TY - JOUR
T1 - Different whole-brain functional connectivity correlates of reactive-proactive aggression and callous-unemotional traits in children and adolescents with disruptive behaviors
AU - Werhahn, Julia E.
AU - Smigielski, Lukasz
AU - Sacu, Seda
AU - Mohl, Susanna
AU - Willinger, David
AU - Naaijen, Jilly
AU - Mulder, Leandra M.
AU - Glennon, Jeffrey C.
AU - Hoekstra, Pieter J.
AU - Dietrich, Andrea
AU - Deters, Renee Kleine
AU - Aggensteiner, Pascal M.
AU - Holz, Nathalie E.
AU - Baumeister, Sarah
AU - Banaschewski, Tobias
AU - Saam, Melanie C.
AU - Schulze, Ulrike M.E.
AU - Lythgoe, David J.
AU - Sethi, Arjun
AU - Craig, Michael
AU - Mastroianni, Mathilde
AU - Sagar-Ouriaghli, Ilyas
AU - Santosh, Paramala J.
AU - Rosa, Mireia
AU - Bargallo, Nuria
AU - Castro-Fornieles, Josefina
AU - Arango, Celso
AU - Penzol, Maria J.
AU - Zwiers, Marcel P.
AU - Franke, Barbara
AU - Buitelaar, Jan K.
AU - Walitza, Susanne
AU - Brandeis, Daniel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Background: Disruptive behavior in children and adolescents can manifest as reactive aggression and proactive aggression and is modulated by callous-unemotional traits and other comorbidities. Neural correlates of these aggression dimensions or subtypes and comorbid symptoms remain largely unknown. This multi-center study investigated the relationship between resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) and aggression subtypes considering comorbidities. Methods: The large sample of children and adolescents aged 8–18 years (n = 207; mean age = 13.30±2.60 years, 150 males) included 118 cases with disruptive behavior (80 with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and/or Conduct Disorder) and 89 controls. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety symptom scores were analyzed as covariates when assessing group differences and dimensional aggression effects on hypothesis-free global and local voxel-to-voxel whole-brain rsFC based on functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla. Results: Compared to controls, the cases demonstrated altered rsFC in frontal areas, when anxiety but not ADHD symptoms were controlled for. For cases, reactive and proactive aggression scores were related to global and local rsFC in the central gyrus and precuneus, regions linked to aggression-related impairments. Callous-unemotional trait severity was correlated with ICC in the inferior and middle temporal regions implicated in empathy, emotion, and reward processing. Most observed aggression subtype-specific patterns could only be identified when ADHD and anxiety were controlled for. Conclusions: This study clarifies that hypothesis-free brain connectivity measures can disentangle distinct though overlapping dimensions of aggression in youths. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of considering comorbid symptoms to detect aggression-related rsFC alterations in youths.
AB - Background: Disruptive behavior in children and adolescents can manifest as reactive aggression and proactive aggression and is modulated by callous-unemotional traits and other comorbidities. Neural correlates of these aggression dimensions or subtypes and comorbid symptoms remain largely unknown. This multi-center study investigated the relationship between resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) and aggression subtypes considering comorbidities. Methods: The large sample of children and adolescents aged 8–18 years (n = 207; mean age = 13.30±2.60 years, 150 males) included 118 cases with disruptive behavior (80 with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and/or Conduct Disorder) and 89 controls. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety symptom scores were analyzed as covariates when assessing group differences and dimensional aggression effects on hypothesis-free global and local voxel-to-voxel whole-brain rsFC based on functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla. Results: Compared to controls, the cases demonstrated altered rsFC in frontal areas, when anxiety but not ADHD symptoms were controlled for. For cases, reactive and proactive aggression scores were related to global and local rsFC in the central gyrus and precuneus, regions linked to aggression-related impairments. Callous-unemotional trait severity was correlated with ICC in the inferior and middle temporal regions implicated in empathy, emotion, and reward processing. Most observed aggression subtype-specific patterns could only be identified when ADHD and anxiety were controlled for. Conclusions: This study clarifies that hypothesis-free brain connectivity measures can disentangle distinct though overlapping dimensions of aggression in youths. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of considering comorbid symptoms to detect aggression-related rsFC alterations in youths.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Callous-unemotional traits
KW - Children
KW - Proactive aggression
KW - Reactive aggression
KW - Resting-state fMRI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85177853016&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103542
DO - 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103542
M3 - Article
C2 - 37988996
AN - SCOPUS:85177853016
SN - 2213-1582
VL - 40
JO - NeuroImage: Clinical
JF - NeuroImage: Clinical
M1 - 103542
ER -