Dataset of assessment for prominent exostosis projecting from the occipital squama

Pervasive skeletal morphological adaptations in modern humans are rare. Nevertheless, in our earlier article ((Shahar_et_al-2016-Journal_of_Anatomy) we reported the development of prominent exostosis in the skulls of young adults (41%; 10 - 31 mm) emanating from the external occipital protuberance (EOP), the site at which the upper trapezius muscle tendon fibers and ligamentum nuchae attach to the occipital squama. The focus of our current investigation was to identify the distribution of enlarged EOP (EEOP) in a wider age spectrum of the population (n=1200, age 18 - 86). Here we show that sex, the degree of forward head protraction (FHP) and age predicted the presence of EEOP in 72.3 % of those studied. Males were 5.48 times more likely to have EEOP than females, and every increase in FHP resulted in a 1.03 times increased likelihood of EEOP. However, every incremental increase in age group (by decade) resulted in a 0.98 decrease in the likelihood of having an EEOP. This is surprising, as the frequency and severity of degenerative skeletal features in humans are associated typically with the ageing and are, therefore, more likely to be observed in the elderly.

现代人类中普遍存在的骨骼形态学变异较为罕见。然而，在我们2016年发表于《Journal of Anatomy》的论文（Shahar_et_al-2016-Journal_of_Anatomy）中，曾报道年轻成年人颅骨枕外隆突（external occipital protuberance, EOP）处出现显著外生骨疣（exostosis）的情况，发生率达41%，骨疣大小范围为10~31mm；枕外隆突是斜方肌上部肌腱纤维与项韧带（ligamentum nuchae）附着于枕骨鳞部的部位。
本研究的核心目标是在年龄覆盖更广的人群（n=1200，年龄18~86岁）中，探究扩大性枕外隆突（enlarged external occipital protuberance, EEOP）的分布特征。本次研究结果显示，性别、头前伸姿势（forward head protraction, FHP）程度以及年龄，可解释72.3%的研究对象EEOP发生情况。男性出现EEOP的概率是女性的5.48倍；头前伸姿势程度每提升一个单位，EEOP的发生概率便提升至原有水平的1.03倍。但值得注意的是，年龄组每增加一个十年段，EEOP的发生概率便降至原有水平的0.98倍。
这一结果令人意外，因为人类退行性骨骼特征的发生频率与严重程度通常与衰老呈正相关，因此更易在老年群体中被观测到。