Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, 300052, China.
Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, 550004, China.
Mol Psychiatry. 2023 Nov;28(11):4853-4866. doi: 10.1038/s41380-023-02261-2. Epub 2023 Sep 22.
Exposure to preadult environmental exposures may have long-lasting effects on mental health by affecting the maturation of the brain and personality, two traits that interact throughout the developmental process. However, environment-brain-personality covariation patterns and their mediation relationships remain unclear. In 4297 healthy participants (aged 18-30 years), we combined sparse multiple canonical correlation analysis with independent component analysis to identify the three-way covariation patterns of 59 preadult environmental exposures, 760 adult brain imaging phenotypes, and five personality traits, and found two robust environment-brain-personality covariation models with sex specificity. One model linked greater stress and less support to weaker functional connectivity and activity in the default mode network, stronger activity in subcortical nuclei, greater thickness and volume in the occipital, parietal and temporal cortices, and lower agreeableness, consciousness and extraversion as well as higher neuroticism. The other model linked higher urbanicity and better socioeconomic status to stronger functional connectivity and activity in the sensorimotor network, smaller volume and surface area and weaker functional connectivity and activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, lower white matter integrity, and higher openness to experience. We also conducted mediation analyses to explore the potential bidirectional mediation relationships between adult brain imaging phenotypes and personality traits with the influence of preadult environmental exposures and found both environment-brain-personality and environment-personality-brain pathways. We finally performed moderated mediation analyses to test the potential interactions between macro- and microenvironmental exposures and found that one category of exposure moderated the mediation pathways of another category of exposure. These results improve our understanding of the effects of preadult environmental exposures on the adult brain and personality traits and may facilitate the design of targeted interventions to improve mental health by reducing the impact of adverse environmental exposures.
暴露于成年前的环境因素可能会通过影响大脑和人格的成熟，对心理健康产生持久影响，而大脑和人格是在整个发育过程中相互作用的两个特征。然而，环境-大脑-人格的协变模式及其介导关系尚不清楚。在 4297 名健康参与者（年龄在 18-30 岁之间）中，我们结合稀疏多元典型相关分析和独立成分分析，确定了 59 种成年前环境因素、760 种成人脑影像表型和 5 种人格特质的三向协变模式，并发现了具有性别特异性的两个稳健的环境-大脑-人格协变模型。一个模型将更大的压力和更少的支持与默认模式网络的功能连接和活动减弱、皮质下核团的活动增强、枕叶、顶叶和颞叶皮质的厚度和体积增大、随和性、意识和外向性降低以及神经质增加联系起来。另一个模型将更高的城市化水平和更好的社会经济地位与感觉运动网络的功能连接和活动增强、内侧前额叶皮质的体积和表面积减小、功能连接和活动减弱、白质完整性降低以及开放性经验增加联系起来。我们还进行了中介分析，以探索成人脑影像表型和人格特质与成年前环境因素之间的潜在双向中介关系，发现了环境-大脑-人格和环境-人格-大脑的通路。最后，我们进行了调节中介分析，以测试宏观和微观环境因素之间的潜在相互作用，并发现暴露因素的一个类别调节了另一个类别的暴露的中介途径。这些结果提高了我们对成年前环境因素对成人大脑和人格特质的影响的理解，并可能通过减少不良环境因素的影响，促进设计有针对性的干预措施来改善心理健康。
