Brain connectivity and socioeconomic status at birth and externalizing symptoms at age 2 years

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Diana J. Whalen¹  Chad M. Sylvester²  Christopher D. Smyser³  Jeanette K. Kenley³  Cynthia E. Rogers⁴  Qiongru Yu⁴  Bruce Ramphal⁵ 

[1] Corresponding author at: 1051 Riverside Drive, Box 74/Room 2403, New York, NY, 10032, United States.;Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States;Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States;Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States;New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, NY, United States;

关键词: Neonatal neuroimaging;    Functional connectivity;    Socioeconomic status;    Externalizing;    Striatum;    Prefrontal cortex;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Low childhood socioeconomic status (SES) predisposes individuals to altered trajectories of brain development and increased rates of mental illness. Brain connectivity at birth is associated with psychiatric outcomes. We sought to investigate whether SES at birth is associated with neonatal brain connectivity and if these differences account for socioeconomic disparities in infant symptoms at age 2 years that are predictive of psychopathology. Resting state functional MRI was performed on 75 full-term and 37 term-equivalent preterm newborns (n = 112). SES was characterized by insurance type, the Area Deprivation Index, and a composite score. Seed-based voxelwise linear regression related SES to whole-brain functional connectivity of five brain regions representing functional networks implicated in psychiatric illnesses and affected by socioeconomic disadvantage: striatum, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Lower SES was associated with differences in striatum and vlPFC connectivity. Striatum connectivity with frontopolar and medial PFC mediated the relationship between SES and behavioral inhibition at age 2 measured by the Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (n = 46). Striatum-frontopolar connectivity mediated the relationship between SES and externalizing symptoms. These results, convergent across three SES metrics, suggest that neurodevelopmental trajectories linking SES and mental illness may begin as early as birth.

【 授权许可】

Unknown