Early Life Adversity and Mental Health links clarified by Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity
Poster No:
1212
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Corentin Vallée1, Xuemei Ma1, Rebecca Pollard1, Andrew Lawrence1, Svenja Kretzer1, Pei-Jung Cheng1,2, Craig Morgan1,3, Seeromanie Harding1, Giovanni Montana4, Ana Rodriguez-Mateos5, Gunther Schumann1, Carmine Pariante1,6, Chiara Nosarti1,7, Mitul Mehta8,6, Paola Dazzan1,6
Institutions:
1Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 2Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 3SRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 4Department of Statistics, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom, 5Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 6National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 7School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 8Centre of Neuroimaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
First Author:
Corentin Vallée
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Co-Author(s):
Xuemei Ma
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Rebecca Pollard
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Andrew Lawrence
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Svenja Kretzer
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Pei-Jung Cheng
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital
London, United Kingdom|Taoyuan, Taiwan
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital
London, United Kingdom|Taoyuan, Taiwan
Craig Morgan
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|SRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|SRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Seeromanie Harding
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Ana Rodriguez-Mateos
Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Gunther Schumann
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Carmine Pariante
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Chiara Nosarti
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Mitul Mehta
Centre of Neuroimaging Sciences, King's College London|National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Centre of Neuroimaging Sciences, King's College London|National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Paola Dazzan
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London|National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
London, United Kingdom|London, United Kingdom
Introduction:
Early life adversity (ELA) refers to childhood and adolescence adverse circumstances such as physical or emotional abuse, bullying or family dysfunction. ELA exposure increases the risk of poor mental health (MH), including anxiety, depression, psychosis, and behavioral problems [Juwariah2022]. Recent resting-state fMRI studies suggest brain function may play a role in explaining the link between ELA and poor mental health [Rakesh2021,Banihashemi2022]. We have investigated here the relationship between ELA, mental health problems and resting-state interhemispheric functional connectivity (IHFC).
Methods:
We recruited 230 young adolescents (11.2-14.9 years) from Southeast London schools. The presence of ELA was assessed with the Difficult and Harmful Life Event questionnaire and the England Index of Multiple Deprivation for Area-level adversity. Mental health was assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7, the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (depression), the Adolescent Psychotic-like Symptom Screener, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (well-being/behavioral traits). Participants were considered negative for ELA if they 1) endured no more than two events of the Difficult and Harmful Life Event questionnaire, of lowest level of severity and frequency, no distress, and no injury; and 2) lived in a non-deprived area according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Participants were sorted in three groups: 1) ELA-positive and MH problems-negative (Group 1, n=81); 2) ELA-positive and MH problems-positive (Group 2, n=71); 3) ELA-negative and MH problems-negative (Control group, n=29). Numbers are given after questionnaire incompletion exclusion and fMRI quality control.
Resting-state BOLD fMRI data were acquired on a 3T GE scanner. Images were processed with fMRIprep and denoised with CONN using fMRIprep calculated confounders. Functional connectivity was modelled by linear correlation (between pairs of contralateral voxels signal for IHFC). Group-level analyses used a general linear model with groups predicting connectivity. Voxel-level hypotheses were tested using multivariate parametric statistics with random-effects across. Inferences were performed at the level of individual clusters, based on non-parametric permutation testing (1000 iterations). Results use a combination of a cluster-forming voxel-level threshold (α_voxel=1%), and a cluster-mass threshold, corrected for false discovery rate (α_cluster=5%).
Participants were sorted in three groups: 1) ELA-positive and MH problems-negative (Group 1, n=81); 2) ELA-positive and MH problems-positive (Group 2, n=71); 3) ELA-negative and MH problems-negative (Control group, n=29). Numbers are given after questionnaire incompletion exclusion and fMRI quality control.
Resting-state BOLD fMRI data were acquired on a 3T GE scanner. Images were processed with fMRIprep and denoised with CONN using fMRIprep calculated confounders. Functional connectivity was modelled by linear correlation (between pairs of contralateral voxels signal for IHFC). Group-level analyses used a general linear model with groups predicting connectivity. Voxel-level hypotheses were tested using multivariate parametric statistics with random-effects across. Inferences were performed at the level of individual clusters, based on non-parametric permutation testing (1000 iterations). Results use a combination of a cluster-forming voxel-level threshold (α_voxel=1%), and a cluster-mass threshold, corrected for false discovery rate (α_cluster=5%).
Results:
Figure 1 shows differences of ROI-ROI connectivity between the control group and the other two groups exposed to ELA. We found large-scale, low effect size differences across the brain with noticeably larger effect size for homotopic structures, suggesting IHFC as a feature of interest.
Figure 2 shows groups differences in interhemispheric connectivity. Compared to the control group, individuals in Group 1 showed lower IHFC in posterior brain areas (top slices). Individuals in Group 2 also showed lower IHFC in similar posterior areas when compared to the control group, but additionally showed increased IHFC in the cerebellum (middle slices). When comparing Group 1 and Group 2, both exposed to ELA but differing for MH problems, we still found an IHFC increase in cerebellum, while there were no more posterior alterations (bottom slices).
Figure 2 shows groups differences in interhemispheric connectivity. Compared to the control group, individuals in Group 1 showed lower IHFC in posterior brain areas (top slices). Individuals in Group 2 also showed lower IHFC in similar posterior areas when compared to the control group, but additionally showed increased IHFC in the cerebellum (middle slices). When comparing Group 1 and Group 2, both exposed to ELA but differing for MH problems, we still found an IHFC increase in cerebellum, while there were no more posterior alterations (bottom slices).
Conclusions:
Our finding shows that a history of ELA is associated with distinctive alterations in interhemispheric functional connectivity depending on the co-occurence of MH problems. Alterations in IHFC connectivity may result from corpus callosum structural changes as diffusion MRI suggests corpus callosum fractional anisotropy is reduced in subjects with ELA, indicative of possible myelin atrophy or local neuroinflammation [McCarthy-Jones2018]. The cerebellum specific involvement in the co-occurrence of ELA and MH problems, may underlie symptom manifestation or be an indicator of low resilience. Its role warrants exploration in larger, longitudinal studies.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism)
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia)
Lifespan Development:
Early life, Adolescence, Aging 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) 2
fMRI Connectivity and Network Modeling
Keywords:
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Psychiatric
Other - Resting-State; Advertsity; Adolescence; Mental Health
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Rakesh, (2021). "Unraveling the Consequences of Childhood Maltreatment: Deviations From Typical Functional Neurodevelopment Mediate the Relationship Between Maltreatment History and Depressive Symptoms." Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 6(3), 329–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.09.016
Banihashemi, (2022). éChildhood Threat Is Associated With Lower Resting-State Connectivity Within a Central Visceral Network. Frontiers in psychology, 13, 805049." https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805049
McCarthy-Jones, (2018). "Childhood adversity associated with white matter alteration in the corpus callosum, corona radiata, and uncinate fasciculus of psychiatrically healthy adults." Brain Imaging Behav, 12(2), 449-458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-017-9703-1