Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021 Apr;6(4):387-398. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.09.007. Epub 2020 Sep 12.
Neurocognitive deficits are common among youth with mental disorders, and patterns of aberrant brain function generally cross diagnostic boundaries. This study investigated associations between functional neurocircuitry and broad transdiagnostic psychopathology dimensions in the critical preadolescent period when psychopathology is emerging.
Participants were 9- to 10-year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Factor scores of general psychopathology, externalizing, internalizing, and thought disorder dimensions were calculated from a higher-order model of psychopathology using confirmatory factor analysis (N = 11,721) and entered as explanatory variables into linear mixed models to examine associations with resting-state functional connectivity (n = 9074) and neural activation during the emotional n-back task (n = 6146) when covarying for sex, race/ethnicity, parental education, and cognitive function.
All dimensions of psychopathology were commonly characterized by hypoconnectivity within the dorsal attention and retrosplenial-temporal networks, hyperconnectivity between the frontoparietal and ventral attention networks and between the dorsal attention network and amygdala, and hypoactivation of the caudal middle frontal gyrus. Externalizing pathology was uniquely associated with hyperconnectivity between the salience and ventral attention networks and hyperactivation of the cingulate and striatum. Internalizing pathology was uniquely characterized by hypoconnectivity between the default mode and cingulo-opercular networks. Connectivity between the cingulo-opercular network and putamen was uniquely higher for internalizing pathology and lower for thought disorder pathology.
These findings provide novel evidence that broad psychopathology dimensions are characterized by common and dissociable patterns, particularly for externalizing pathology, of functional connectivity and task-evoked activation throughout neurocognitive networks in preadolescence.
神经认知缺陷在患有精神障碍的年轻人中很常见，而大脑功能的异常模式通常跨越诊断界限。本研究在精神病理学开始出现的关键青春期前阶段，研究了功能神经回路与广泛的跨诊断精神病理学维度之间的关联。
参与者是来自青少年大脑认知发展研究的 9 至 10 岁儿童。使用精神病理学的高阶模型，通过验证性因子分析（N=11721）计算一般精神病理学、外化、内化和思维障碍维度的因子得分，并将其作为解释变量纳入线性混合模型，以检验与静息态功能连接（n=9074）和情绪 n-back 任务期间的神经激活（n=6146）的关联，同时协变量为性别、种族/民族、父母教育程度和认知功能。
所有精神病理学维度的共同特征是背侧注意和后扣带回颞叶网络内的连接减少，额顶叶和腹侧注意网络之间以及背侧注意网络和杏仁核之间的连接增加，以及中后额回的激活减少。外化病理学与突显和腹侧注意网络之间的连接增加以及扣带回和纹状体的激活增加有关。内化病理学的特征是默认模式和扣带-脑岛网络之间的连接减少。扣带-脑岛网络和壳核之间的连接对于内化病理学而言较高，对于思维障碍病理学而言较低。
这些发现提供了新的证据，表明广泛的精神病理学维度具有共同和可分离的模式，特别是对于外化病理学，在青春期前阶段的神经认知网络中表现为功能连接和任务诱发激活。
