Fairchild, Graeme, Hagan, Cindy C, Walsh, Nicholas D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8195-7933, Passamonti, Luca, Calder, Andrew J and Goodyer, Ian M
(2013)
Brain structure abnormalities in adolescent girls with conduct disorder.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54 (1).
pp. 86-95.
ISSN 0021-9630
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Conduct disorder (CD) in female adolescents is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including teenage pregnancy and antisocial personality disorder. Although recent studies have documented changes in brain structure and function in male adolescents with CD, there have been no neuroimaging studies of female adolescents with CD. Our primary objective was to investigate whether female adolescents with CD show changes in grey matter volume. Our secondary aim was to assess for sex differences in the relationship between CD and brain structure. METHODS: Female adolescents with CD (n = 22) and healthy control participants matched in age, performance IQ and handedness (n = 20) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Group comparisons of grey matter volume were performed using voxel-based morphometry. We also tested for sex differences using archive data obtained from male CD and control participants. RESULTS: Female adolescents with CD showed reduced bilateral anterior insula and right striatal grey matter volumes compared with healthy controls. Aggressive CD symptoms were negatively correlated with right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume, whereas callous-unemotional traits were positively correlated with bilateral orbitofrontal cortex volume. The sex differences analyses revealed a main effect of diagnosis on right amygdala volume (reflecting reduced amygdala volume in the combined CD group relative to controls) and sex-by-diagnosis interactions in bilateral anterior insula. CONCLUSIONS: We observed structural abnormalities in brain regions involved in emotion processing, reward and empathy in female adolescents with CD, which broadly overlap with those reported in previous studies of CD in male adolescents.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2012 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Terms and Conditions set out at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/onlineopen#OnlineOpen_Terms |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | adolescent,aggression,amygdala,brain,case-control studies,cerebral cortex,conduct disorder,empathy,female,humans,magnetic resonance imaging,prefrontal cortex,reward,sex characteristics,young adult |
Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology |
UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception |
Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
Date Deposited: | 22 Oct 2015 15:00 |
Last Modified: | 21 Oct 2022 02:32 |
URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/54789 |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02617.x |
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