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Cerebral Cortex April 2004; 14:424-431
© Oxford University Press 2004

Article

Individual Differences in Anterior Cingulate/Paracingulate Morphology Are Related to Executive Functions in Healthy Males

Alexander Fornito1,2, Murat Yücel1,3,4, Stephen Wood1, Geoffrey W. Stuart1,2,3, Jo-Anne Buchanan1,3, Tina Proffitt1,4, Vicki Anderson2, Dennis Velakoulis1 and Christos Pantelis1

1 Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, 176 Furlong Road, St Albans, Victoria 3021, Australia, 2 Department of Psychology, School of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010 Australia, 3 Applied Schizophrenia Division, Mental Health Research Institute, Victoria, Parkville, Victoria, 3052 Australia, 4 ORYGEN Research Centre, 35 Poplar Road (Locked Bag 10), Parkville, Victoria, 3052 Australia

The neuropsychological correlates of inter-individual variations in cortical folding are poorly understood. Anterior cingulate (AC) cortex is one region characterized by considerable variability, particularly with respect to the paracingulate sulcus (PCS), which is present in only 30–60% of individuals and more commonly found in the left cerebral hemisphere. To investigate whether inter-individual differences in this PCS asymmetry are related to cognitive performance, we classified 30 healthy right-handed males as displaying either a leftward, rightward or symmetric pattern of folding based on the incidence and extent of the PCS in each hemisphere, and compared their performance on tasks engaging executive cognitive processes associated with frontal lobe function. We found that the more common leftward PCS asymmetry was associated with better performance across verbal and non-verbal executive tasks, but that PCS variability had no effect on tasks less dependent on executive functions. These results suggest that the leftward pattern of folding is associated with a non-specific performance advantage on cognitively demanding executive function tasks, possibly due to differences in functional interactions between AC/paracingulate cortex and connected frontal regions. It therefore appears that normal variations in brain morphology are associated with individual differences in cognitive abilities.


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