Logo image
Correlating anterior insula gray matter volume changes in young people with clinical and neurocognitive outcomes: an MRI study
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Correlating anterior insula gray matter volume changes in young people with clinical and neurocognitive outcomes: an MRI study

S N Hatton, Jim Lagopoulos, Daniel F Hermens, S L Naismith, Maxwell Bennett and I B Hickie
BMC Psychiatry, Vol.12, 45
2012
pdf
PDF - Published Version (Open Access)393.98 kBDownloadView
Published VersionPDF - Published Version (Open Access)CCBY_V2.0 Open Access
url
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-12-45View
Published Version

Abstract

insula depression anxiety bipolar psychosis MRI symptoms executive function
Background: The anterior insula cortex is considered to be both the structural and functional link between experience, affect, and behaviour. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown changes in anterior insula gray matter volume (GMV) in psychosis, bipolar, depression and anxiety disorders in older patients, but few studies have investigated insula GMV changes in young people. This study examined the relationship between anterior insula GMV, clinical symptom severity and neuropsychological performance in a heterogeneous cohort of young people presenting for mental health care.Methods: Participants with a primary diagnosis of depression (n = 43), bipolar disorder (n = 38), psychosis (n = 32), anxiety disorder (n = 12) or healthy controls (n = 39) underwent structural MRI scanning, and volumetric segmentation of the bilateral anterior insula cortex was performed using the FreeSurfer application. Statistical analysis examined the linear and quadratic correlations between anterior insula GMV and participants' performance in a battery of clinical and neuropsychological assessments.Results: Compared to healthy participants, patients had significantly reduced GMV in the left anterior insula (t = 2.05, p = .042) which correlated with reduced performance on a neuropsychological task of attentional set-shifting (ρ = .32, p = .016). Changes in right anterior insula GMV was correlated with increased symptom severity (r = .29, p = .006) and more positive symptoms (r = .32, p = .002).Conclusions: By using the novel approach of examining a heterogeneous cohort of young depression, anxiety, bipolar and psychosis patients together, this study has demonstrated that insula GMV changes are associated with neurocognitive deficits and clinical symptoms in such young patients. © 2012 Hatton et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Details

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Web Of Science research areas
Psychiatry

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: InCites

Logo image