RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Common and disorder-specific cortical thickness alterations in internalizing, externalizing and thought disorders during early adolescence: an Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study
JF Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
JO JPN
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP E345
OP E356
DO 10.1503/jpn.220202
VO 48
IS 5
A1 Gechang Yu
A1 Zhaowen Liu
A1 Xinran Wu
A1 Benjamin Becker
A1 Kai Zhang
A1 Huaxin Fan
A1 Songjun Peng
A1 Nanyu Kuang
A1 Jujiao Kang
A1 Guiying Dong
A1 Xing-Ming Zhao
A1 Gunter Schumann
A1 Jianfeng Feng
A1 Barbara J. Sahakian
A1 Trevor W. Robbins
A1 Lena Palaniyappan
A1 Jie Zhang
YR 2023
UL http://jpn.ca/content/48/5/E345.abstract
AB Background: A growing body of neuroimaging studies has reported common neural abnormalities among mental disorders in adults. However, it is unclear whether the distinct disorder-specific mechanisms operate during adolescence despite the overlap among disorders.Methods: We studied a large cohort of more than 11 000 preadolescent (age 9–10 yr) children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development cohort. We adopted a regrouping approach to compare cortical thickness (CT) alterations and longitudinal changes between healthy controls (n = 4041) and externalizing (n = 1182), internalizing (n = 1959) and thought disorder (n = 347) groups. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed on regional CT across 4468 unrelated European youth.Results: Youth with externalizing or internalizing disorders exhibited increased regional CT compared with controls. Externalizing (p = 8 × 10−4, Cohen d = 0.10) and internalizing disorders (p = 2 × 10−3, Cohen d = 0.08) shared thicker CT in the left pars opercularis. The somatosensory and the primary auditory cortex were uniquely affected in externalizing disorders, whereas the primary motor cortex and higher-order visual association areas were uniquely affected in internalizing disorders. Only youth with externalizing disorders showed decelerated cortical thinning from age 10–12 years. The GWAS found 59 genome-wide significant associated genetic variants across these regions. Cortical thickness in common regions was associated with glutamatergic neurons, while internalizing-specific regional CT was associated with astrocytes, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and GABAergic neurons.Limitations: The sample size of the GWAS was relatively small.Conclusion: Our study provides strong evidence for the presence of specificity in CT, developmental trajectories and underlying genetic underpinnings among externalizing and internalizing disorders during early adolescence. Our results support the neurobiological validity of the regrouping approach that could supplement the use of a dimensional approach in future clinical practice.