Dataset Information

Brain response to viewing others being harmed in children with conduct disorder symptoms.

ABSTRACT: Deficient empathic processing is thought to foster conduct disorder (CD). It is important to determine the extent to which neural response associated with perceiving harm to others predicts CD symptoms and callous disregard for others.A total of 107 9- to 11-year-old children (52 female) were recruited from pediatric and mental health clinics, representing a wide range of CD symptoms. Children were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing brief video clips of persons being harmed intentionally or accidentally.Perceiving harm evoked increased hemodynamic response in the anterior insula (aINS), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala, periaqueductal gray (PAG), caudate, and inferior parietal lobe (IPL) across all participants. Intentionally caused, relative to unintentional harm was associated with greater activity in the aINS, amygdala, and temporal pole. There was an inverse association of number of CD symptoms with right posterior insula in both the Harm > No Harm and the Intentional > Unintentional Harm contrasts. Furthermore, an inverse association between callousness and posterior insula activation was found in the Harm > No Harm contrast, with the opposite pattern for reactive aggression scores. An interaction revealed a stronger association in girls between CD symptoms and the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in the Intentional Harm versus Unintentional Harm contrast.Children with greater CD and callousness exhibit dampened hemodynamic response to viewing others being harmed in the insula, a region which plays a key role in empathy and emotional awareness. Sex differences in the neural correlates of CD were observed.

SUBMITTER: Michalska KJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4789171 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brain response to viewing others being harmed in children with conduct disorder symptoms.

Michalska Kalina J KJ Zeffiro Thomas A TA Decety Jean J

Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines 20151016 4

<h4>Background</h4>Deficient empathic processing is thought to foster conduct disorder (CD). It is important to determine the extent to which neural response associated with perceiving harm to others predicts CD symptoms and callous disregard for others.<h4>Methods</h4>A total of 107 9- to 11-year-old children (52 female) were recruited from pediatric and mental health clinics, representing a wide range of CD symptoms. Children were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewin ...[more]

PMID: 26472591

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Project description:Exposure to community violence through witnessing or being directly victimized has been associated with conduct problems in a range of studies. However, the relationship between community violence exposure (CVE) and conduct problems has never been studied separately in healthy individuals and individuals with conduct disorder (CD). Therefore, it is not clear whether the association between CVE and conduct problems is due to confounding factors, because those with high conduct problems also tend to live in more violent neighborhoods, i.e., an ecological fallacy. Hence, the aim of the present study was: (1) to investigate whether the association between recent CVE and current conduct problems holds true for healthy controls as well as adolescents with a diagnosis of CD; (2) to examine whether the association is stable in both groups when including effects of aggression subtypes (proactive/reactive aggression), age, gender, site and socioeconomic status (SES); and (3) to test whether proactive or reactive aggression mediate the link between CVE and conduct problems. Data from 1178 children and adolescents (62% female; 44% CD) aged between 9 years and 18 years from seven European countries were analyzed. Conduct problems were assessed using the Kiddie-Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia diagnostic interview. Information about CVE and aggression subtypes was obtained using self-report questionnaires (Social and Health Assessment and Reactive-Proactive aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), respectively). The association between witnessing community violence and conduct problems was significant in both groups (adolescents with CD and healthy controls). The association was also stable after examining the mediating effects of aggression subtypes while including moderating effects of age, gender and SES and controlling for effects of site in both groups. There were no clear differences between the groups in the strength of the association between witnessing violence and conduct problems. However, we found evidence for a ceiling effect, i.e., individuals with very high levels of conduct problems could not show a further increase if exposed to CVE and vice versa. Results indicate that there was no evidence for an ecological fallacy being the primary cause of the association, i.e., CVE must be considered a valid risk factor in the etiology of CD.

Dataset Information

Brain response to viewing others being harmed in children with conduct disorder symptoms.

Publications

Brain response to viewing others being harmed in children with conduct disorder symptoms.

Similar Datasets

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