Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sex-Dependent Neural Predictors of Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Children

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Skyler Cohen¹ (skycohen@outlook.com), Clare Shaffer¹, Laurie Cutting², Silvia Bunge³, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli^1,4; ¹Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, ²Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, ³Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute & Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, ⁴Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Research has sought to identify neural markers associated with early behavioral risk factors for psychopathology. Studies have identified promising brain imaging markers in regions involved in visceromotor regulation and mood, such as the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), which may be a viable marker of vulnerability in children. However, sex differences in functional connectivity (FC) during development complicate prediction models. In this study, we examined sex differences in connectivity patterns that predicted two dimensions of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL): internalizing behavior and externalizing behavior. Participants were a sample of fifty 7-year-old children (30 female) who provided written informed consent and completed a baseline visit (T1) that included a resting-state MRI scan and a behavioral visit four years later (T2). Results revealed sex-specific patterns of FC that predicted changes in internalizing and externalizing symptoms from T1 to T2, localized to clusters within the Crus II (t47=5.32, p<.0001, 𝛽=.015) and Crus I (t47=7.53, p<.001, 𝛽=.031) of the cerebellum, respectively. Sex differences in FC within visceromotor and skeletomotor control regions, including the sgACC and cerebellum, may influence the perception of bodily sensations, offering reliable neural correlates for psychopathological risk. Together, these findings suggest that sex-specific FC patterns in hubs linking diverse functional networks, such as the sgACC and cerebellum, are present in young children and may be predictive of worsening early behavioral risk factors for psychopathology.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging