Brain resilience across the general cognitive ability distribution: Evidence from structural connectivity
Javier Santonja1, Kenia Martínez1, Francisco J Román1
1Facultad de Psicología, Univesidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
Brain Structure & Function
|January 21, 2021
Summary
High cognitive ability individuals exhibit more resilient brain structural networks. Their brain networks maintain integrity better against targeted and random attacks compared to average cognitive ability individuals.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Network Science
Background:
- Resting-state functional connectivity links general cognitive ability (GCA) to brain resilience.
- Previous research has not extensively explored this link in structural brain networks, especially in individuals with very high GCA.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between structural brain network integrity, resilience to network attacks, and GCA.
- To compare network resilience in high cognitive ability (HCA) versus average cognitive ability (ACA) individuals.
Main Methods:
- Collected structural and diffusion-weighted MRI data from 189 participants (60 HCA, 129 ACA).
- Constructed 82x82 structural connectivity matrices using automated parcellation and tractography.
- Simulated targeted attacks (TAs) and random attacks (RAs) by recursively removing nodes based on centrality or randomly.
Main Results:
- HCA individuals demonstrated superior baseline network integrity compared to ACA individuals.
- HCA networks showed greater resilience to both TAs and RAs, with effects more pronounced for TAs.
- Network degradation was less severe in HCA individuals when removing central or complex processing nodes.
Conclusions:
- Structural brain network resilience is associated with higher general cognitive ability.
- Differences in network resilience between HCA and ACA individuals appear quantitative rather than qualitative.
- Findings extend cognitive-neuroscience links to structural brain network properties.
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