Cognitive insights from evolutionarily new brain structures in prefrontal cortex

Abstract

While the disproportionate expansion of lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) throughout evolution is commonly accepted, the relationship between evolutionarily new LPFC brain structures and uniquely human cognitive skills is largely unknown. Here, we tested the relationship between variability in evolutionarily new LPFC tertiary sulci and reasoning skills in a pediatric cohort. A novel data-driven approach in independent discovery and replication samples revealed that the depth of specific LPFC tertiary sulci predicts individual differences in reasoning skills beyond age. These findings support a classic, yet untested, theory linking the protracted development of tertiary sulci to late-developing cognitive processes. We conclude by proposing a mechanistic hypothesis relating the depth of LPFC tertiary sulci to anatomical connections. We suggest that deeper LPFC tertiary sulci reflect reduced short-range connections in white matter, which in turn, improve the efficiency of local neural signals underlying cognitive skills such as reasoning that are central to human cognitive development.

Using tertiary sulci to map the “cognitive globe” of prefrontal cortex

“…Additionally, as cortical morphology changes with age, it would be especially useful for future studies to quantify how much unique variance is explained by morphological features of tertiary sulci above and beyond age, as well as over and beyond other aspects of gyrification that change with age such as cortical thickness. Ongoing work in a developmental cohort using a model-based approach does just this and shows that the depths of a subset of tertiary LPFC sulci explain reasoning ability in both discovery and replication cohorts above and beyond age, as well as beyond the variance explained by cortical thickness (Voorhies et al, 2020). Thus, ongoing work suggests that considering tertiary sulcal morphology explains cognition well beyond incremental predictive validity in LPFC.…”

“…and ii) recent studies show that individual differences in sulcal morphology in PFC are related to individual differences in cognition (Amiez, Wilson, & Procyk, 2018;Brun et al, 2016;Voorhies, Miller, Yao, Bunge, & Weiner, 2020).…”

Using Tertiary Sulci to Map the “Cognitive Globe” of Prefrontal Cortex

“…For instance, tertiary sulcal morphology in ventral temporal cortex predicts the delineation of functional and microarchitectonic boundaries ( Weiner, 2019; Weiner & Zilles, 2016; Grill-Spector Weiner et al, 2014) and even perceptual abilities across individuals (Parker et al, 2020). Additionally, (i) medial pFC and cingulate areas also show distinct functional organization based on the presence of certain tertiary sulci ( Figure 5), and (ii) recent studies show that individual differences in sulcal morphology in pFC are related to individual differences in cognition (Voorhies, Miller, Yao, Bunge, & Weiner, 2020;Amiez, Wilson, & Procyk, 2018;Brun et al, 2016).…”

Neuroanatomical Correlates of Emotion-Related Impulsivity

“…Current findings also do not help understand when these structural correlates of ERI arise in development. LGI, like ERI, is sensitive to environmental insults (38) and the development of cognitive abilities (3,40). An important next step will be to use longitudinal designs to study parallels in the cortical maturation of the lateral OFC and the emergence of ERI.…”

“…Fourth, although researchers have primarily focused on volume-based anatomical features, surface-based features, such as cortical thickness (CT) and local gyrification index (LGI), have enhanced our understanding of other brain-behavior links (32)(33)(34). For J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f example, LGI, which has not been used to study ERI, is a critical marker of cortical development (35,36), interacts with genetic (37) and environmental factors, (38) and is related to executive function and reasoning abilities (39,40). Beyond the need to address inconsistencies in findings, recent work identifies a second form of ERI, Pervasive Influence of Feelings (PIF), with differentiable and robust impacts on mental health outcomes (7,41), but neuroimaging studies have considered only Feelings Trigger Action (FTA) (i.e., Urgency) and not PIF.…”