Journal
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY
Volume 56, Issue 2, Pages 157-166Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2016.11.005
Keywords
infant; internalizing; amygdala; functional connectivity
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01 HD057098, R01 HD061619, UL1 TR000448, KL2 TR000250, K23 MH105179, K02 NS089852]
- McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Washington University [P30 HD062171]
- Child Neurology Foundation
- Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation
- Dana Foundation
- Doris Duke Foundation
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Objective: Alterations in the normal developmental trajectory of amygdala resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) have been associated with atypical emotional processes and psychopathology. Little is known, however, regarding amygdala rs-FC at birth or its relevance to outcomes. This study examined amygdala rs-FC in healthy, full-term (FT) infants and in very preterm (VPT) infants, and tested whether variability of neonatal amygdala rs-FC predicted internalizing symptoms at age 2 years. Method: Resting state fMRI data were obtained shortly after birth from 65 FT infants (gestational age [GA] >= 36 weeks) and 57 VPT infants (GA <30 weeks) at term equivalent. Voxelwise correlation analyses were performed using individual-specific bilateral amygdala regions of interest. Total internalizing symptoms and the behavioral inhibition, depression/withdrawal, general anxiety, and separation distress subdomains were assessed in a subset (n = 44) at age 2 years using the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Results: In FT and VPT infants, the amygdala demonstrated positive correlations with subcortical and limbic structures and negative correlations with cortical regions, although magnitudes were decreased in VPT infants. Neonatal amygdala rs-FC predicted internalizing symptoms at age 2 years with regional specificity consistent with known pathophysiology in older populations: connectivity with the anterior insula related to depressive symptoms, with the dorsal anterior cingulate related to generalized anxiety, and with the medial prefrontal cortex related to behavioral inhibition. Conclusion: Amygdala rs-FC is well established in neonates. Variability in regional neonatal amygdala rs-FC predicted internalizing symptoms at 2 years, suggesting that risk for internalizing symptoms may be established in neonatal amygdala functional connectivity patterns.
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