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Brain connectivity may predict psychological issues later in adulthood
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Neural profile after age 30 years may indicate risk for psychological problems, according to recent findings.
“A rapidly growing body of research testifies to the importance of the brain’s intrinsic functional architecture for optimal adaptation across the lifespan. This work raises the possibility that an individual’s cognitive or affective characteristics may be associated with stable neural signatures,” Raluca Petrican, PhD, and Cheryl L. Grady, PhD, of the Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, wrote. “Nonetheless, there is substantial evidence that the brain’s functional architecture undergoes significant changes, both longitudinally as a reflection of development and accumulated behavioral history and cross-sectionally as a function of the various situational demands faced by an individual. Consequently, the brain mechanisms underlying variations in a specific cognitive or affective predisposition may change significantly across the lifespan and across various contexts.”
To characterize trajectories of brain connectivity associated with inhibition over time, researchers analyzed functional MRI data for 359 adults aged 22 to 36 years.
Younger study participants exhibited a neural marker of superior inhibition in both stable and dynamic connectivity analyses.
The visual system contained the clearest dynamic social-affective context-specific marker.
Stable connectivity analyses indicated greater default mode segregation as a context-free marker of inhibition, while greater frontoparietal segregation for higher cognitive load, attentional and environmentally-driven control system segregation for greater reward value as context-specific markers of inhibition.
Greater inhibition in mature adulthood was associated with reduced segregation in the default network with increasing reward value and ventral attention and reduced cingulo-opercular and subcortical system segregation with increasing cognitive load.
Participants who did not exhibit this neural profile after age 30 years had poorer life functioning, according to researchers.
“Younger individuals with superior inhibition showed distinguishable context-free and context-specific neural profiles, evidenced in both static and dynamic connectivity analyses. More mature individuals with superior inhibition evidenced only context-specific profiles, revealed in the static connectivity patterns linked to increased reward or cognitive load. Delayed expression of this profile predicted poorer life functioning,” the researchers wrote. “Our results underscore the importance of understanding the interplay among dispositional, developmental and contextual factors in shaping behavior.” – by Amanda Oldt
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.