Does the Relationship between Age and Brain Structure Differ in Youth with Conduct Disorder?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Conduct disorder (CD) involves persistent antisocial and aggressive behaviors, often emerging in childhood or adolescence.
• While proposed as a neurodevelopmental disorder, evidence on brain development in CD is limited.
• Previous studies suggest structural brain alterations and indirect evidence of delayed maturation in CD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in brain maturation between youth with CD and healthy controls using cross-sectional MRI data.
• To understand the neurodevelopmental processes underlying conduct disorder.
• To analyze age-related changes in brain structure in adolescents with CD.

Main Methods:

• Utilized cross-sectional MRI data from 291 CD cases and 379 healthy controls (ages 9-18) from the FemNAT-CD study.
• Employed surface-based morphometry and ENIGMA quality control protocols for structural MRI analysis.
• Used an atlas-based approach to examine group differences and group-by-age/sex interactions in cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volumes.

Main Results:

• The CD group exhibited significantly lower surface area in frontal, temporal, and parietal regions compared to controls.
• Total surface area was also reduced in individuals with conduct disorder.
• No significant group-by-age or group-by-age-by-sex interactions were found for any brain structure measures.

Conclusions:

• Conduct disorder is associated with reduced cortical surface area across multiple brain regions in youth.
• The findings do not support the hypothesis of delayed brain maturation in CD within the 9-18 year age range.
• Further research is needed to fully elucidate the neurodevelopmental aspects of conduct disorder.