Morphometry of the corpus callosum in Chinese children: relationship with gender and academic performance

Background: The corpus callosum has been widely studied, but no study has demonstrated whether its size and shape have any relationship with language and calculation performance. Objective: To examine the morphometry of the corpus callosum of normal Chinese children and its relationship with gender and academic performance. Materials and methods: One hundred primary school children (63 boys, 37 girls; age 6.5–10 years) were randomly selected and the standardized academic performance for each was ascertained. On the mid-sagittal section of a brain MRI, the length, height and total area of the corpus callosum and its thickness at different sites were measured. These were correlated with sex and academic performance. Results: Apart from the normal average dimension of the different parts of the corpus callosum, thickness at the body-splenium junction in the average-to-good performance group was significantly greater than the below-average performance group in Chinese language (P=0.005), English language (P=0.02) and mathematics (P=0.01). The remainder of the callosal thickness showed no significant relationship with academic performance. There was no significant sex difference in the thickness of any part of the corpus callosum. Conclusions: These findings raise the suggestion that language and mathematics proficiency may be related to the morphometry of the fibre connections in the posterior parietal lobes.