Altered hemodynamic activity in conduct disorder: a resting-state FMRI investigation
Jiansong Zhou1, Nailin Yao2, Graeme Fairchild3
1Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University; Hunan Province Technology Institute of Psychiatry; Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, Changsha, China.
Background:
Youth with conduct disorder (CD) not only inflict serious physical and psychological harm on others, but are also at greatly increased risk of sustaining injuries, developing depression or substance abuse, and engaging in criminal behaviors. The underlying neurobiological basis of CD remains unclear.
Objective:
The present study investigated whether participants with CD have altered hemodynamic activity under resting-state conditions.
Methods:
Eighteen medication-naïve boys with CD and 18 age- and sex- matched typically developing (TD) controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in the resting state. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) was measured and compared between the CD and TD groups.
Results:
Compared with the TD participants, the CD participants showed lower ALFF in the bilateral amygdala/parahippocampus, right lingual gyrus, left cuneus and right insula. Higher ALFF was observed in the right fusiform gyrus and right thalamus in the CD participants compared to the TD group.
Conclusions:
Youth with CD displayed widespread functional abnormalities in emotion-related and visual cortical regions in the resting state. These results suggest that deficits in the intrinsic activity of resting state networks may contribute to the etiology of CD.
