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Limbic white matter structural integrity at 3 months prospectively predicts negative emotionality in 9-month-old
Layla Banihashemi1, Michele A Bertocci1, Hussain M Alkhars1
1University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Pittsburgh, PA.
Insights
Infant white matter integrity, specifically the uncinate fasciculus, predicts emotional regulation. Greater structural integrity at 3 months is linked to better emotional capacity by 9 months.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Imaging
Background:
- Early life emotional dysregulation is poorly understood.
- The relationship between white matter development and behavior in infancy requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how white matter structural integrity in infants predicts emotional regulation.
- To examine the predictive relationship between specific white matter tracts and emotional behaviors at 9 months of age.
Main Methods:
- Multishell diffusion-weighted imaging was used in 3-month-old infants.
- Tractography identified white matter integrity in the uncinate fasciculus, cingulum, and forceps minor.
- Emotionality (negative and positive) was assessed at 9 months, with regression analyses performed.
Main Results:
- Structural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus at 3 months was a significant predictor of negative emotionality at 9 months.
- Greater uncinate structural integrity correlated with lower negative emotionality.
Conclusions:
- This study demonstrates a prospective link between infant white matter structure and emotional behavior.
- Enhanced structural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus may support better emotional regulation capacity in infants.
Background:
Little is known about how early alterations in white matter relate to clinically relevant behaviors such as emotional dysregulation. Thus, our goal was to examine how the white matter structural integrity of key limbic (i.e., uncinate fasciculus and cingulum) and commissural (i.e., forceps minor) bundles in 3-month-old infants prospectively predicts emotional regulation behaviors at 9 months.
Methods:
Three-month-old infants underwent multishell diffusion-weighted imaging. Following image processing, tractography was performed for each tract within each infant's native space (n=20). Measures of white matter integrity, including microstructure and morphology, were extracted from each tract. At 9 months, negative emotionality (NE) and positive emotionality (PE) were elicited using Laboratory Assessment of Temperament tasks. Elastic net regressions were performed for variable selection, which included white matter integrity variables from each of the 3 tracts, along with several covariates, including age, sex, use of public assistance, and the mother's depressive symptoms. Outcome variables were NE and PE composite scores evaluated in two separate models.
Results:
Notably, following hierarchical regression using elastic net-selected variables, uncinate structural integrity was the most robust predictor of NE (ß=-0.631, p=0.005).
Limitations:
The sample size of our study is a limitation, however, as a preliminary study, our goal was to describe our findings to inform future, larger studies.
Conclusions:
Greater uncinate structural integrity predicted lower NE, suggesting that greater uncinate structural integrity at 3 months allows greater emotional regulation capacity at 9 months. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate prospective brain-to-emotional behavior relationships in infants.
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