations in global and local attention and eye-movement patterns during the perception of complex visual scenes: Comparison of Czech and Taiwanese university students

“…It is uncertain which factors cause variations in cognitive processes. It is reasonable to assume that they are based on the interplay of multiple factors that include sociocultural, environmental and biological influences, such as philosophical tradition [1], parent-child interaction [3,4], socioeconomic status and personal wealth [5], literacy [6], the complexity of the physical environment [7], differences in the anatomical and functional aspects of the central nervous system [8,9], or means of subsistence [10,11]. Probably the most used explanatory factors for the existence of cultural differences in cognition are the cultural syndromes of individualism and collectivism (independent and interdependent self, respectively) [12,13].…”

Constructing and evaluating a cortical surface atlas and analyzing cortical sex differences in young Chinese adults

“…Previous studies have reported significant cortical surface morphology differences (e.g., gray matter cortical volume, cortical surface area, and cortical thickness) between Chinese and Caucasian brains (Chee, Zheng, Goh, Park, & Sutton, ; Kochunov et al, ; Tang et al, ). Visual assessment of our results showed that the sCN200 cortical surface templates are shorter in length and slightly greater in height than the sUS200 cortical surface templates, which is consistent with previous studies that reported differences between Chinese and Caucasian volumetric measures (Tang et al, ; Yang et al, ).…”