Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley have discovered a potential link between the depths of small brain grooves, known as tertiary sulci, and cognitive performance in children and adolescents. The findings were published on May 19 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

The study suggests that these small grooves may enhance connectivity between different regions of the brain, specifically the lateral prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex, which are associated with reasoning and high-level cognitive functions. "The impetus for this study was having seen that sulcal depth correlated with reasoning across children and adolescents," explained Silvia Bunge, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley.

Researchers believe that the tertiary sulci might reduce distances between connected brain areas, potentially increasing neural efficiency. This could help explain variations in individual cognitive abilities and might even serve as biomarkers for diagnosing neurodevelopmental disorders.

UC Berkeley's Kevin Weiner highlighted their predictions about connections between specific sulci: "We had explicit predictions about which tertiary sulci in the lateral prefrontal cortex would be functionally connected to tertiary sulci in the lateral parietal cortex, and that panned out."

Although many animals have smooth brains, human brains are deeply folded with 60% to 70% of their cortex buried within these folds. These cortical folding patterns change over time but stabilize late in prenatal development. "While sulci can change over development...our particular configuration of sulci is a stable individual difference," noted Bunge.

Previous studies lacked evidence linking tertiary sulci to brain connectivity until this research provided such proof. Bunge and Weiner's work revealed that longer lengths of specific tertiary sulci correlate with better face recognition skills. Building on this discovery, they investigated whether similar patterns existed outside visual processing areas.

In a separate collaboration from 2021, they defined smaller sulci in the lateral prefrontal cortex using computer models showing their contribution to reasoning skills among kids. Their new study cataloged tertiary sulci in both hemispheres' lateral parietal cortices while studying functional connections with those within prefrontal regions during fMRI scans on participants aged seven through eighteen years old who performed reasoning tasks inside scanners.

Bunge emphasized experience also influences cognitive development: "Do we think that an individual’s capacity for reasoning is set in stone based on their cortical folding? No!"

Weiner's lab is working on developing software tools identifying more than 100 distinct human-brain-related structures compared to conventional programs recognizing only around thirty-five such features currently available today worldwide according to him: “Examining network architecture based upon unique morphological attributes offers unparalleled opportunities gleaned insight from localized anatomical details.”

This groundbreaking research was supported by several grants including ones from Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Child Health Development R21HD100858 National Institute Mental Health R01MH133637 National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2042251 alongside contributions former postdoctoral fellow Suvi Häkkinen graduate student Willa Voorhies undergraduates Ethan Willbrand Jewelia Yao visiting scholars Yi-Heng Tsai Thomas Gagnant all affiliated UC-Berkeley team members behind successful completion latest breakthrough investigation project revealing exciting possibilities future exploration neuroscience field globally speaking moving forward long term perspective overall context present situation currently existing circumstances today tomorrow alike henceforth indefinitely into foreseeable future generations come ultimately leading towards better understanding humanity itself eventually achieving greater heights knowledge wisdom enlightenment collective society humanity at large...