Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Externalizing and internalizing behaviors contribute to clinical impairment in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Although associations between externalizing or internalizing behaviors and cortico-amygdalar connectivity have been found in clinical and non-clinical pediatric samples, no previous study has examined whether similar shared associations are present across children with different NDDs.Methods
Multi-modal neuroimaging and behavioral data from the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders (POND) Network were used. POND participants aged 6-18 years with a primary diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as typically developing children (TDC) with T1-weighted, resting-state fMRI or diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and parent-report Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) data available, were analyzed (total n = 346). Associations between externalizing or internalizing behavior and cortico-amygdalar structural and functional connectivity indices were examined using linear regressions, controlling for age, gender, and image-modality specific covariates. Behavior-by-diagnosis interaction effects were also examined.Results
No significant linear associations (or diagnosis-by-behavior interaction effects) were found between CBCL-measured externalizing or internalizing behaviors and any of the connectivity indices examined. Post-hoc bootstrapping analyses indicated stability and reliability of these null results.Conclusions
The current study provides evidence towards an absence of a shared linear relationship between internalizing or externalizing behaviors and cortico-amygdalar connectivity properties across a transdiagnostic sample of children with different primary NDD diagnoses and TDC. Different methodological approaches, including incorporation of multi-dimensional behavioral data (e.g., task-based fMRI) or clustering approaches may be needed to clarify complex brain-behavior relationships relevant to externalizing/internalizing behaviors in heterogeneous clinical NDD populations.
SUBMITTER: Nakua H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9232404 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Nakua Hajer H Hawco Colin C Forde Natalie J NJ Jacobs Grace R GR Joseph Michael M Voineskos Aristotle N AN Wheeler Anne L AL Lai Meng-Chuan MC Szatmari Peter P Kelley Elizabeth E Liu Xudong X Georgiades Stelios S Nicolson Rob R Schachar Russell R Crosbie Jennifer J Anagnostou Evdokia E Lerch Jason P JP Arnold Paul D PD Ameis Stephanie H SH
Brain structure & function 20220425 6
<h4>Background</h4>Externalizing and internalizing behaviors contribute to clinical impairment in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Although associations between externalizing or internalizing behaviors and cortico-amygdalar connectivity have been found in clinical and non-clinical pediatric samples, no previous study has examined whether similar shared associations are present across children with different NDDs.<h4>Methods</h4>Multi-modal neuroimaging and behavioral data from ...[more]