Childhood adversities characterize the heterogeneity in the brain pattern of individuals during neurodevelopment

Kashyap, Rajan, Holla, Bharath and Bhattacharjee, Sagarika , Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions (cVEDA) (2024) Childhood adversities characterize the heterogeneity in the brain pattern of individuals during neurodevelopment. Psychological Medicine, 54 (10). (doi:10.1017/S0033291724000710).

Abstract

Background: several factors shape the neurodevelopmental trajectory. A key area of focus in neurodevelopmental research is to estimate the factors that have maximal influence on the brain and can tip the balance from typical to atypical development. 

Methods: utilizing a dissimilarity maximization algorithm on the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) of the resting state functional MRI data, we classified subjects from the cVEDA neurodevelopmental cohort (n = 987, aged 6-23 years) into homogeneously patterned DMD (representing typical development in 809 subjects) and heterogeneously patterned DMD (indicative of atypical development in 178 subjects). 

Results: significant DMD differences were primarily identified in the default mode network (DMN) regions across these groups (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). While the groups were comparable in cognitive performance, the atypical group had more frequent exposure to adversities and faced higher abuses (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Upon evaluating brain-behavior correlations, we found that correlation patterns between adversity and DMN dynamic modes exhibited age-dependent variations for atypical subjects, hinting at differential utilization of the DMN due to chronic adversities. 

Conclusion: adversities (particularly abuse) maximally influence the DMN during neurodevelopment and lead to the failure in the development of a coherent DMN system. While DMN's integrity is preserved in typical development, the age-dependent variability in atypically developing individuals is contrasting. The flexibility of DMN might be a compensatory mechanism to protect an individual in an abusive environment. However, such adaptability might deprive the neural system of the faculties of normal functioning and may incur long-term effects on the psyche.

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