Cortico-amygdalar connectivity and externalizing/internalizing behavior in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Child Psychiatry

Background:

• Externalizing and internalizing behaviors are common in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs).
• Previous studies linked these behaviors to cortico-amygdalar connectivity in general pediatric samples.
• No research had explored shared associations across diverse NDDs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate shared associations between externalizing/internalizing behaviors and cortico-amygdalar connectivity.
• To examine these relationships across a transdiagnostic sample of children with NDDs and typically developing children (TDC).

Main Methods:

• Utilized multi-modal neuroimaging (fMRI, DWI) and behavioral data from 346 children (aged 6-18) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or TDC.
• Analyzed associations between Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) scores and cortico-amygdalar structural/functional connectivity using linear regressions.
• Controlled for age, gender, and imaging covariates; examined behavior-by-diagnosis interactions.

Main Results:

• No significant linear associations were found between externalizing or internalizing behaviors and cortico-amygdalar connectivity indices.
• No significant behavior-by-diagnosis interaction effects were detected.
• Post-hoc analyses confirmed the stability and reliability of these null findings.

Conclusions:

• The study suggests an absence of a shared linear relationship between internalizing/externalizing behaviors and cortico-amygdalar connectivity across a transdiagnostic sample.
• Alternative methodological approaches, such as task-based fMRI or clustering, may be necessary to elucidate complex brain-behavior links in heterogeneous NDD populations.