Links between parental internalizing disorder severity and default mode network connectivity in adolescent offspring

Internalizing disorders have been linked to alterations in default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Given the increased risk of internalizing disorders in offspring of parents with a history of internalizing disorders, this study examined associations between parental depression and anxiety severity and adolescent DMN RSFC.

Participants were 116 parent-adolescent dyads with youth between ages of 11-17 years. Structured diagnostic interviews and self-report questionnaires were completed by parents and adolescents to assess history and severity of internalizing disorders. Adolescents completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the RSFC between regions of the DMN including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and bilateral lateral parietal cortices (LPC). Analyses examined region-of-interest (ROI) to ROI RSFC, with bivariate correlations and linear regressions used to assess whether child age, sex, child internalizing symptoms, and parental internalizing symptoms were associated with child RSFC alterations.

After controlling for child age, sex, internalizing symptoms, and in-scanner motion, increased parental depressive severity was associated with increased child RSFC between the PCC and right LPC. Child internalizing symptoms were also linked to decreased RSFC between the right LPC and the mPFC.

This study is limited by its modest sample size relative to effect sizes for functional connectivity-phenotype associations, cross-sectional design, and a relatively homogeneous sample in terms of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and parental sex.

Results suggest that, among youth with a parental history of depression or anxiety, increased severity of parental depression is associated with altered offspring DMN RSFC.