Moji Aghajani1, Eduard T Klapwijk2, Nic J van der Wee3, Ilya M Veer4, Serge A R B Rombouts5, Albert E Boon6, Peter van Beelen7, Arne Popma8, Robert R J M Vermeiren2, Olivier F Colins2. 1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden. Electronic address: m.aghajani@curium.nl. 2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden. 3. Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden. 4. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division of Mind and Brain Research, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany. 5. Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden. 6. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Lucertis Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam. 7. Forensic Psychiatry Unit Het Palmhuis, De Jutters Institute for Mental Health Care, The Hague, The Netherlands. 8. Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden University, Leiden; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The developmental trajectory of psychopathy seemingly begins early in life and includes the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., deficient emotional reactivity, callousness) in conduct-disordered (CD) youth. Though subregion-specific anomalies in amygdala function have been suggested in CU pathophysiology among antisocial populations, system-level studies of CU traits have typically examined the amygdala as a unitary structure. Hence, nothing is yet known of how amygdala subregional network function may contribute to callous-unemotionality in severely antisocial people. METHODS: We addressed this important issue by uniquely examining the intrinsic functional connectivity of basolateral amygdala (BLA) and centromedial amygdala (CMA) networks across three matched groups of juveniles: CD offenders with CU traits (CD/CU+; n = 25), CD offenders without CU traits (CD/CU-; n = 25), and healthy control subjects (n = 24). We additionally examined whether perturbed amygdala subregional connectivity coincides with altered volume and shape of the amygdaloid complex. RESULTS: Relative to CD/CU- and healthy control youths, CD/CU+ youths showed abnormally increased BLA connectivity with a cluster that included both dorsal and ventral portions of the anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortices, along with posterior cingulate, sensory associative, and striatal regions. In contrast, compared with CD/CU- and healthy control youths, CD/CU+ youths showed diminished CMA connectivity with ventromedial/orbitofrontal regions. Critically, these connectivity changes coincided with local hypotrophy of BLA and CMA subregions (without being statistically correlated) and were associated to more severe CU symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide unique insights into a putative mechanism for perturbed attention-emotion interactions, which could bias salience processing and associative learning in youth with CD/CU+.
BACKGROUND: The developmental trajectory of psychopathy seemingly begins early in life and includes the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., deficient emotional reactivity, callousness) in conduct-disordered (CD) youth. Though subregion-specific anomalies in amygdala function have been suggested in CU pathophysiology among antisocial populations, system-level studies of CU traits have typically examined the amygdala as a unitary structure. Hence, nothing is yet known of how amygdala subregional network function may contribute to callous-unemotionality in severely antisocial people. METHODS: We addressed this important issue by uniquely examining the intrinsic functional connectivity of basolateral amygdala (BLA) and centromedial amygdala (CMA) networks across three matched groups of juveniles: CD offenders with CU traits (CD/CU+; n = 25), CD offenders without CU traits (CD/CU-; n = 25), and healthy control subjects (n = 24). We additionally examined whether perturbed amygdala subregional connectivity coincides with altered volume and shape of the amygdaloid complex. RESULTS: Relative to CD/CU- and healthy control youths, CD/CU+ youths showed abnormally increased BLA connectivity with a cluster that included both dorsal and ventral portions of the anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortices, along with posterior cingulate, sensory associative, and striatal regions. In contrast, compared with CD/CU- and healthy control youths, CD/CU+ youths showed diminished CMA connectivity with ventromedial/orbitofrontal regions. Critically, these connectivity changes coincided with local hypotrophy of BLA and CMA subregions (without being statistically correlated) and were associated to more severe CU symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide unique insights into a putative mechanism for perturbed attention-emotion interactions, which could bias salience processing and associative learning in youth with CD/CU+.
Authors: Elise M Cardinale; Katherine O'Connell; Emily L Robertson; Lydia B Meena; Andrew L Breeden; Leah M Lozier; John W VanMeter; Abigail A Marsh Journal: Psychol Med Date: 2018-08-24 Impact factor: 7.723
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