Conduct disorder symptomatology is associated with an altered functional connectome in a large national youth sample

Abstract

Conduct disorder (CD), characterized by youth antisocial behavior, is associated with a variety of neurocognitive impairments. However, questions remain regarding the neural underpinnings of these impairments. To investigate novel neural mechanisms that may support these neurocognitive abnormalities, the present study applied a graph analysis to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected from a national sample of 4,781 youth, ages 9-10, who participated in the baseline session of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development^SM Study (ABCD Study®). Analyses were then conducted to examine the relationships among levels of CD symptomatology, metrics of global topology, node-level metrics for subcortical structures, and performance on neurocognitive assessments. Youth higher on CD displayed higher global clustering (β = .039, 95% CI_corrected [.0027 .0771]), but lower Degree_subcortical (β = -.052, 95% CI_corrected [-.0916 -.0152]). Youth higher on CD had worse performance on a general neurocognitive assessment (β = -.104, 95% CI [-.1328 -.0763]) and an emotion recognition memory assessment (β = -.061, 95% CI [-.0919 -.0290]). Finally, global clustering mediated the relationship between CD and general neurocognitive functioning (indirect β = -.002, 95% CI [-.0044 -.0002]), and Degree_subcortical mediated the relationship between CD and emotion recognition memory performance (indirect β = -.002, 95% CI [-.0046 -.0005]). CD appears associated with neuro-topological abnormalities and these abnormalities may represent neural mechanisms supporting CD-related neurocognitive disruptions.

Keywords: conduct disorder; graph analysis; neural topology; neurocognitive functioning; subcortical structures.

Figure 1.

Youth higher on conduct disorder (CD) symptomatology exhibited higher clustering coefficients in the global analysis. Figure 1 displays a regression line depicting clustering coefficient from the global analysis as a function of CD symptomatology, controlling for age, sex, race, and data collection site. Error band represents one standard error.

Figure 2.

Clustering coefficient partially mediates the relationship between conduct disorder (CD) symptomatology and impairments in neurocognitive functioning. Figure 2 displays the mediation model testing the relationships among CD symptomatology, global clustering coefficient, and total cognition score on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox cognition battery, controlling for age, sex, race, and data collection site.

Figure 3.

Youth higher on conduct disorder (CD) symptomatology exhibit lower Degree_subcortical in the node-level analysis. Figure 3 displays a regression line depicting Degree_subcortical as a function of CD symptomatology, controlling for age, sex, race, and data collection site. Error band represents one standard error.

Figure 4.

Degree_subcortical partially mediates the relationship between conduct disorder (CD) symptomatology and impairments in emotion recognition memory. Figure 4 displays the mediation model testing the relationships among CD symptomatology, Degree_subcortical, and performance on the emotion recognition memory task, controlling for age, sex, race, and data collection site.