Emotional dysregulation symptoms in youth frequently predispose individuals to increased risk for mood disorders and other mental health difficulties. These symptoms are also known as a behavioral risk marker in predicting pediatric mood disorders. The underlying neural mechanism of emotional dysregulation, however, remains unclear. This study used the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique to identify anatomically specific variation in white-matter microstructure that is associated with pediatric emotional dysregulation severity. Thirty-two children (mean age 9.53 years) with varying levels of emotional dysregulation symptoms were recruited by the Massachusetts General Hospital and underwent the DTI scans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Emotional dysregulation severity was measured by the empirically-derived Child Behavior Checklist Emotional Dysregulation Profile that includes the Attention, Aggression, and Anxiety/Depression subscales. Whole-brain voxel-wise regression tests revealed significantly increased radial diffusivity (RD) and decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the cingulum-callosal regions linked to greater emotional dysregulation in the children. The results suggest that microstructural differences in cingulum-callosal white-matter pathways may manifest as a neurodevelopmental vulnerability for pediatric mood disorders as implicated in the clinical phenotype of pediatric emotional dysregulation. These findings may offer clinically and biologically relevant neural targets for early identification and prevention efforts for pediatric mood disorders.

中文翻译：

---

与儿童情绪失调相关的扣带-胼胝体白质微结构：扩散张量成像研究。

青年人的情绪失调症状经常使个人更容易患情绪障碍和其他心理健康问题。这些症状也被称为预测儿科情绪障碍的行为风险标志物。然而，情绪失调的潜在神经机制仍不清楚。本研究使用扩散张量成像 (DTI) 技术来识别与儿科情绪失调严重程度相关的白质微观结构的解剖学特异性变化。麻省总医院招募了 32 名具有不同程度情绪失调症状的儿童（平均年龄 9.53 岁），并在麻省理工学院接受了 DTI 扫描。情绪失调的严重程度是通过经验得出的儿童行为检查表情绪失调概况来衡量的，其中包括注意力、攻击性和焦虑/抑郁分量表。全脑体素回归测试显示，扣带-胼胝体区域的径向扩散率 (RD) 显着增加和分数各向异性 (FA) 降低，这与儿童情绪失调的加剧有关。结果表明，扣带-胼胝体白质通路的微观结构差异可能表现为儿科情绪障碍的神经发育脆弱性，这与儿科情绪失调的临床表型有关。这些发现可能为儿童情绪障碍的早期识别和预防工作提供临床和生物学相关的神经靶点。