Differential Contribution Of Cortical Thickness, Surface Area, And Gyrification To Fluid And Crystallized Intelligence

Human intelligence can be broadly subdivided into fluid (gf) and crystallized (gc) intelligence, each tapping into distinct cognitive abilities. Although neuroanatomical correlates of intelligence have been previously studied, differential contribution of cortical morphologies to gf and gc has not been fully delineated. Here, we tried to disentangle the contribution of cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and cortical gyrification to gf and gc in a large sample of healthy young subjects (n =740, Human Connectome Project) with high-resolution MRIs, followed by replication in a separate data set with distinct cognitive measures indexing gf and gc. We found that while gyrification in distributed cortical regions had positive association with both gf and gc, surface area and thickness showed more regional associations. Specifically, higher performance in gf was associated with cortical expansion in regions related to working memory, attention, and visuo-spatial processing, while gc was associated with thinner cortex as well as higher cortical surface area in language-related networks. We discuss the results in a framework where "horizontal" cortical expansion enables higher resource allocation, computational capacity, and functional specificity relevant to gf and gc, while lower cortical thickness possibly reflects cortical pruning facilitating "vertical" intracolumnar efficiency in knowledge-based tasks relevant mostly to gc.