Functional Connectivity Estimated from Resting-State fMRI Reveals Selective Alterations in Male Adolescents with Pure Conduct Disorder

PLoS One. 2015 Dec 29;10(12):e0145668. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145668. eCollection 2015.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Conduct Disorder / diagnosis
  • Conduct Disorder / pathology
  • Conduct Disorder / physiopathology*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Male
  • Nerve Net / pathology
  • Nerve Net / physiopathology*
  • Rest*

Grants and funding

The study was supported by the SRG2013-00035-FHS Grant and MYRG2014-00093-FHS and MYRG2015-00036-FHS Grants from University of Macau in Macau; the FDCT grant 026/2014/A1 and the FDCT grant 025/2015/A1 from the Macao government; the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (Project No. 13YJC190033); and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 81571341, 81371500 and 61273361).