Widespread Brain Alterations Identified in Callous Kids

Summary: According to researchers, children with elevated levels of callous traits have widespread differences in brain structure compared to kids with lower levels of the traits. Researchers report main differences are see in the brain centers important for decision making, emotional regulation and behavior control.

Source: Elsevier.

Children with elevated levels of callous traits–such as a lack of remorse and disregard for other people’s feelings–show widespread differences in brain structure compared with children with lower levels of the traits, according to a new study published in Biological Psychiatry. The differences, which included large- and small-scale structural alterations, support the idea of callous traits as a neurodevelopmental condition.

Using brain imaging techniques to examine the structure of the brain, researchers from Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, found lower overall brain volumes associated with callous traits in children. Childhood callous traits were also associated with differences in how the brain is wired together, referred to as connectivity.

“This is the first study to comprehensively examine the relationship between callous traits and brain structure in the general child population, based on data from over 2,000 10-year-old children,” said senior author Charlotte Cecil, PhD.

Understanding the development of childhood callous traits is an important but unanswered question, as they are an early risk factor for negative behaviors and health outcomes later in life, like criminality, psychiatric disorders and substance abuse. And callous traits aren’t something that you either have or don’t have, said Dr. Cecil, but rather they “exist as a continuum in the overall population (i.e., like height or weight), so that everyone scores somewhere along this spectrum.”

“How is it that some children are born with an indifference to the suffering of others? This is an important science question about the neural basis for empathy. It is also an important humanistic question as the lack of a capacity for empathy presents a fundamental challenge to living collaboratively within a community. This study highlights important deficits affecting higher brain centers that may contribute to callousness,” said John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry.

brain
The affected brain centers included those important for decision-making, emotion regulation, and behavior control. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

The affected brain centers included those important for decision-making, emotion regulation, and behavior control. The researchers ruled out other emotional and behavior problems that often co-occur with callousness, indicating that the alterations are specific to callous traits–an important finding as the researchers hope that future research will investigate whether brain structure may be useful as a screening tool for these traits in children.

“In addition, our study was the first to examine neuroanatomical features of callous traits in a sample with an equal distribution of boys and girls, making it possible to test for sex differences,” said first author Koen Bolhuis, MD. The association between brain structures and callous traits was similar for boys and girls, but the association between brain connectivity and callous traits was only observed in girls. “This could mean that the brain development related to callous traits differs for girls and boys.”

Because the researchers examined each child only once, they were not able to determine cause and consequence, or if the callousness-related alterations predict how the children would turn out, like their school performance or later substance use. But the findings suggest that children with callous traits show differences in brain development, which provides a jumping off point for future research to understand how severe antisocial behavior develops later in life.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Rhiannon Bugno – Elsevier
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access research for “Neural Profile of Callous Traits in Children: A Population-Based Neuroimaging Study” by Koen Bolhuis, Essi Viding, Ryan L. Muetzel, Hanan El Marroun, Desana Kocevska, Tonya White, Henning Tiemeier, and Charlotte A.M. Cecil in Biological Psychiatry. Published October 10 2018.
doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.10.015

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Elsevier”Widespread Brain Alterations Identified in Callous Kids.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 13 December 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/callous-brain-alterations-10338/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Elsevier(2018, December 13). Widespread Brain Alterations Identified in Callous Kids. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved December 13, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/callous-brain-alterations-10338/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Elsevier”Widespread Brain Alterations Identified in Callous Kids.” https://neurosciencenews.com/callous-brain-alterations-10338/ (accessed December 13, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Neural Profile of Callous Traits in Children: A Population-Based Neuroimaging Study

Background
Callous traits during childhood, e.g., lack of remorse and shallow affect, are a key risk marker for antisocial behavior. Although callous traits have been found to be associated with structural and functional brain alterations, evidence to date has been almost exclusively limited to small, high-risk samples of boys. We characterized gray and white matter brain correlates of callous traits in over 2000 children from the general population.

Methods
Data on mother-reported callous traits and brain imaging were collected at age 10 years from participants of the Generation R Study. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate brain morphology using volumetric indices and whole-brain analyses (n = 2146); diffusion tensor imaging was used to assess global and specific white matter microstructure (n = 2059).

Results
Callous traits were associated with lower global brain (e.g., total brain) volumes as well as decreased cortical surface area in frontal and temporal regions. Global mean diffusivity was negatively associated with callous traits, suggesting higher white matter microstructural integrity in children with elevated callous traits. Multiple individual tracts, including the uncinate and cingulum, contributed to this global association. Whereas no gender differences were observed for global volumetric indices, white matter associations were present only in girls.

Conclusions
This is the first study to provide a systematic characterization of the structural neural profile of callous traits in the general pediatric population. These findings extend previous work based on selected samples by demonstrating that childhood callous traits in the general population are characterized by widespread macrostructural and microstructural differences across the brain.

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