Cingulum-Callosal White-Matter Microstructure Associated with Emotional Dysregulation in Children: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study
Author(s)
Hung, Yuwen; Uchida, Mai; Gaillard, Schuyler L; Woodworth, Hilary; Kelberman, Caroline; Capella, James; Kadlec, Kelly; Goncalves, Mathias; Ghosh, Satrajit; Yendiki, Anastasia; Chai, Xiaoqian J; Hirshfeld-Becker, Dina R; Whitfield-Gabrieli, Susan; Gabrieli, John DE; Biederman, Joseph; ... Show more Show less
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© 2020 The Author(s) Emotional dysregulation symptoms in youth frequently predispose individuals to increased risk for mood disorders and other mental health difficulties. These symptoms are also known as a behavioral risk marker in predicting pediatric mood disorders. The underlying neural mechanism of emotional dysregulation, however, remains unclear. This study used the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique to identify anatomically specific variation in white-matter microstructure that is associated with pediatric emotional dysregulation severity. Thirty-two children (mean age 9.53 years) with varying levels of emotional dysregulation symptoms were recruited by the Massachusetts General Hospital and underwent the DTI scans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Emotional dysregulation severity was measured by the empirically-derived Child Behavior Checklist Emotional Dysregulation Profile that includes the Attention, Aggression, and Anxiety/Depression subscales. Whole-brain voxel-wise regression tests revealed significantly increased radial diffusivity (RD) and decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the cingulum-callosal regions linked to greater emotional dysregulation in the children. The results suggest that microstructural differences in cingulum-callosal white-matter pathways may manifest as a neurodevelopmental vulnerability for pediatric mood disorders as implicated in the clinical phenotype of pediatric emotional dysregulation. These findings may offer clinically and biologically relevant neural targets for early identification and prevention efforts for pediatric mood disorders.
Date issued
2020Department
Martinos Imaging Center (McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT); McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & ScienceJournal
NeuroImage: Clinical
Publisher
Elsevier BV