Functional connectomes linking child-parent relationships with psychological problems in adolescence
Takashi Itahashi,
Naohiro Okada,
Shuntaro Ando,
Syudo Yamasaki,
Daisuke Koshiyama,
Kentaro Morita,
Noriaki Yahata,
Shinsuke Koike,
Atsushi Nishida,
Kiyoto Kasai,
Ryu-ichiro Hashimoto
Affiliations
Takashi Itahashi
Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kitakarasuyama, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Naohiro Okada
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study (UTIAS), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Shuntaro Ando
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
Syudo Yamasaki
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
Daisuke Koshiyama
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Kentaro Morita
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Noriaki Yahata
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Molecular Imaging and Theranostics, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Chiba, Japan
Shinsuke Koike
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Atsushi Nishida
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan
Kiyoto Kasai
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study (UTIAS), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Ryu-ichiro Hashimoto
Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, 6-11-11 Kitakarasuyama, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Language Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, Japan; Corresponding author. Department of Language Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan.
The child-parent relationship is a significant factor in an adolescent’s well-being and functional outcomes. Epidemiological evidence indicates that relationships with the father and mother are differentially associated with specific psychobehavioral problems that manifest differentially between boys and girls. Neuroimaging is expected to bridge the gap in understanding such a complicated mapping between the child-parent relationships and adolescents’ problems. However, possible differences in the effects of child-father and child-mother relationships on sexual dimorphism in children’s brains and psychobehavioral problems have not been examined yet. This study used a dataset of 10- to 13-year-old children (N = 93) to reveal the triad of associations among child-parent relationship, brain, and psychobehavioral problems by separately estimating the respective effects of child-father and child-mother relationships on boys and girls. We first fitted general linear models to identify the effects of paternal and maternal relationships in largely different sets of children’s resting-state functional connectivity, which we term paternal and maternal functional brain connectomes (FBCs). We then performed connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) to predict children’s externalizing and internalizing problems from these parental FBCs. The models significantly predicted a range of girls’ internalizing problems, whereas the prediction of boys’ aggression was also significant using a more liberal uncorrected threshold. A series of control analyses confirmed that CPMs using FBCs associated with peer relationship or family socioeconomic status failed to make significant predictions of psychobehavioral problems. Lastly, a causal discovery method identified causal paths from daughter-mother relationship to maternal FBC, and then to daughter’s internalizing problems. These observations indicate sex-dependent mechanisms linking child-parent relationship, brain, and psychobehavioral problems in the development of early adolescence.
