title: Reduced Default Mode Connectivity in Adolescents With Conduct Disorder.
abstract: Conduct disorder (CD) is characterized by impulsive, aggressive, and antisocial behaviors that might be related to deficits in empathy and moral reasoning. The brain's default mode network (DMN) has been implicated in self-referential cognitive processes of this kind.
  
  
  
  This study examined connectivity between key nodes of the DMN in 29 adolescent boys with CD and 29 age- and sex-matched typically developing adolescent boys. The authors ensured that group differences in DMN connectivity were not explained by comorbidity with other disorders by systematically controlling for the effects of substance use disorders (SUDs), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, psychopathic traits, and other common mental health problems.
  
  
  
  Only after adjusting for co-occurring ADHD symptoms, the group with CD showed hypoconnectivity between core DMN regions compared with typically developing controls. ADHD symptoms were associated with DMN hyperconnectivity. There was no effect of psychopathic traits on DMN connectivity in the group with CD, and the key results were unchanged when controlling for SUDs and other common mental health problems.
  
  
  
  Future research should directly investigate the possibility that the aberrant DMN connectivity observed in the present study contributes to CD-related deficits in empathy and moral reasoning and examine self-referential cognitive processes in CD more generally.
authors: Developmental Brain-Behavior Laboratory at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
authors: M John
authors: MJ
authors: Broulidakis
authors: Developmental Brain-Behavior Laboratory at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
authors: Graeme
authors: G
authors: Fairchild
authors: Developmental Brain-Behavior Laboratory at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
authors: Kate
authors: K
authors: Sully
authors: Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Blumensath
authors: University Hospital Southampton National Health Service Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK.
authors: Angela
authors: A
authors: Darekar
authors: Developmental Brain-Behavior Laboratory at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom; Gent University, Belgium. Electronic address: ejb3@soton.ac.uk.
authors: Edmund J S
authors: EJ
authors: Sonuga-Barke
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D063132:Connectome; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male
keywords: ADHD; conduct disorder; default mode network; functional connectivity; psychopathic traits