scholarly journals Irritability Is Associated With Decreased Cortical Surface Area and Anxiety With Decreased Gyrification During Brain Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Piguet ◽  
Angeline Mihailov ◽  
Antoine Grigis ◽  
Charles Laidi ◽  
Edouard Duchesnay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Mood And Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Gyrification Index

Background: Brain development is of utmost importance for the emergence of psychiatric disorders, as the most severe of them arise before 25 years old. However, little is known regarding how early transdiagnostic symptoms, in a dimensional framework, are associated with cortical development. Anxiety and irritability are central vulnerability traits for subsequent mood and anxiety disorders. In this study, we investigate how these dimensions are related to structural changes in the brain to understand how they may increase the transition risk to full-blown disorders.Methods: We used the opportunity of an open access developmental cohort, the Healthy Brain Network, to investigate associations between cortical surface markers and irritability and anxiety scores as measured by parents and self-reports.Results: We found that in 658 young people (with a mean age of 11.6) the parental report of irritability is associated with decreased surface area in the bilateral rostral prefrontal cortex and the precuneus. Furthermore, parental reports of anxiety were associated with decreased local gyrification index in the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.Conclusions: These results are consistent with current models of emotion regulation network maturation, showing decreased surface area or gyrification index in regions associated with impaired affective control in mood and anxiety disorders. Our results highlight how dimensional traits may increase vulnerability for these disorders.

scholarly journals Higher diurnal salivary cortisol levels are related to smaller prefrontal cortex surface area in elderly men and women

2016 ◽  
Vol 175 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Stomby ◽  
Carl-Johan Boraxbekk ◽  
Anders Lundquist ◽  
Annelie Nordin ◽  
Lars-Göran Nilsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Middle Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Cortisol Levels

Objective Elevated cortisol levels with aging have been associated with atrophy of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC), as well as with impaired cognitive functions in men. However, coexisting diseases have confounded many studies examining these relationships. Studies in women are lacking. Our objective was to test whether salivary cortisol levels were related to morphology of the hippocampus and the PFC, and to cognitive performance. Design A cross-sectional study including 200 elderly (55–80 years old) men and women. Method We used magnetic resonance imaging, tests of episodic-, semantic-, and working memory, visuospatial ability, and cortisol levels in four saliva samples collected during 1 day. Results Area under the curve (AUC) for cortisol levels was negatively related to cortical surface area of the left anterior cingulate gyrus (caudal P<0.001; rostral P=0.006), right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (P=0.004), and right rostral middle frontal gyrus (P=0.003). In women, there was also a negative relationship with cortical surface area in the left rostral middle frontal gyrus (P=0.006). No relationship was found between cortisol levels and hippocampal volume. Conclusion This study suggests that the structure of the medial PFC is related to cortisol levels in both elderly women and men.

scholarly journals The Concurrence of Cortical Surface Area Expansion and White Matter Myelination in Human Brain Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 827-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Cafiero ◽  
Jens Brauer ◽  
Alfred Anwander ◽  
Angela D Friederici
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Human Brain Development ◽  
Area Expansion

scholarly journals Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (22) ◽  
pp. 12411-12418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Judd ◽  
Bruno Sauce ◽  
John Wiedenhoeft ◽  
Jeshua Tromp ◽  
Bader Chaarani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Regional Association ◽  
Polygenic Scores

Genetic factors and socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used a polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS), as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r= 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to nonverbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This study demonstrates a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES with cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence.

scholarly journals The neural basis of attentional alterations in prenatally protein malnourished rats

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 497-512
Author(s):  
R J Rushmore ◽  
J A McGaughy ◽  
A C Amaral ◽  
D J Mokler ◽  
P J Morgane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Protein Malnutrition ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Cortical Function ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Attention Task

Abstract Protein malnutrition during gestation alters brain development and produces specific behavioral and cognitive changes that persist into adulthood and increase the risks of neuropsychiatric disorders. Given evidence for the role of the prefrontal cortex in such diseases, it is significant that studies in humans and animal models have shown that prenatal protein malnutrition specifically affects functions associated with prefrontal cortex. However, the neural basis underlying these changes is unclear. In the current study, prenatally malnourished and control rats performed a sustained attention task with an unpredictable distractor, a task that depends on intact prefrontal cortical function. Radiolabeled 2-deoxyglucose was used to measure neural and brain network activity during the task. Results confirmed that adult prenatally malnourished rats were more distractible than controls and exhibited lower functional activity in prefrontal cortices. Thus, prefrontal activity was a predictor of task performance in controls but not prenatally malnourished animals. Instead, prenatally malnourished animals relied on different brain networks involving limbic structures such as the hippocampus. These results provide evidence that protein reduction during brain development has more wide-reaching effects on brain networks than previously appreciated, resulting in the formation of brain networks that may reflect compensatory responses in prenatally malnourished brains.

scholarly journals Changes of Structural and Functional Attention Control Networks in Subclinical Hypothyroidism

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Yin ◽  
Lei Xie ◽  
DongXue Luo ◽  
Jinzhuang Huang ◽  
Ruiwei Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Subclinical Hypothyroidism ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Control Networks

Objective: This study aimed to explore the structural changes in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and to investigate the altered attentional control networks using functional MRI (fMRI) during the performance of a modified Stroop task with Chinese characters.Methods: High-resolution three-dimensional (3D) T1-weighted images and an fMRI scan were taken from 18 patients with SCH and 18 matched control subjects. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Chinese-revised (MoCA-CR) and the Stroop task were used to evaluate the cognitive and attention control of the participants.Results: Compared to controls, the VBM results showed decreased gray matter volumes (GMVs) in bilateral prefrontal cortices (PFCs, including middle, medial, and inferior frontal gyri), cingulate gyrus, precuneus, left middle temporal gyrus, and insula in patients with SCH. The fMRI results showed a distributed network of brain regions in both groups, consisting of PFCs (including superior and middle and inferior frontal cortices), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus, as well as the insula and caudate nucleus. Compared to controls, the SCH group had lower activation of the above brain areas, especially during the color-naming task. In addition, the normalized GMV (nGMV) was negatively correlated with thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level (r = −0.722, p &lt; 0.001).Conclusion: Results indicate that patients with SCH exhibit reduced GMVs, altered BOLD signals, and activation in regions associated with attention control, which further suggest that patients with SCH may have attentional control deficiency, and the weakened PFC–ACC–precuneus brain network might be one of the neural mechanisms. Negative correlations between nGMV and TSH suggest that TSH elevation may induce abnormalities in the cortex.

scholarly journals Parental Education, Household Income, and Cortical Surface Area among 9–10 Years Old Children: Minorities’ Diminished Returns

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 956
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
White Children ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
American Children ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Introduction: Although the effects of parental education and household income on children’s brain development are well established, less is known about possible variation in these effects across diverse racial and ethnic groups. According to the Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) phenomenon, due to structural racism, social stratification, and residential segregation, parental educational attainment and household income show weaker effects for non-White than White children. Purpose: Built on the MDRs framework and conceptualizing race as a social rather than a biological factor, this study explored racial and ethnic variation in the magnitude of the effects of parental education and household income on children’s whole-brain cortical surface area. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we used baseline socioeconomic and structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Our analytical sample was 10,262 American children between ages 9 and 10. The independent variables were parental education and household income. The primary outcome was the children’s whole-brain cortical surface area. Age, sex, and family marital status were covariates. Race and ethnicity were the moderators. We used mixed-effects regression models for data analysis as participants were nested within families and study sites. Results: High parental education and household income were associated with larger children’s whole-brain cortical surface area. The effects of high parental education and high household income on children’s whole-brain cortical surface area were modified by race. Compared to White children, Black children showed a diminished return of high parental education on the whole-brain cortical surface area when compared to White children. Asian American children showed weaker effects of household income on the whole-brain cortical surface area when compared to White children. We could not find differential associations between parental education and household income with the whole-brain cortical surface area, when compared to White children, for non-Hispanic and Hispanic children. Conclusions: The effects of parental educational attainment and household income on children’s whole-brain cortical surface area are weaker in non-White than White families. Although parental education and income contribute to children’s brain development, these effects are unequal across racial groups.

scholarly journals Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Judd ◽  
Bruno Sauce ◽  
John Wiedenhoeft ◽  
Jeshua Tromp ◽  
Bader Chaarani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Regional Association ◽  
Polygenic Scores

AbstractGenetic factors and socioeconomic (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS) as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents, to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time-points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r = 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to non-verbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This is the first study demonstrating a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES on cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence.Significance statementThe influence of socioeconomic (SES) inequalities on brain and cognitive development is a hotly debated topic. However, previous studies have not considered that genetic factors overlap with SES. Here we showed, for the first time, that SES and EduYears-PGS (a score from thousands of genetic markers for educational attainment) have independent associations with both cognition and global cortical surface area in adolescents. EduYears-PGS also had a localized association in the brain: the intraparietal sulcus, a region related to non-verbal intelligence. In contrast, SES had global, but not regional, associations, and these persisted throughout adolescence. This suggests that the influence of SES inequalities is widespread – a result that opposes the current paradigm and can help inform policies in education.

Childhood adversity and cortical thickness and surface area in a population at familial high risk of schizophrenia

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 891-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Barker ◽  
C. Bois ◽  
E. C. Johnstone ◽  
D. G. C. Owens ◽  
H. C. Whalley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Cortical Thickness ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Grey Matter Volume ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Structural Abnormalities ◽  
Familial High Risk

BackgroundThere is now a well-established link between childhood adversity (CA) and schizophrenia. Similar structural abnormalities to those found in schizophrenia including alterations in grey-matter volume have also been shown in those who experience CA.MethodWe examined whether global estimates of cortical thickness or surface area were altered in those familial high-risk subjects who had been referred to a social worker or the Children's Panel compared to those who had not.ResultsWe found that the cortical surface area of those who were referred to the Children's Panel was significantly smaller than those who had not been referred, but cortical thickness was not significantly altered. There was also an effect of social work referral on cortical surface area but not on thickness.ConclusionsCortical surface area increases post-natally more than cortical thickness. Our findings suggest that CA can influence structural changes in the brain and it is likely to have a greater impact on cortical surface area than on cortical thickness.

scholarly journals Functional brain abnormalities associated with comorbid anxiety in autism spectrum disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1273-1286
Author(s):  
James Bartolotti ◽  
John A. Sweeney ◽  
Matthew W. Mosconi
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Repetitive Behavior ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Social Impairment ◽  
Comorbid Anxiety

AbstractAnxiety disorders are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and associated with social–communication impairment and repetitive behavior symptoms. The neurobiology of anxiety in ASD is unknown, but amygdala dysfunction has been implicated in both ASD and anxiety disorders. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared amygdala–prefrontal and amygdala–striatal connections across three demographically matched groups studied in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE): ASD with a comorbid anxiety disorder (N = 25; ASD + Anxiety), ASD without a comorbid disorder (N = 68; ASD-NoAnx), and typically developing controls (N = 139; TD). Relative to ASD-NoAnx and TD controls, ASD + Anxiety individuals had decreased connectivity between the amygdala and dorsal/rostral anterior cingulate cortex (dACC/rACC). The functional connectivity of these connections was not affected in ASD-NoAnx, and amygdala connectivity with ventral ACC/medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) circuits was not different in ASD + Anxiety or ASD-NoAnx relative to TD. Decreased amygdala–dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC)/rACC connectivity was associated with more severe social impairment in ASD + Anxiety; amygdala–striatal connectivity was associated with restricted, repetitive behavior (RRB) symptom severity in ASD-NoAnx individuals. These findings suggest comorbid anxiety in ASD is associated with disrupted emotion-monitoring processes supported by amygdala–dACC/mPFC pathways, whereas emotion regulation systems involving amygdala–ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are relatively spared. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for comorbid anxiety for parsing ASD neurobiological heterogeneity.

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