The Association Between Hippocampal Volume and Level of Attention in Children and Adolescents
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SUBMITTER: Kim T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8427798 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundConsiderable research links threat-related attention biases to anxiety symptoms in adults, whereas extant findings on threat biases in youth are limited and mixed. Inconsistent findings may arise due to substantial methodological variability and limited sample sizes, emphasizing the need for systematic research on large samples. The aim of this report is to examine the association between threat bias and pediatric anxiety symptoms using standardized measures in a large, international, multi-site youth sample.MethodsA total of 1,291 children and adolescents from seven research sites worldwide completed standardized attention bias assessment task (dot-probe task) and child anxiety symptoms measure (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders). Using a dimensional approach to symptomatology, we conducted regression analyses predicting overall, and disorder-specific, anxiety symptoms severity, based on threat bias scores.ResultsThreat bias correlated positively with overall anxiety symptoms severity (ß = 0.078, P = .004). Furthermore, threat bias was positively associated specifically with social anxiety (ß = 0.072, P = .008) and school phobia (ß = 0.076, P = .006) symptoms severity, but not with panic, generalized anxiety, or separation anxiety symptoms. These associations were not moderated by age or gender.ConclusionsThese findings indicate associations between threat bias and pediatric anxiety symptoms, and suggest that vigilance to external threats manifests more prominently in symptoms of social anxiety and school phobia, regardless of age and gender. These findings point to the role of attention bias to threat in anxiety, with implications for translational clinical research. The significance of applying standardized methods in multi-site collaborations for overcoming challenges inherent to clinical research is discussed.
| S-EPMC6342553 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceIdentifying risk factors for brain atrophy during the aging process can help direct new preventive approaches for dementia and cognitive decline. The association of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage with brain volume in this context is not well known.ObjectiveTo test whether neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with decreased brain volume in a cognitively unimpaired population enriched for Alzheimer disease risk.Design, setting, and participantsThis study, conducted from January 6, 2010, to January 17, 2019, at an academic research neuroimaging center, used cross-sectional data on 951 participants from 2 large, ongoing cohort studies of Alzheimer disease (Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention and Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center clinical cohort). Participants were cognitively unimpaired based on National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroup diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease, confirmed through a consensus diagnosis panel. The cohort was enriched for Alzheimer disease risk based on family history of dementia. Statistical analysis was performed from April 3 to September 27, 2019.Main outcomes and measuresThe Area Deprivation Index, a geospatially determined index of neighborhood-level disadvantage, and cardiovascular disease risk indices were calculated for each participant. Linear regression models were fitted to test associations between relative neighborhood-level disadvantage (highest 20% based on state of residence) and hippocampal and total brain tissue volume, as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsIn the primary analysis of 951 participants (637 women [67.0%]; mean [SD] age, 63.9 [8.1] years), living in the 20% most disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with 4.1% lower hippocampal volume (β = -317.44; 95% CI, -543.32 to -91.56; P = .006) and 2.0% lower total brain tissue volume (β = -20 959.67; 95% CI, -37 611.92 to -4307.43; P = .01), after controlling for intracranial volume, individual-level educational attainment, age, and sex. Robust propensity score-matched analyses determined that this association was not due to racial/ethnic or demographic characteristics. Cardiovascular risk score, examined in a subsample of 893 participants, mediated this association for total brain tissue but not for hippocampal volume.Conclusions and relevanceFor cognitively unimpaired individuals, living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with significantly lower cerebral volumes, after controlling for maximal premorbid (total intracranial) volume. This finding suggests an association of community socioeconomic context, distinct from individual-level socioeconomic status, with brain volume during aging. Cardiovascular risk mediated this association for total brain tissue volume but not for hippocampal volume, suggesting that neighborhood-level disadvantage may be associated with these 2 outcomes via distinct biological pathways.
| S-EPMC6990953 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Memory is supported by a network of brain regions, with the hippocampus serving a critical role in this cognitive process. Previous meta-analyses on the association between hippocampal structure and memory have largely focused on adults. Multiple studies have since suggested that hippocampal volume is related to memory performance in children and adolescents; however, the strength and direction of this relation varies across reports, and thus, remains unclear. To further understand this brain-behavior relation, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the association between hippocampal volume (assessed as total volume) and memory during typical development. Across 25 studies and 61 memory outcomes with 1357 participants, results showed a small, but significant, positive association between total hippocampal volume and memory performance. Estimates of the variability across studies in the relation between total volume and memory were not explained by differences in memory task type (delayed vs. immediate; relational vs. nonrelational), participant age range, or the method of normalization of hippocampal volumes. Overall, findings suggest that larger total hippocampal volume relates to better memory performance in children and adolescents and that this relation is similar across the memory types and age ranges assessed. To facilitate enhanced generalization across studies in the future, we discuss considerations for the field moving forward.
| S-EPMC9313816 | biostudies-literature
Project description:AimThis study tested sex differences in the association between hippocampal volume and working memory of a national sample of 9-10-year-old children in the US. As the hippocampus is functionally lateralized (especially in task-related activities), we explored the results for the right and the left hippocampus.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study data. This analysis included baseline ABCD data (n = 10,093) of children between ages 9 and 10 years. The predictor variable was right and left hippocampal volume measured by structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). The primary outcome, list sorting working memory, was measured using the NIH toolbox measure. Sex was the moderator. Age, race, ethnicity, household income, parental education, and family structure were the covariates.ResultsIn the overall sample, larger right (b = 0.0013; p < 0.001) and left (b = 0.0013; p < 0.001) hippocampal volumes were associated with higher children's working memory. Sex had statistically significant interactions with the right (b = -0.0018; p = 0.001) and left (b = -0.0012; p = 0.022) hippocampal volumes on children's working memory. These interactions indicated stronger positive associations between right and left hippocampal volume and working memory for females compared to males.ConclusionWhile right and left hippocampal volumes are determinants of children's list sorting working memory, these effects seem to be more salient for female than male children. Research is needed on the role of socialization, sex hormones, and brain functional connectivity as potential mechanisms that may explain the observed sex differences in the role of hippocampal volume as a correlate of working memory.
| S-EPMC8158143 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionAnimal studies have shown that male but not female offspring exposed to maternal obesity have abnormal hippocampal development. Similar sex differences were observed in animal models of developmental programming by prenatal stress or maternal diabetes. We aimed to translate this work into humans by examining sex-specific effects of exposure to maternal obesity on hippocampal volume in children.MethodsEighty-eight children (37 boys and 51 girls) aged 7-11 years completed the study. Maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) was obtained from electronic medical records. A high-resolution anatomical scan was performed using a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Total hippocampal volume and hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed using FreeSurfer 6.0. Linear regression was used to investigate sex differences in relationships between maternal prepregnancy BMI and child hippocampal volume.ResultsMaternal prepregnancy BMI ranged from 19.0 to 50.4 kg/m2 . We observed a significant interaction between maternal prepregnancy BMI and sex on total hippocampal volume (p < .001) such that boys (r = -.39, p = .018) but not girls (r = .11, p = .45) had a significant negative relationship between maternal prepregnancy BMI and total hippocampal volume. This relationship in boys remained significant after adjusting for child and maternal covariates (β = -126.98, p = .012). The sex interactions with prepregnancy BMI were consistently observed in hippocampal subfields CA1 (p = .008), CA2/3 (p = .016), CA4 (p = .002), dentate gyrus (p < .001), and subiculum (p < .001).ConclusionsOur results support findings in animal models and suggest that boys may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of exposure to maternal obesity on hippocampal development than girls.
| S-EPMC7010582 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Smoking of cigarettes among young adolescents is a pressing public health issue. However, the neural mechanisms underlying smoking initiation and sustenance during adolescence, especially the potential causal interactions between altered brain development and smoking behaviour, remain elusive. Here, using large longitudinal adolescence imaging genetic cohorts, we identify associations between left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) gray matter volume (GMV) and subsequent self-reported smoking initiation, and between right vmPFC GMV and the maintenance of smoking behaviour. Rule-breaking behaviour mediates the association between smaller left vmPFC GMV and smoking behaviour based on longitudinal cross-lagged analysis and Mendelian randomisation. In contrast, smoking behaviour associated longitudinal covariation of right vmPFC GMV and sensation seeking (especially hedonic experience) highlights a potential reward-based mechanism for sustaining addictive behaviour. Taken together, our findings reveal vmPFC GMV as a possible biomarker for the early stages of nicotine addiction, with implications for its prevention and treatment.
| S-EPMC10427673 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Clinical depression can occur in young children as early as age three. This very early onset variant of depression shows the same clinical features with developmental adjustments as depression that onsets later in life. One robust neural feature of adult depression is reduced hippocampal volume. We measured hippocampal volume in a sample of 35 children aged 4-7 who were either in a clinical trial for preschool onset depression or were recruited from the community. We used T1 MPRAGE acquisitions on a Siemen's Scanner, with Freesurfer 5.3 used to segment the hippocampus. Depression was measured using the K-SADS early childhood (K-SADS-EC) to create a dimensional depression severity score and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Depression T-Score. Multilevel models indicated that greater depression severity as measured by either the CBCL Depression Score or the K-SADS-EC was associated with lower hippocampal volume, even controlling for total gray matter, maternal depression, income-to-needs ratio, and stressful life events. These data indicate evidence for reduced hippocampal volume among children with PO-MDD who were more severely depressed. Findings are consistent with the idea that hippocampal volume reductions are an early occurring associated neural marker of MDD, particularly for more severe depression.
| S-EPMC6550342 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In laboratory studies, imposed sleep restriction consistently reduces cognitive performance. However, the association between objectively measured, free-living sleep and cognitive function has not been studied in older adolescents. To address this gap, we measured one week of sleep with a wrist-worn GT3X+ actigraph in 160 adolescents (96 girls, 17.7 ± 0.3 years) followed by assessment of working memory with an n-back task and visual attention with a Posner cue-target task. Over the week, participants spent 7.1 ± 0.8 h/night in bed and slept 6.2 ± 0.8 h/night with 88.5 ± 4.8% efficiency and considerable intra-participant night-to-night variation, with a standard deviation in sleep duration of 1.2 ± 0.7 h. Sleep measures the night before cognitive testing were similar to weekly averages. Time in bed the night before cognitive testing was negatively associated with response times during the most challenging memory task (3-back; p = 0.005). However, sleep measures the night before did not correlate with performance on the attention task and weekly sleep parameters were not associated with either cognitive task. Our data suggests shorter acute free-living sleep may negatively impact difficult memory tasks, however the relationship between free-living sleep and cognitive task performance in healthy adolescents is less clear than that of laboratory findings, perhaps due to high night-to-night sleep variation.
| S-EPMC7547704 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMemory-based alterations are among the hallmark symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and may be associated with the integrity of the hippocampus. However, neuroimaging studies of hippocampal volume in individuals with PTSD have yielded inconsistent results, raising the possibility that various moderators, such as genetic factors, may influence this association. We examined whether the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism, which has previously been shown to be associated with hippocampal volume in healthy individuals, moderates the association between PTSD and hippocampal volume.MethodsRecent war veterans underwent structural MRI on a 3 T scanner. We extracted volumes of the right and left hippocampus using FreeSurfer and adjusted them for individual differences in intracranial volume. We assessed PTSD severity using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. Hierarchical linear regression was used to model the genotype (Val158Met polymorphism) × PTSD severity interaction and its association with hippocampal volume.ResultsWe included 146 white, non-Hispanic recent war veterans (90% male, 53% with diagnosed PTSD) in our analyses. A significant genotype × PTSD symptom severity interaction emerged such that individuals with greater current PTSD symptom severity who were homozygous for the Val allele showed significant reductions in left hippocampal volume.LimitationsThe direction of proposed effects is unknown, thus precluding definitive assessment of whether differences in hippocampal volume reflect a consequence of PTSD, a pre-existing characteristic, or both.ConclusionOur findings suggest that the COMT polymorphism moderates the association between PTSD and hippocampal volume. These results highlight the role that the dopaminergic system has in brain structure and suggest a possible mechanism for memory disturbance in individuals with PTSD.
| S-EPMC5373706 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Empathic responding-the capacity to understand, resonate with, and respond sensitively to others' emotional experiences-is a complex human faculty that calls upon multiple social, emotional, and cognitive capacities and their underlying neural systems. Emerging evidence in adults has suggested that the hippocampus and its associated network may play an important role in empathic responding, possibly via processes such as memory of emotional events, but the contribution of this structure in early childhood is unknown. We examined concurrent associations between empathic responding and hippocampal volume in a sample of 78 children (ages 4-8 years). Larger bilateral hippocampal volume (adjusted for intracranial volume) predicted greater observed empathic responses toward an experimenter in distress, but only for boys. The association was not driven by a specific subregion of the hippocampus (head, body, tail), nor did it vary with age. Empathic responding was not significantly related to amygdala volume, suggesting specificity of relations with the hippocampus. Results support the proposal that hippocampal structure contributes to individual differences in children's empathic responding, consistent with research in adults. Findings shed light on an understudied structure in the complex neural systems supporting empathic responding and raise new questions regarding sex differences in the neurodevelopment of empathy in early childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
| S-EPMC6716619 | biostudies-literature