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. 2015 Feb 4;35(5):2233-45.
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0598-14.2015.

The impact of parent-child interaction on brain structures: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

Hikaru Takeuchi  1 , Yasuyuki Taki  2 , Hiroshi Hashizume  3 , Kohei Asano  3 , Michiko Asano  3 , Yuko Sassa  3 , Susumu Yokota  4 , Yuka Kotozaki  5 , Rui Nouchi  6 , Ryuta Kawashima  7
Affiliations

The impact of parent-child interaction on brain structures: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

Hikaru Takeuchi et al. J Neurosci. .

Abstract

There is a vast amount of evidence from psychological studies that the amount of parent-child interaction affects the development of children's verbal skills and knowledge. However, despite the vast amount of literature, brain structural development associated with the amount of parent-child interaction has never been investigated. In the present human study, we used voxel-based morphometry to measure regional gray matter density (rGMD) and examined cross-sectional correlations between the amount of time spent with parents and rGMD among 127 boys and 135 girls. We also assessed correlations between the amount of time spent with parents and longitudinal changes that occurred a few years later among 106 boys and 102 girls. After correcting for confounding factors, we found negative effects of spending time with parents on rGMD in areas in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) via cross-sectional analyses as well as in the contingent areas of the right STG. We also confirmed positive effects of spending time with parents on the Verbal Comprehension score in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. rGMD in partly overlapping or contingent areas of the right STG was negatively correlated with age and the Verbal Comprehension score in cross-sectional analyses. Subsequent analyses revealed verbal parent-child interactions have similar effects on Verbal Comprehension scores and rGMD in the right STG in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. These findings indicate that parent-child interactions affect the right STG, which may be associated with verbal skills.

Keywords: children; development; gray matter density; parent; verbal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Negative rGMD correlates of the amount of time (hours) spent with parents in cross-sectional analyses. a, Negative rGMD correlates of time spent with parents. Significant correlations in the left temporal area and the right STG were observed together with other nonsignificant correlations. Results are shown with p < 0.0025, uncorrected for visualization purposes. b, c, Associations between rGMD and the amount of time spent with parents. Residual plots with trend lines depicting correlations between residuals in multiple regression analyses with rGMD of the peak voxels in (b) the right STG and (c) the left STG as the dependent variables.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Negative rGMD correlates of Verbal Comprehension and FSIQ in cross-sectional analyses. a, Negative rGMD correlates of Verbal Comprehension. Significant correlations were observed in the left temporal area and the right STG together with other nonsignificant correlations. Results are shown with p < 0.0025, uncorrected for visualization purposes. b, c, Associations between rGMD and Verbal Comprehension. Residual plots with trend lines depicting the correlations between residuals in multiple regression analyses with rGMD of the peak voxels in (b) the right STG and (c) the left STG as the dependent variables. d, Negative rGMD correlates of FSIQ. Significant correlations were observed in the left temporal area and the right STG together with other nonsignificant correlations. Results are shown with p < 0.0025, uncorrected for visualization purposes. e, f, Associations between rGMD and FSIQ. Residual plots with trend lines depicting the correlations between residuals in multiple regression analyses with rGMD of the peak voxels in (e) the right STG and (f) the left STG as the dependent variables.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Negative rGMD correlates of age in cross-sectional analyses. a, b, Negative rGMD correlates of age. Correlations in the bilateral STG were observed together with correlations in other areas. a, Results are shown with p < 0.0025, uncorrected for visualization purposes. b, c, Associations between rGMD and age. Residual plots with trend lines depicting the correlations between residuals in the multiple regression analyses with rGMD of the peak voxels in (b) the right STG and (c) the left STG as the dependent variables.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Negative rGMD correlates of the amount of time spent with parents in longitudinal analyses. a, Negative rGMD correlates of the amount of time spent with parents. Significant correlations were observed in the right STG. Results are shown with p < 0.0025, uncorrected for visualization purposes. b, Associations between rGMD and the amount of time spent with parents. Residual plot with trend lines depicting correlations between residuals in multiple regression analyses with rGMD of the peak voxels in the right STG as the dependent variables.
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