Abstract

Anxiety is linked to deficits in structural and functional connectivity between limbic structures and pre-frontal cortices. We employed a monozygotic (MZ) twin difference design to examine the relationship between structural characteristics of the uncinate fasciculus (UF) measured by Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and anxiety symptoms in a sample of N = 100 monozygotic (genetically identical), adolescent twins. The MZ difference design allowed us focus on environmental factors that vary within twin pairs while controlling for genetic and environmental factors shared by twin pairs. Twins aged 13–18 years reported on symptoms of generalized anxiety and social phobia prior to participating in a neuroimaging visit. Regions of interest from the JHU ICBM atlas, including uncinate fasciculus and sagittal stratum as a control tract, were registered to the study template. We incorporated multiple diffusion tensor measures to characterize the white matter differences. Within twin pairs, the more anxious twin exhibited decreased fractional anisotropy (t = −2.22, p = 0.032) and axial diffusivity (t = −2.38, p = 0.022) in the left UF compared to the less anxious twin, controlling for age and gender. This study demonstrated the feasibility and advantages of adopting the MZ twin design for DTI measures in neuroimaging research.

Details

Title
Anxiety-related experience-dependent white matter structural differences in adolescence: A monozygotic twin difference approach
Author
Adluru, Nagesh 1 ; Luo, Zhan 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Van Hulle, Carol A 2 ; Schoen, Andrew J 3 ; Davidson, Richard J 4 ; Alexander, Andrew L 5 ; H Hill Goldsmith 6 

1  Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA 
2  Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA 
3  Department of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA 
4  Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA 
5  Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA 
6  Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA 
Pages
1-11
Publication year
2017
Publication date
Aug 2017
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08107-6
ProQuest document ID
1957242187
Copyright
© 2017. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.