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Review
. 2014 May:42:180-92.
doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.02.005. Epub 2014 Feb 23.

Prefrontal cortex and executive functions in healthy adults: a meta-analysis of structural neuroimaging studies

Peng Yuan  1 , Naftali Raz  2
Affiliations
Review

Prefrontal cortex and executive functions in healthy adults: a meta-analysis of structural neuroimaging studies

Peng Yuan et al. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2014 May.

Abstract

Lesion studies link the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to executive functions. However, the evidence from in vivo investigations in healthy people is mixed, and there are no quantitative estimates of the association strength. To examine the relationship between PFC volume and cortical thickness with executive cognition in healthy adults, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies that assessed executive functions and PFC volume (31 samples,) and PFC thickness (10 samples) in vivo, N=3272 participants. We found that larger PFC volume and greater PFC thickness were associated with better executive performance. Stronger associations between executive functions and PFC volume were linked to greater variance in the sample age but was unrelated to the mean age of a sample. Strength of association between cognitive and neuroanatomical indices depended on the executive task used in the study. PFC volume correlated stronger with Wisconsin Card Sorting Test than with digit backwards span, Trail Making Test and verbal fluency. Significant effect size was observed in lateral and medial but not orbital PFC. The results support the "bigger is better" hypothesis of brain-behavior relation in healthy adults and suggest different neural correlates across the neuropsychological tests used to assess executive functions.

Keywords: Aging; Brain; Cognition; Cortical thickness; MRI; Morphometry; Volume.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between executive functions and PFC volume.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between executive functions and prefrontal cortical thickness.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Estimated distributions of true effect sizes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scatterplot of effect size vs. sample mean age. The areas of circles are proportional to sample sizes.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Standard deviation of sample age as a moderator. The areas of circles are proportional to sample sizes.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between WCST performance and PFC volume.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between WM and PFC volume.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between interference score and PFC volume.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between fluency test score and PFC volume.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between TMT score and PFC volume.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between executive functions and LPFC volume.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between executive functions and OFC volume.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Effect sizes (correlations) for associations between executive functions and MPFC volume.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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