Brain asymmetry differences between Chinese and Caucasian populations: a surface-based morphometric comparison study
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Brain asymmetry differences between Chinese and Caucasian populations: a surface-based morphometric comparison study Yunxia Lou 1,2 & Lu Zhao 3 & Shui Yu 4 & Bo Sun 1,5 & Zhongyu Hou 1,6 & Zhonghe Zhang 1,6 & Yuchun Tang 1,2 & Shuwei Liu 1,2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Asymmetry has been proved to exist in the human brain structure, function and behavior. Most of the existing brain asymmetry findings are originated from the western populations, while studies about the brain structural and functional asymmetries in East Asians are limited. Extensive evidence suggested that cultural differences, e.g. education and language, may lead to differences in brain structure and function between races. Therefore, we hypothesized that differences in brain structural asymmetries exist between East Asians and Westerners. In this study, we performed a comprehensive surface-based morphometric (SBM) analysis of brain asymmetries in cortical thickness, volume and surface area in two well-matched groups of right-handed, Chinese (n = 45) and Caucasian (n = 45) young male adults (age = 22–29 years). Our results showed consistent inter-hemispheric asymmetries in the three brain morphological measures in multiple brain regions in the Chinese young adults, including the temporal, frontal, parietal, occipital, insular cortices and the cingulate gyrus. Comparing with the Caucasians, the Chinese group showed greater structural asymmetry in the frontal, temporal, occipital and insular cortices, and smaller asymmetry in the parietal cortex and cingulate gyrus. These findings could provide a new neuroanatomical basis for understanding the distinctions between East Asian and Caucasian in brain functional lateralization. Keywords MRI . Brain asymmetry . Cortical thickness . Surface area . Cortical volume . Surface-based morphometry
Introduction Brain asymmetry has been observed in terms of structure, function, behavior and their correlations (Duboc et al. 2015). This lateralized specification of the human brain varies with
* Yuchun Tang [email protected] 1
Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University Cheeloo College of Medicine, Jinan, China
2
School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, China
3
Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA, USA
4
Department of Radiation Oncology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Jinan, China
5
Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Jinan, China
6
Department of Medical Imaging, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, China
handedness, gender and age (Good et al. 2001; Kovalev et al. 2003), and is thought to originate from evolutionary, developmental, hereditary, experiential and pathological factors (Toga and Thompson 2003). Although asymmetry of function is thought to be a hallmark feature of brain organization in the human cortex, the mechanisms underlyin
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