Transdiagnostic indicators predict developmental changes in cognitive control resting-state networks

Abstract

Over the past decade, transdiagnostic indicators in relation to neurobiological processes have provided extensive insight into youth’s risk for psychopathology. During development, exposure to childhood trauma and dysregulation (i.e., so-called AAA symptomology: anxiety, aggression, and attention problems) puts individuals at a disproportionate risk for developing psychopathology and altered network-level neural functioning. Evidence for the latter has emerged from resting-state fMRI studies linking mental health symptoms and aberrations in functional networks (e.g., cognitive control (CCN), default mode networks (DMN)) in youth, although few of these investigations have used longitudinal designs. Herein, we leveraged a three-year longitudinal study to identify whether traumatic exposures and concomitant dysregulation trigger changes in the developmental trajectories of resting-state functional networks involved in cognitive control (N = 190; 91 females; time 1 Mage = 11.81). Findings from latent growth curve analyses revealed that greater trauma exposure predicted increasing connectivity between the CCN and DMN across time. Greater levels of dysregulation predicted reductions in within-network connectivity in the CCN. These findings presented in typically developing youth corroborate connectivity patterns reported in clinical populations, suggesting there is predictive utility in using transdiagnostic indicators to forecast alterations in resting-state networks implicated in psychopathology.

Anterior pituitary gland volume mediates associations between pubertal hormones and changes in transdiagnostic symptoms in youth

“…Given that previous research has not yet shown that DHEA levels and pituitary volume amplify risk for specific diagnostic categories, the current study employed a more transdiagnostic approach. We built off of previous work highlighting that dysregulation is a potent predictor of long-term psychopathology diagnoses and comorbidities (Althoff and Ametti, 2021), as well as changes in key neural networks (Picci et al, 2023b). Dysregulation is often defined as difficulties in regulating affect, behavior, and cognition (ABCs), with symptoms peaking during early adolescence (Deutz et al, 2018).…”