Department of Public Health Sciences (MC 2000), University of Chicago, 5841 S. Maryland Avenue, Chicago, IL, 606036, USA.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 Oct;49(10):1275-1288. doi: 10.1007/s10802-021-00811-2. Epub 2021 Apr 19.
Substantial evidence implicates the amygdala and related structures in the processing of negative emotions. Furthermore, neuroimaging evidence suggests that variations in amygdala volumes are related to trait-like individual differences in neuroticism/negative emotionality, although many questions remain about the nature of such associations. We conducted planned tests of the directional prediction that dispositional negative emotionality measured at 10-17 years using parent and youth ratings on the Child and Adolescent Dispositions Scale (CADS) would predict larger volumes of the amygdala in adulthood and conducted exploratory tests of associations with other regions implicated in emotion processing. Participants were 433 twins strategically selected for neuroimaging during wave 2 from wave 1 of the Tennessee Twins Study (TTS) by oversampling on internalizing and/or externalizing psychopathology risk. Controlling for age, sex, race-ethnicity, handedness, scanner, and total brain volume, youth-rated negative emotionality positively predicted bilateral amygdala volumes after correction for multiple testing. Each unit difference of one standard deviation (SD) in negative emotionality was associated with a .12 SD unit difference in larger volumes of both amygdalae. Parent-rated negative emotionality predicted greater thickness of the left caudal/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (β = 0.28). Associations of brain structure with negative emotionality were not moderated by sex. These results are striking because dispositions assessed at 10-17 years of age were predictive of grey matter volumes measured 12-13 years later in adulthood. Future longitudinal studies should examine the timing of amygdala/cingulate associations with dispositional negative emotionality to determine when these associations emerge during development.
大量证据表明杏仁核及其相关结构在处理负面情绪方面起作用。此外，神经影像学证据表明，杏仁核体积的变化与神经质/负面情绪的特质个体差异有关，尽管关于这种关联的性质仍存在许多问题。我们进行了有计划的测试，以检验以下方向预测：使用父母和青少年在儿童和青少年性格量表（CADS）上的评分，在 10-17 岁时测量的特质性负面情绪会预测成年后杏仁核体积更大，并对与情绪处理相关的其他区域的关联进行了探索性测试。参与者是 433 对双胞胎，他们是通过在田纳西双胞胎研究（TTS）的第 1 波中对内化和/或外化精神病理学风险进行过采样，然后在第 2 波中进行神经影像学研究而被战略性选择的。在控制年龄、性别、种族-民族、利手、扫描仪和总脑容量后，青少年评定的负面情绪与双侧杏仁核体积呈正相关，经多次测试校正后仍有统计学意义。负面情绪的一个标准差（SD）差异与两个杏仁核体积的 0.12 SD 差异相关。父母评定的负面情绪预测左侧尾状/背侧前扣带皮层（ACC）的厚度更大（β=0.28）。大脑结构与负面情绪的关联不受性别影响。这些结果令人瞩目，因为在 10-17 岁时评估的性格与 12-13 年后成年时测量的灰质体积有关。未来的纵向研究应该检查杏仁核/扣带与特质性负面情绪的关联的时间，以确定这些关联在发育过程中何时出现。
