Brain function and clinical characterization in the Boston adolescent neuroimaging of depression and anxiety study

Abstract

We present a Human Connectome Project study tailored toward adolescent anxiety and depression. This study is one of the first studies of the Connectomes Related to Human Diseases initiative and is collecting structural, functional, and diffusion-weighted brain imaging data from up to 225 adolescents (ages 14-17 years), 150 of whom are expected to have a current diagnosis of an anxiety and/or depressive disorder. Comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological evaluations and longitudinal clinical data are also being collected. This article provides an overview of task functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocols and preliminary findings (N = 140), as well as clinical and neuropsychological characterization of adolescents. Data collection is ongoing for an additional 85 adolescents, most of whom are expected to have a diagnosis of an anxiety and/or depressive disorder. Data from the first 140 adolescents are projected for public release through the National Institutes of Health Data Archive (NDA) with the timing of this manuscript. All other data will be made publicly-available through the NDA at regularly scheduled intervals. This article is intended to serve as an introduction to this project as well as a reference for those seeking to clinical, neurocognitive, and task fMRI data from this public resource.

Fig. 1

Brief characteristics of the first 140 participants. A. Sex, Age, Ethnicity, and Race. Full demographic characteristics may be found in Supplementary Table 1. B. Count of patient current (left) and historical (right) DSM-5 diagnosis types. Full diagnostic characteristics may be found Supplementary Tables 3 and 4. OCD= obsessive-compulsive disorder. C. Patient psychiatric medication status. Detailed medication use descriptions may be found in Supplementary Table 5.

Fig. 2

Mean clinical dimension measure scores displayed by study groupings on select subscales. Measures and abbreviations are listed from left to right and top to bottom. Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation Questionnaire (BIS-BAS; Carver and White, 1994) –Drive (BAS-Drive) subscale score, Fun Seeking (BAS-Fun) subscale score, Reward Responsiveness (BAS-Reward) subscale score, and Behavioral Inhibition Scale (BIS) subscale score. Mood and Feelings Questionnaire total score (MFQ; Angold et al., 1995). NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory - Neuroticism subscale score (NEO—Neuroticism; McCrae and Costa, 2004). Risky Behavior Questionnaire for Adolescents total score (RBQA; Auerbach and Gardiner, 2012). Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; de Ross et al., 2000) Major Depressive Disorder subscale score (RCADS-Dep), Generalized Anxiety Disorder subscale score (RCADS-GenAx), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder subscale score (RCADS-OC), Panic Disorder subscale score (RCADS-Panic), Separation Anxiety Disorder subscale score (RCADS-SepAnx), and Social Phobia subscale score (RCADS-Social). Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale total score (SHAPS; Snaith et al., 1995). State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1970), State subscale score (STAI-State) and Trait subscale score (STAI-Trait). Adolescent Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN; Slavich et al., 2019). STRAIN Physical Health Complaints/Symptoms score (PHQ), STRAIN Mental Health Complaints/Symptoms score (K6), Total Count of Stressors (STRAIN-StressCT), Total Severity of Stressors (STRAIN-StressTH), Total Count of Acute Life Events (STRAIN-EvntCT), Total Severity of Acute Life Events (STRAIN-EvntTH), Total Count of Chronic Difficulties (STRAIN-DiffCT), and Total Severity of Chronic Difficulties (STRAIN-DiffTH). Detailed information on these clinical measures may be found in Supplementary Appendix I.

Fig. 3

Example trials of BANDA fMRI tasks. A. Incentive Processing Task (IPT). B. Emotion Processing Task (EPT). C. Emotion Interference Task (EIT).

Fig. 4

Preliminary activation results for the Incentive Processing Task, Reward > Loss contrast. A. Voxel data from Incentive Processing Task, Reward > Loss contrast. Voxels shown are thresholded at z =  ±  2.81, p < .005, uncorrected. Voxel data were also thresholded with an additional volume correction of (k) requiring greater than 9 contiguous voxels (k > 9). B. Surface (vertex) data from Incentive Processing Task, Reward > Loss contrast. Vertices shown are thresholded at z =  ±  2.81, p < .005, uncorrected.

Fig. 5

Voxel and vertex preliminary activation results for the Emotion Processing Task, Fear > Neutral contrast. A. Voxel data from Emotion Processing Task, Fear > Neutral contrast. Voxels shown are thresholded at z =  ±  2.81, p < .005, uncorrected. Voxel data were also thresholded with an additional volume correction of (k) requiring greater than 9 contiguous voxels (k > 9). B. Surface (vertex) data from Emotion Processing Task, Fear > Neutral contrast. Vertices shown are thresholded at z =  ±  2.81, p < .005, uncorrected.

Fig. 6

Voxel and vertex preliminary activation results for the Emotion Interference Task, Ignore Fear > Ignore Neutral contrast. A. Voxel data from Emotion Interference Task, Ignore Fear > Ignore Neutral contrast. Voxel data were also thresholded with an additional volume correction of (k) requiring greater than 9 contiguous voxels (k > 9). B. Surface (vertex) data from Emotion Interference Task, Ignore Fear > Ignore Neutral contrast. Vertices shown are thresholded at z =  ±  2.81, p < .005, uncorrected.