How growing up without siblings affects the adult brain and behaviour in the CHIMGEN cohort

Jie Tang^#¹, Jing Zhang^#^{2

3}, Wei Li^#⁴, Meiyun Wang⁵, Jingliang Cheng⁶, Bing Zhang⁷, Wenzhen Zhu⁸, Shijun Qiu⁹, Guangbin Cui¹⁰, Yongqiang Yu¹¹, Weihua Liao^{12

13

14}, Hui Zhang¹⁵, Bo Gao^{16

17}, Xiaojun Xu¹⁸, Yunjun Yang¹⁹, Tong Han²⁰, Zhenwei Yao²¹, Quan Zhang²², Wen Qin¹, Feng Liu¹, Meng Liang²³, Sijia Wang¹, Qiang Xu¹, Jiayuan Xu¹, Jilian Fu¹, Yuan Ji¹, Nana Liu¹, Peng Zhang⁴, Dapeng Shi⁵, Caihong Wang⁶, Su Lui²⁴, Zhihan Yan²⁵, Feng Chen²⁶, Wen Shen²⁷, Yanwei Miao²⁸, Dawei Wang²⁹, Junfang Xian³⁰, Xiaochu Zhang³¹, Kai Xu³², Xi-Nian Zuo^{33

34}, Longjiang Zhang³⁵, Zhaoxiang Ye⁴, Zuojun Geng³⁶, Jia-Hong Gao^{37

38

39

40}, Chunshui Yu^{41

42}; CHIMGEN Consortium

Collaborators, Affiliations

Collaborators

CHIMGEN Consortium:
Quan Zhang, Junping Wang, Xue Zhang, Xinjun Suo, Congcong Yuan, Hui Xue, Tianying Gao, Junpeng Liu, Yanjun Li, Xi Guo, Lixue Xu, Jiajia Zhu, Huaigui Liu, Fangshi Zhao, Jie Sun, Yongjie Xu, Huanhuan Cai, Yaodan Zhang, Yongqin Xiong, Xianting Sun, Nannan Pan, Xue Zhang Jr, Jiayang Yang, Ya Wen, Dan Zhu, Bingjie Wu, Wenshuang Zhu, Qingqing Diao, Yujuan Cao, Bingbing Yang, Lining Guo, Yingying Xie, Jiahui Lin, Zhimin Li, Yan Zhang, Kaizhong Xue, Zirui Wang, Junlin Shen, Xuejun Zhang, Hao Ding, Qian Su, Mulin Jun Li, Shijie Zhang, Lun Ma, Yan Bai, Min Guan, Wei Wei, Peifang Miao, Fuhong Duan, Yafei Guo, Weijian Wang, Long Jiang Zhang, Lijuan Zheng, Lilin, Yunfei Wang, Han Zhang, Xinyuan Zhang, Zhao Qing, Sichu Wu, Junxia Wang, Yi Sun, Yang He, Xi-Nian Zuo, Zhe Zhang, Yin-Shan Wang, Quan Zhou, Tian Tian, Yi Liang, Yujie Liu, Hui Zeng, Jingxian Chen, Haitao Ge, Peng Xu, Cailuan Lu, Chen Wu, Xiaoying Yang, Yuzhao Wang, Yankai Wu, Xuran Feng, Ling Li, Duo Gao, Rujing Zha, Ying Li, Lizhuang Yang, Ying Chen, Ling Zuo, Jianqiao Ge, Guoyuan Yang, Wen Wang, Linfeng Yan, Yang Yang, Jin Zhang, Qian Wang, Xiaoxia Qu, Ying Wang, Fei Yuan, Li Hu, Jizhen Li, Weiwei Wang, Yujing Zhou, Miaomiao Long, Lihua Liu, Xiaohu Li, Xiaoshu Li, Jiance Li, Nengzhi Xia, Weihua Liao, Shuai Yang, Youming Zhang, Jing Zhang, Guangyao Liu, Laiyang Ma, Xiaochun Wang, Ying Lei, Bo Gao, Gang Zhang, Kang Yuan, Jingjing Xu, Xiaojun Guan, Yuankai Lin, Hui Juan Chen, Yuchuan Fu, Yi Lu, Jun Guo, Hao Lu, Yue Wu

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging and State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
² Gansu Province Clinical Research Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging, Lanzhou, China.
³ Department of Magnetic Resonance, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin, China.
⁵ Department of Radiology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital and Zhengzhou University People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁷ Department of Radiology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁸ Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁹ Department of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
¹⁰ Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Lab of Shaanxi Province and Department of Radiology, Tangdu Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China.
¹¹ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
¹² Molecular Imaging Research Center of Central South University, Changsha, China.
¹³ National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
¹⁴ Department of Radiology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
¹⁵ Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
¹⁶ Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China.
¹⁷ Department of Radiology, Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, China.
¹⁸ Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
¹⁹ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
²⁰ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, Tianjin, China.
²¹ Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
²² Department of Radiology, Characteristic Medical Center of Chinese People's Armed Police Force, Tianjin, China.
²³ School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
²⁴ Department of Radiology, Center for Medical Imaging, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
²⁵ Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
²⁶ Department of Radiology, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, China.
²⁷ Department of Radiology, Tianjin First Center Hospital, Tianjin, China.
²⁸ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
²⁹ Department of Radiology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China.
³⁰ Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
³¹ Division of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
³² Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China.
³³ Developmental Population Neuroscience Research Center, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
³⁴ Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³⁵ Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
³⁶ Department of Medical Imaging, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China. 26620021@hebmu.edu.cn.
³⁷ Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
³⁸ Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
³⁹ PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
⁴⁰ National Biomedical Imaging Center, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
⁴¹ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging and State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China. chunshuiyu@tmu.edu.cn.
⁴² School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China. chunshuiyu@tmu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40164915
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02142-4

How growing up without siblings affects the adult brain and behaviour in the CHIMGEN cohort

Jie Tang et al. Nat Hum Behav. 2025 May.

. 2025 May;9(5):1005-1022.

doi: 10.1038/s41562-025-02142-4. Epub 2025 Mar 31.

Authors

Collaborators

CHIMGEN Consortium:
Quan Zhang, Junping Wang, Xue Zhang, Xinjun Suo, Congcong Yuan, Hui Xue, Tianying Gao, Junpeng Liu, Yanjun Li, Xi Guo, Lixue Xu, Jiajia Zhu, Huaigui Liu, Fangshi Zhao, Jie Sun, Yongjie Xu, Huanhuan Cai, Yaodan Zhang, Yongqin Xiong, Xianting Sun, Nannan Pan, Xue Zhang Jr, Jiayang Yang, Ya Wen, Dan Zhu, Bingjie Wu, Wenshuang Zhu, Qingqing Diao, Yujuan Cao, Bingbing Yang, Lining Guo, Yingying Xie, Jiahui Lin, Zhimin Li, Yan Zhang, Kaizhong Xue, Zirui Wang, Junlin Shen, Xuejun Zhang, Hao Ding, Qian Su, Mulin Jun Li, Shijie Zhang, Lun Ma, Yan Bai, Min Guan, Wei Wei, Peifang Miao, Fuhong Duan, Yafei Guo, Weijian Wang, Long Jiang Zhang, Lijuan Zheng, Lilin, Yunfei Wang, Han Zhang, Xinyuan Zhang, Zhao Qing, Sichu Wu, Junxia Wang, Yi Sun, Yang He, Xi-Nian Zuo, Zhe Zhang, Yin-Shan Wang, Quan Zhou, Tian Tian, Yi Liang, Yujie Liu, Hui Zeng, Jingxian Chen, Haitao Ge, Peng Xu, Cailuan Lu, Chen Wu, Xiaoying Yang, Yuzhao Wang, Yankai Wu, Xuran Feng, Ling Li, Duo Gao, Rujing Zha, Ying Li, Lizhuang Yang, Ying Chen, Ling Zuo, Jianqiao Ge, Guoyuan Yang, Wen Wang, Linfeng Yan, Yang Yang, Jin Zhang, Qian Wang, Xiaoxia Qu, Ying Wang, Fei Yuan, Li Hu, Jizhen Li, Weiwei Wang, Yujing Zhou, Miaomiao Long, Lihua Liu, Xiaohu Li, Xiaoshu Li, Jiance Li, Nengzhi Xia, Weihua Liao, Shuai Yang, Youming Zhang, Jing Zhang, Guangyao Liu, Laiyang Ma, Xiaochun Wang, Ying Lei, Bo Gao, Gang Zhang, Kang Yuan, Jingjing Xu, Xiaojun Guan, Yuankai Lin, Hui Juan Chen, Yuchuan Fu, Yi Lu, Jun Guo, Hao Lu, Yue Wu

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging and State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
² Gansu Province Clinical Research Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging, Lanzhou, China.
³ Department of Magnetic Resonance, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin, China.
⁵ Department of Radiology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital and Zhengzhou University People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁷ Department of Radiology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁸ Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁹ Department of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
¹⁰ Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Lab of Shaanxi Province and Department of Radiology, Tangdu Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China.
¹¹ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
¹² Molecular Imaging Research Center of Central South University, Changsha, China.
¹³ National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
¹⁴ Department of Radiology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
¹⁵ Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
¹⁶ Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China.
¹⁷ Department of Radiology, Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, China.
¹⁸ Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
¹⁹ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
²⁰ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, Tianjin, China.
²¹ Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
²² Department of Radiology, Characteristic Medical Center of Chinese People's Armed Police Force, Tianjin, China.
²³ School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
²⁴ Department of Radiology, Center for Medical Imaging, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
²⁵ Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
²⁶ Department of Radiology, Hainan General Hospital (Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University), Haikou, China.
²⁷ Department of Radiology, Tianjin First Center Hospital, Tianjin, China.
²⁸ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.
²⁹ Department of Radiology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China.
³⁰ Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
³¹ Division of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
³² Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China.
³³ Developmental Population Neuroscience Research Center, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
³⁴ Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³⁵ Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
³⁶ Department of Medical Imaging, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China. 26620021@hebmu.edu.cn.
³⁷ Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
³⁸ Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
³⁹ PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
⁴⁰ National Biomedical Imaging Center, Peking University, Beijing, China. jgao@pku.edu.cn.
⁴¹ Department of Radiology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging and State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China. chunshuiyu@tmu.edu.cn.
⁴² School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China. chunshuiyu@tmu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40164915
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02142-4

Abstract

With the worldwide increase in only-child families, it is crucial to understand the effects of growing up without siblings (GWS) on the adult brain, behaviour and the underlying pathways. Using the CHIMGEN cohort, we investigated the associations of GWS with adult brain structure, function, connectivity, cognition, personality and mental health, as well as the pathway from GWS to GWS-related growth environments to brain and to behaviour development, in 2,397 pairs of individuals with and without siblings well matched in covariates. We found associations linking GWS to higher language fibre integrity, lower motor fibre integrity, larger cerebellar volume, smaller cerebral volume and lower frontotemporal spontaneous brain activity. Contrary to the stereotypical impression of associations between GWS and problem behaviours, we found positive correlations of GWS with neurocognition and mental health. Despite direct effects, GWS affects most brain and behavioural outcomes through modifiable environments, such as socioeconomic status, maternal care and family support, suggesting targets for interventions to enhance children's healthy growth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

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How growing up without siblings affects the adult brain and behaviour in the CHIMGEN cohort

Collaborators

Affiliations

How growing up without siblings affects the adult brain and behaviour in the CHIMGEN cohort

Authors

Collaborators

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources