Brain functional connectivity predicts depression and anxiety during childhood and adolescence: a connectome-based predictive modeling approach

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Francesca Morfini¹ (f.morfini.work@gmail.com), Aaron Kucyi², Jiahe Zhang^1,3, Clemens C.C. Bauer¹, Paul A. Bloom⁴, David Pagliaccio⁴, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli^1,3, Randy P. Auerbach⁴; ¹Northeastern University, ²Drexel University, ³Massachusetts General Hospital, ⁴Columbia University

Neuromarkers of future depression and anxiety severity in youth could improve early identification, prevention, and intervention. We tested whether connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) based on resting-state functional connectivity (FC): a) predicts future depression and anxiety severity during childhood and b) generalizes to adolescence. We used two independent, longitudinal datasets including children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and adolescents from the Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety (BANDA). CPM with internal (within ABCD) and external validation (from ABCD to BANDA) used baseline whole-brain FC to predict depression and anxiety severity at a 1-year follow-up assessment. An ABCD-derived network, Symptoms Network for brevity, was validated within BANDA to test model applicability in adolescence -a peak period for the emergence of internalizing disorders. Participants with complete data were included from ABCD (n=3,718, 52.9% girls, ages 10.0±0.6) and BANDA (n=150, 61.3% girls, ages 15.4±0.9). In ABCD, FC predicted 1-year follow-up CBCL scores (ρ=0.058, p=0.040), correcting for CBCL baseline, sex, age, and mean head motion. External validation in BANDA indicated that the Symptoms Network predicted 1-year follow-up symptoms severity (ρ=0.222, p=0.007). The Symptoms Network included contributions from somatomotor, frontal associative areas, and subcortical regions, with heterogeneous FC profiles characterizing these connections. Brain functional connectivity may provide inroads for early identification of internalizing symptoms, which may inform preventative-intervention approaches prior to the emergence of affective disorders during a critical period of neuromaturation. Individual differences highlighted in our findings point to the need for individualized approaches in understanding neurodevelopment and mental health.

Topic Area: OTHER