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Cortical thickness, surface area, and folding alterations in male youths with conduct disorder and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits

Cortical thickness, surface area, and folding alterations in male youths with conduct disorder and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits
Cortical thickness, surface area, and folding alterations in male youths with conduct disorder and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits
Purpose: previous studies have reported changes in gray matter volume in youths with conduct disorder (CD), although these differences are difficult to interpret as they may have been driven by alterations in cortical thickness, surface area (SA), or folding. The objective of this study was to use surface-based morphometry (SBM) methods to compare male youths with CD and age and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) in cortical thickness, SA, and folding. We also tested for structural differences between the childhood-onset and adolescence-onset subtypes of CD and performed regression analyses to assess for relationships between CD symptoms and callous-unemotional (CU) traits and SBM-derived measures.

Methods: we acquired structural neuroimaging data from 20 HC and 36 CD participants (18 with childhood-onset CD and 18 with adolescence-onset CD) and analysed the data using FreeSurfer.

Results: relative to HCs, youths with CD showed reduced cortical thickness in the superior temporal gyrus, reduced SA in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and increased cortical folding in the insula. There were no significant differences between the childhood-onset and adolescence-onset CD subgroups in cortical thickness or SA, but several frontal and temporal regions showed increased cortical folding in childhood-onset relative to adolescence-onset CD participants. CD symptoms were negatively correlated with OFC SA whereas CU traits were positively correlated with insula folding.

Conclusions: cortical thinning in the superior temporal gyrus may contribute to the social cognitive impairments displayed by youths with CD, whereas reduced OFC SA may lead to impairments in emotion regulation and reward processing in youths with CD. The increased cortical folding observed in the insula may reflect a maturational delay in this region and could mediate the link between CU traits and empathy deficits. Altered cortical structure was observed in childhood-onset and adolescence-onset forms of CD
2213-1582
253-260
Fairchild, Graeme
f99bc911-978e-48c2-9754-c6460666a95f
Toschi, Nicola
6d782adc-5749-422b-a98e-4f5fd9121152
Hagan, Cindy
b6dd6664-a926-4fe8-afce-5dcf8335ac5d
Goodyer, Ian
d8750313-5d41-4f80-8f47-c90007cbf469
Calder, Andrew
4981a9bf-43f0-484a-8dfd-e8d8981de0d8
Passamonti, Luca
71e1cf10-463b-45f0-acc2-0d74459d9f20
Fairchild, Graeme
f99bc911-978e-48c2-9754-c6460666a95f
Toschi, Nicola
6d782adc-5749-422b-a98e-4f5fd9121152
Hagan, Cindy
b6dd6664-a926-4fe8-afce-5dcf8335ac5d
Goodyer, Ian
d8750313-5d41-4f80-8f47-c90007cbf469
Calder, Andrew
4981a9bf-43f0-484a-8dfd-e8d8981de0d8
Passamonti, Luca
71e1cf10-463b-45f0-acc2-0d74459d9f20

Fairchild, Graeme, Toschi, Nicola and Hagan, Cindy et al. (2015) Cortical thickness, surface area, and folding alterations in male youths with conduct disorder and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits. NeuroImage: Clinical, 8, 253-260. (doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2015.04.018).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose: previous studies have reported changes in gray matter volume in youths with conduct disorder (CD), although these differences are difficult to interpret as they may have been driven by alterations in cortical thickness, surface area (SA), or folding. The objective of this study was to use surface-based morphometry (SBM) methods to compare male youths with CD and age and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) in cortical thickness, SA, and folding. We also tested for structural differences between the childhood-onset and adolescence-onset subtypes of CD and performed regression analyses to assess for relationships between CD symptoms and callous-unemotional (CU) traits and SBM-derived measures.

Methods: we acquired structural neuroimaging data from 20 HC and 36 CD participants (18 with childhood-onset CD and 18 with adolescence-onset CD) and analysed the data using FreeSurfer.

Results: relative to HCs, youths with CD showed reduced cortical thickness in the superior temporal gyrus, reduced SA in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and increased cortical folding in the insula. There were no significant differences between the childhood-onset and adolescence-onset CD subgroups in cortical thickness or SA, but several frontal and temporal regions showed increased cortical folding in childhood-onset relative to adolescence-onset CD participants. CD symptoms were negatively correlated with OFC SA whereas CU traits were positively correlated with insula folding.

Conclusions: cortical thinning in the superior temporal gyrus may contribute to the social cognitive impairments displayed by youths with CD, whereas reduced OFC SA may lead to impairments in emotion regulation and reward processing in youths with CD. The increased cortical folding observed in the insula may reflect a maturational delay in this region and could mediate the link between CU traits and empathy deficits. Altered cortical structure was observed in childhood-onset and adolescence-onset forms of CD

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Accepted/In Press date: 28 April 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 30 April 2015
Organisations: Psychology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 376752
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/376752
ISSN: 2213-1582
PURE UUID: eb40c755-10e0-4b49-b409-d0cc539d79cd
ORCID for Graeme Fairchild: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7814-9938

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Date deposited: 08 May 2015 10:44
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 19:49

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Contributors

Author: Graeme Fairchild ORCID iD
Author: Nicola Toschi
Author: Cindy Hagan
Author: Ian Goodyer
Author: Andrew Calder
Author: Luca Passamonti

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