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Neural Markers of Early Childhood Behavior Disorders: A Resting-State EEG Connectivity Analysis

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:15pm, Hilton Baltimore, Floor: Level 1, Johnson A

Integrative Statement

Behavior Disorders (BDs), comprised of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Conduct Disorder (CD), are highly prevalent, affecting approximately 14% of children, and are associated with increased risk of academic underachievement, risky behavior, and relationship instability. In turn, such risks result in an excess of education, healthcare, and criminal justice costs. Symptoms of BDs include a range of problems, including impulsivity, hyperactivity, inattention, poor emotion regulation, deliberately defiant behaviors, and aggression towards others. Prior research on the neural correlates of BDs has focused primarily on older children and adolescents. This work indicates that dysfunctional neural network connectivity among and between prefrontal and subcortical regions underlies BDs. Specifically, there is evidence for disrupted functional connectivity in the neural networks supporting emotional regulation and response inhibition, and, in particular, dysfunctional ventromedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala connectivity, which is thought to be critical for regulating reactive aggression. In sum, substantial evidence supports disrupted functional connectivity in older children and adolescents with BDs; however, to date, few neural correlates of BDs have been identified in children 7 years of age and younger. This is problematic as the standard of care for BDs is Behavioral Parent Training delivered when children are between the ages of 3-8 years. Thus, understanding the neural correlates of BDs during this age range is imperative in order to move the field towards linking neural correlates with improving treatment outcomes. This gap in the literature is due, at least in part, to the fact that many forms of neural measurement are cost-prohibitive and difficult to administer in early childhood (e.g., task based fMRI). Therefore, as a first step in identifying neural correlates of BDs in young children, we explored network connectivity in early childhood using graph theoretical analyses of resting-state EEG data. In particular we examined graph metrics across five network costs ranging from 10-30% in (N = 104) children ages 3-7 years with a range of BD symptoms. We observed that, controlling for age and gender, increased global efficiency, which measures the efficiency of information transfer across the entire brain, significantly predicted increased total symptoms of ADHD (r = 0.23, p = 0.02), increased inattentive symptoms of ADHD (r = 0.27, p = 0.01) and increased total ODD and CD symptoms (r = 0.21, p = 0.03). In addition, we observed that increased local efficiency, which measures the efficiency of information transfer limited to neighboring nodes significantly predicted increased inattentive symptoms of ADHD (r = 0.20, p = 0.04) and increased total ODD and CD (r = 0.30, p < 0.01). Overall, our findings indicate that network organization is altered in young children with BDs, and that increased global and local efficiency in particular are predictive of elevated BD symptom severity. These findings extend previous work observing disruption of network connectivity in older children and adolescents with BDs and suggests that network organization may be one neural measure that can be used in future work to increase our understanding of treatment response in early childhood.

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