Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 75, Issue 1, 1 January 2014, Pages 65-72
Biological Psychiatry

Archival Report
Cortical Thickness, Cortico-Amygdalar Networks, and Externalizing Behaviors in Healthy Children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.06.008Get rights and content

Background

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusions

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.

Section snippets

Sample

The NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development is a multisite project providing a demographically representative and normative sample aimed at characterizing healthy brain maturation in relationship to behavior 16, 17. Subjects were recruited at six study centers across the United States. Continuous monitoring at all sites ensured recruitment of participants that were demographically representative of the US population (based on age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status). Informed consent

Demographics

Descriptive statistics of the analyzed sample are presented in Table 1. After strict quality control of MRI data and exclusion of subjects without scores for the CBCL for children aged 6 to 18 years, our sample numbered 297 participants (164 female subjects) with 517 MRI scans and CBCL scores (age range = 6–18 years, mean = 12.1 ± 3.1). Raw CBCL externalizing scores ranged between 0 and 24 (t score = 32–69) (mean = 3.13 ± 3.4). Successful measurement of amygdala volume was completed in the same

Discussion

In the present study, we examined cortical thickness and cortico-amygdalar network correlates of externalizing behavior in a longitudinal sample of 297 healthy children, with 517 MRI brain scans and behavioral scores, from the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine structural relationships between regional cortical thickness, amygdalae, and externalizing behaviors in children. We first found that thicknesses within left OFC, right

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