Identification of neurobehavioural symptom groups based on shared brain mechanisms.
Nat Hum Behav. 2019-10-07; 3(12): 1306-1318
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0738-8
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Most psychopathological disorders develop in adolescence. The biological basis
for this development is poorly understood. To enhance diagnostic characterization
and develop improved targeted interventions, it is critical to identify
behavioural symptom groups that share neural substrates. We ran analyses to find
relationships between behavioural symptoms and neuroimaging measures of brain
structure and function in adolescence. We found two symptom groups, consisting of
anxiety/depression and executive dysfunction symptoms, respectively, that
correlated with distinct sets of brain regions and inter-regional connections,
measured by structural and functional neuroimaging modalities. We found that the
neural correlates of these symptom groups were present before behavioural
symptoms had developed. These neural correlates showed case-control differences
in corresponding psychiatric disorders, depression and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder in independent clinical samples. By characterizing
behavioural symptom groups based on shared neural mechanisms, our results provide
a framework for developing a classification system for psychiatric illness that
is based on quantitative neurobehavioural measures.