Sex-Specific Distributed White Matter Microarchitectural Alterations in Preadolescent Youths With Anxiety Disorders: A Mega-Analytic Study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in youths and emerge during childhood. This is also a period of rapid white matter (WM) development, which is critical for efficient neuronal communication. Previous work in preadolescent children with anxiety disorders demonstrated anxiety disorder-related reductions in WM microstructural integrity (fractional anisotropy [FA]) in the uncinate fasciculus (UF), the major WM tract facilitating prefrontal cortical-limbic structural connectivity. Importantly, this association was found only in boys with anxiety disorders. To confirm this finding and more comprehensively understand WM changes in childhood anxiety, this mega-analytic study characterizes WM alterations related to anxiety disorders and sex in the l

SUBMITTER: Aggarwal N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11129321 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature