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Neural signatures of data-driven psychopathology dimensions at the transition to adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2022

Amirhossein Modabbernia
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA
Giorgia Michelini
Affiliation:
Department of Biological & Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Abraham Reichenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA Seaver Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA
Roman Kotov
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
Deanna Barch
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Department of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Sophia Frangou*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
*
*Author for correspondence: Sophia Frangou, E-mail: sophia.frangou@mssm.edu

Abstract

Background

One of the challenges in human neuroscience is to uncover associations between brain organization and psychopathology in order to better understand the biological underpinnings of mental disorders. Here, we aimed to characterize the neural correlates of psychopathology dimensions obtained using two conceptually different data-driven approaches.

Methods

Dimensions of psychopathology that were either maximally dissociable or correlated were respectively extracted by independent component analysis (ICA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) applied to the Childhood Behavior Checklist items from 9- to 10-year-olds (n = 9983; 47.8% female, 50.8% white) participating in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The patterns of brain morphometry, white matter integrity and resting-state connectivity associated with each dimension were identified using kernel-based regularized least squares and compared between dimensions using Spearman’s correlation coefficient.

Results

ICA identified three psychopathology dimensions, representing opposition–disinhibition, cognitive dyscontrol, and negative affect, with distinct brain correlates. Opposition–disinhibition was negatively associated with cortical surface area, cognitive dyscontrol was negatively associated with anatomical and functional dysconnectivity while negative affect did not show discernable associations with any neuroimaging measure. EFA identified three dimensions representing broad externalizing, neurodevelopmental, and broad Internalizing problems with partially overlapping brain correlates. All EFA-derived dimensions were negatively associated with cortical surface area, whereas measures of functional and structural connectivity were associated only with the neurodevelopmental dimension.

Conclusions

This study highlights the importance of cortical surface area and global connectivity for psychopathology in preadolescents and provides evidence for dissociable psychopathology dimensions with distinct brain correlates.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
Figure 0

Figure 1. Data-driven structure of psychopathology in the ABCD dataset captured independent component analysis (ICA). A. Leave-one site stability for ICA solutions from 2-10 components; B. Item loadings on each independent component for the three-IC solution; C. Correlation between the three-IC solution and corresponding EFA-derived factors.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Validity of the Psychopathology Dimensions. Each cell represents number of FDR-corrected P-values <0.05 in 100 reruns of the Kernel regularized least squares (KRLS) analysis on 50% randomly resampled data multiplied by the sign of the association. All analyses were adjusted for sex, race, age, and site; A. Association of psychopathology dimensions with cognitive and behavioral measures; for each psychopathology dimension, all measures are modeled together to characterize their independent contribution to psychopathology; B. Association of psychopathology dimensions with academic outcomes and service utilization; for each outcome, all three dimensions (ICA-derived or EFA-derived) are entered into the model together to quantify their independent contribution to the outcome.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Association between global measures of brain morphometry and the most stable ICA solution, and corresponding EFA factors using kernel regularized least squares (KRLS); Values represent t-value for the association between morphometric brain measures and dimensions of psychopathology. For global measures, values represent t-values in 100 randomly resampled dataset of 50% original sample size. For regional measures values represent t-value from the model on the whole dataset; All analyses were adjusted for sex, age, and race, handedness, scanner, weight, height, pubertal stage; A, B, C Association between brain morphometric measures and ICA-derived opposition-disinhibition, cognitive dyscontrol, and negative affect dimensions. D, E, F. Association between brain morphometric measures and EFA-derived broad externalizing, neurodevelopmental, and broad internalizing factors.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Association between global measures of white matter integrity and the most stable ICA solution, and three corresponding EFA factors using kernel regularized least squares (KRLS). Values represent t-value for the association between the measures of white matter integrity and psychopathology dimensions in 100 randomly resampled dataset of 50% original sample size; All analyses were adjusted for sex, age, and race, handedness, scanner, weight, height, pubertal stage, and head motion; A,B,C,D. Association between measures of white matter integrity and ICA-derived opposition-disinhibition, cognitive dyscontrol, and negative affect dimensions. E, F, G, H. Association between measures of white matter integrity and EFA-derived broad externalizing, neurodevelopmental, and broad internalizing factors.

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