TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural correlates of orbital telorism
AU - Pawlak, Mikolaj A.
AU - Knol, Maria J.
AU - Vernooij, Meike W.
AU - Ikram, M. Arfan
AU - Adams, Hieab H.H.
AU - Evans, T. E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Orbital telorism, the interocular distance, is clinically informative and in extremes is considered a minor physical anomaly. While its extremes, hypo- and hypertelorism, have been linked to disorders often related to cognitive ability, little is known about the neural correlates of normal variation of telorism within the general population. We derived measures of orbital telorism from cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by calculating the distance between the eyeball center of gravity in two population-based datasets (N = 5,653, N = 29,824; mean age 64.66, 63.75 years). This measure was found to be related to grey matter tissue density within numerous regions of the brain, including, but surprisingly not limited to, the frontal regions, in both positive and negative directions. Additionally, telorism was related to several cognitive functions, such as Purdue pegboard test (Beta, P-value (CI95%) −.02, 1.63 × 10−7 (−.03:-.01)) and fluid intelligence (.02, 4.75 × 10−6 (.01:0.02)), with some relationships driven by individuals with a smaller orbital telorism. This is reflective of the higher prevalence of hypotelorism in developmental disorders, specifically those that accompany lower cognitive lower functioning. This study suggests, despite previous links only made in clinical extremes, that orbital telorism holds some relation to structural brain development and cognitive function in the general population. This relationship is likely driven by shared developmental periods.
AB - Orbital telorism, the interocular distance, is clinically informative and in extremes is considered a minor physical anomaly. While its extremes, hypo- and hypertelorism, have been linked to disorders often related to cognitive ability, little is known about the neural correlates of normal variation of telorism within the general population. We derived measures of orbital telorism from cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by calculating the distance between the eyeball center of gravity in two population-based datasets (N = 5,653, N = 29,824; mean age 64.66, 63.75 years). This measure was found to be related to grey matter tissue density within numerous regions of the brain, including, but surprisingly not limited to, the frontal regions, in both positive and negative directions. Additionally, telorism was related to several cognitive functions, such as Purdue pegboard test (Beta, P-value (CI95%) −.02, 1.63 × 10−7 (−.03:-.01)) and fluid intelligence (.02, 4.75 × 10−6 (.01:0.02)), with some relationships driven by individuals with a smaller orbital telorism. This is reflective of the higher prevalence of hypotelorism in developmental disorders, specifically those that accompany lower cognitive lower functioning. This study suggests, despite previous links only made in clinical extremes, that orbital telorism holds some relation to structural brain development and cognitive function in the general population. This relationship is likely driven by shared developmental periods.
KW - Cognition
KW - MRI
KW - Orbital telorism
KW - VBM
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118947408&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.10.003
DO - 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.10.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 34781092
AN - SCOPUS:85118947408
SN - 0010-9452
VL - 145
SP - 315
EP - 326
JO - Cortex
JF - Cortex
ER -