Abstract
Conduct disorder (CD) is characterized by a persistent pattern of antisocial behavior and aggression in childhood and adolescence. Previous task-based and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have revealed widespread brain regional abnormalities in adolescents with CD. However, whether the resting-state networks (RSNs) are altered in adolescents with CD remains unknown. In this study, resting-state fMRI data were first acquired from eighteen male adolescents with pure CD and eighteen age- and gender-matched typically developing (TD) individuals. Independent component analysis (ICA) was implemented to extract nine representative RSNs, and the generated RSNs were then compared to show the differences between the CD and TD groups. Interestingly, it was observed from the brain mapping results that compared with the TD group, the CD group manifested decreased functional connectivity in four representative RSNs: the anterior default mode network (left middle frontal gyrus), which is considered to be correlated with impaired social cognition, the somatosensory network (bilateral supplementary motor area and right postcentral gyrus), the lateral visual network (left superior occipital gyrus), and the medial visual network (right fusiform, left lingual gyrus and right calcarine), which are expected to be relevant to the perceptual systems responsible for perceptual dysfunction in male adolescents with CD. Importantly, the novel findings suggested that male adolescents with pure CD were identified to have dysfunctions in both low-level perceptual networks (the somatosensory network and visual network) and a high-order cognitive network (the default mode network). Revealing the changes in the functional connectivity of these RSNs enhances our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of emotion and social cognition and the regulation of perception in adolescents with CD.
Highlights
Conduct disorder (CD) is described as a disorder involving the violation of the basic rights of others and societal rules combined with a pervasive pattern of antisocial and aggressive behaviors (DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) [1]
Our findings were in good agreement with those of previous studies, which showed that individuals with CD exhibited a failure of inhibition and restraint due to functional and structural anomalies in brain regions associated with social cognition and introspective processes [63, 64]
Dalwani et al [66] indicated decreased activity in the superior and middle frontal gyrus in CD and substance use disorder (SUD) patients when compared to controls, suggesting that the atypical activity of CD and SUD adolescents was related to brain areas involved in introspective processing
Summary
Conduct disorder (CD) is described as a disorder involving the violation of the basic rights of others and societal rules combined with a pervasive pattern of antisocial and aggressive behaviors (DSM-5, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) [1]. Adolescents with CD will engage in disruptive behaviors that cause a serious physical harm to other people and present a high risk of developing various psychopathologic conditions, such as substance abuse, major depression, antisocial personality disorder and suicide [2]. Exploring the functional abnormalities by mapping sites of cortical changes is insufficient to explain the pathogenesis of CD in adolescents. The alterations of the brain’s neuronal circuit that connects these sites is widely recognized to be related to CD. Further investigations at the brain network level are essential to identify the altered connectivity among various brain regions to disentangle the neural mechanism underlying CD in adolescents
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