Edge-centric connectome-genetic markers of bridging factor to comorbidity between depression and anxiety

Abstract

Depression-anxiety comorbidity is commonly attributed to the occurrence of specific symptoms bridging the two disorders. However, the significant heterogeneity of most bridging symptoms presents challenges for psychopathological interpretation and clinical applicability. Here, we conceptually established a common bridging factor (cb factor) to characterize a general structure of these bridging symptoms, analogous to the general psychopathological p factor. We identified a cb factor from 12 bridging symptoms in depression-anxiety comorbidity network. Moreover, this cb factor could be predicted using edge-centric connectomes with robust generalizability, and was characterized by connectome patterns in attention and frontoparietal networks. In an independent twin cohort, we found that these patterns were moderately heritable, and identified their genetic connectome-transcriptional markers that were associated with the neurobiological enrichment of vasculature and cerebellar development, particularly during late-childhood-to-young-adulthood periods. Our findings revealed a general factor of bridging symptoms and its neurobiological architectures, which enriched neurogenetic understanding of depression-anxiety comorbidity.