Department of Psychiatry, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto.
Biol Psychiatry. 2014 Jan 1;75(1):65-72. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.06.008. Epub 2013 Jul 25.
Fronto-amygdalar networks are implicated in childhood psychiatric disorders characterized by high rates of externalizing (aggressive, noncompliant, oppositional) behavior. Although externalizing behaviors are distributed continuously across clinical and nonclinical samples, little is known about how brain variations may confer risk for problematic behavior. Here, we studied cortical thickness, amygdala volume, and cortico-amygdalar network correlates of externalizing behavior in a large sample of healthy children.
Two hundred ninety-seven healthy children (6-18 years; mean = 12 ± 3 years), with 517 magnetic resonance imaging scans, from the National Institutes of Health Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Normal Brain Development, were studied. Relationships between externalizing behaviors (measured with the Child Behavior Checklist) and cortical thickness, amygdala volume, and cortico-amygdalar structural networks were examined using first-order linear mixed-effects models, after controlling for age, sex, scanner, and total brain volume. Results significant at p ≤ .05, following multiple comparison correction, are reported.
Left orbitofrontal, right retrosplenial cingulate, and medial temporal cortex thickness were negatively correlated with externalizing behaviors. Although amygdala volume alone was not correlated with externalizing behaviors, an orbitofrontal cortex-amygdala network predicted rates of externalizing behavior. Children with lower levels of externalizing behaviors exhibited positive correlations between orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala structure, while these regions were not correlated in children with higher levels of externalizing behavior.
Our findings identify key cortical nodes in frontal, cingulate, and temporal cortex associated with externalizing behaviors in children; and indicate that orbitofrontal-amygdala network properties may influence externalizing behaviors, along a continuum and across healthy and clinical samples.
额眶部-杏仁核网络与高外显率（攻击性行为、不服从、对立）行为为特征的儿童精神障碍有关。尽管外显行为在临床和非临床样本中连续分布，但对于大脑变异如何带来问题行为的风险知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了在一个大的健康儿童样本中，外显行为与皮质厚度、杏仁核体积和皮质-杏仁核网络的相关性。
研究了来自美国国立卫生研究院正常大脑发育磁共振成像研究的 297 名健康儿童（6-18 岁；平均年龄 12 ± 3 岁），共 517 次磁共振成像扫描。使用一阶线性混合效应模型，在控制年龄、性别、扫描仪和全脑体积后，研究了外显行为（用儿童行为检查表测量）与皮质厚度、杏仁核体积和皮质-杏仁核结构网络之间的关系。报告了在进行多重比较校正后，p 值≤0.05 的结果。
左眶额皮质、右后扣带回和内侧颞叶皮质厚度与外显行为呈负相关。虽然杏仁核体积本身与外显行为没有相关性，但眶额皮质-杏仁核网络可以预测外显行为的发生率。外显行为水平较低的儿童，眶额皮质和杏仁核结构之间存在正相关，而外显行为水平较高的儿童则没有相关性。
我们的研究结果确定了与儿童外显行为相关的额、扣带回和颞叶皮质的关键皮质节点；并表明眶额-杏仁核网络的特性可能影响外显行为，沿着一个连续体和在健康和临床样本中。
