Developing brain asymmetry shapes cognitive and psychiatric outcomes in adolescence
Cerebral asymmetry, fundamental to various cognitive functions, is often disrupted in neuropsychiatric disorders. While brain growth has been extensively studied, the maturation of brain asymmetry in children and the factors influencing it in adolescence remain poorly understood. We analyze longitudinal data from 11,270 children aged 10-14 years in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Our analysis maps the developmental trajectory of structural brain asymmetry. We identify significant age-related, modality-specific development patterns. These patterns link to crystallized intelligence and mental health problems, but with weak correlations. Genetically, structural asymmetry relates to synaptic processes and neuron projections, likely through asymmetric synaptic pruning. At the microstructural level, corpus callosum integrity emerged as a key factor modulating the developing asymmetry. Environmentally, favorable perinatal conditions were associated with prolonged corpus callosum development, which affected future asymmetry patterns and cognitive outcomes. These findings underscore the dynamic yet predictable interactions between brain asymmetry, its structural determinants, and cognitive and psychiatric outcomes during a pivotal developmental stage. Our results provide empirical support for the adaptive plasticity theory in cerebral asymmetry and offer insights into both cognitive maturation and potential risk for early-onset mental health problems.
Authors
- Jianfeng Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8890-8288)
- Wei Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5297-7046)
- Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7352-1745)
- Nanyu Kuang
- Tianye Jia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5399-2953)
- Xinran Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4974-1913)
- Xiangzhen Kong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0805-1350)
- Gechang Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6887-6733)
- Trevor William Robbins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0642-5977)
- Lena K. Palaniyappan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1640-7182)
- Zhaowen Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9702-1251)
- Kai Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7885-3658)
- Yu Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8526-3122)
- Jie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5016-9192)
- Zhengxu Lian
- Miao Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0003-617X)
- Günter Schumann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7740-6469)
- Huanxin Fan
Institutions
- Western University (CA)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (US)
- Zhejiang Normal University (CN)
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Fudan University (CN)
- Douglas Mental Health University Institute (CA)
- Fulbourn Hospital (GB)
- University of Warwick (GB)
- Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (CN)
- Prince of Wales Hospital (CN)
- Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology (CN)
- East China Normal University (CN)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
- Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-05-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59110-9
- Citations
- 17
- Primary Topic
- Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 24.33
Funders
- McGill University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Fudan University
- Ministry of Education, India
- Zhejiang University
- Canada First Research Excellence Fund
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology
- Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project
- National Institutes of Health
- Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- National Institute of Mental Health