title: Disorganized Amygdala Networks in Conduct-Disordered Juvenile Offenders With Callous-Unemotional Traits.
abstract: The developmental trajectory of psychopathy seemingly begins early in life and includes the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., deficient emotional reactivity, callousness) in conduct-disordered (CD) youth. Though subregion-specific anomalies in amygdala function have been suggested in CU pathophysiology among antisocial populations, system-level studies of CU traits have typically examined the amygdala as a unitary structure. Hence, nothing is yet known of how amygdala subregional network function may contribute to callous-unemotionality in severely antisocial people.
  
  
  
  We addressed this important issue by uniquely examining the intrinsic functional connectivity of basolateral amygdala (BLA) and centromedial amygdala (CMA) networks across three matched groups of juveniles: CD offenders with CU traits (CD/CU+; n = 25), CD offenders without CU traits (CD/CU-; n = 25), and healthy control subjects (n = 24). We additionally examined whether perturbed amygdala subregional connectivity coincides with altered volume and shape of the amygdaloid complex.
  
  
  
  Relative to CD/CU- and healthy control youths, CD/CU+ youths showed abnormally increased BLA connectivity with a cluster that included both dorsal and ventral portions of the anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortices, along with posterior cingulate, sensory associative, and striatal regions. In contrast, compared with CD/CU- and healthy control youths, CD/CU+ youths showed diminished CMA connectivity with ventromedial/orbitofrontal regions. Critically, these connectivity changes coincided with local hypotrophy of BLA and CMA subregions (without being statistically correlated) and were associated to more severe CU symptoms.
  
  
  
  These findings provide unique insights into a putative mechanism for perturbed attention-emotion interactions, which could bias salience processing and associative learning in youth with CD/CU+.
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden. Electronic address: m.aghajani@curium.nl.
authors: Moji
authors: M
authors: Aghajani
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden.
authors: Eduard T
authors: ET
authors: Klapwijk
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden.
authors: Nic J
authors: NJ
authors: van der Wee
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division of Mind and Brain Research, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.
authors: Ilya M
authors: IM
authors: Veer
authors: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden.
authors: Serge A R B
authors: SARB
authors: Rombouts
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Lucertis Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rotterdam.
authors: Albert E
authors: AE
authors: Boon
authors: Forensic Psychiatry Unit Het Palmhuis, De Jutters Institute for Mental Health Care, The Hague, The Netherlands.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: van Beelen
authors: Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, Leiden University, Leiden; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam.
authors: Arne
authors: A
authors: Popma
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden.
authors: Robert R J M
authors: RRJM
authors: Vermeiren
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium-Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden.
authors: Olivier F
authors: OF
authors: Colins
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Amygdala; Callous-unemotional traits; Conduct disorder; Intrinsic functional connectivity; Morphometry; Psychopathy