Aberrant Resting-State Functional Connectivity Associated With Callous-Unemotional Traits From Late Childhood Through Late Adolescence.

BACKGROUND

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are a marker of deficient socioemotional processing linked to severe conduct problems. Although resting-state studies implicate altered large-scale network organization in CU traits, few have comprehensively examined connectivity within and between the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and frontoparietal network (FPN), and none have done so across development in large samples.

METHODS

Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 11,868; 48% female), we examined associations between CU traits and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within and between the DMN, FPN, and SN with repeated time points (4) across youths spanning ages 9 to 18 years. Linear mixed-effects models were used to assess the main effects of CU traits along with moderators of age and sex, and sensitivity analyses included covariates for co-occurring psychopathology.

RESULTS

CU traits were associated with reduced within-DMN rsFC. No interactions between CU traits and sex were found, but an interaction between CU traits and age emerged, showing a negative association between CU traits and DMN-SN rsFC that was evident in mid-to-late adolescence, with higher-CU youths showing an age-related decline in DMN-SN rsFC.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that youth with elevated CU traits exhibit atypical development of resting-state connectivity in networks crucial for empathy and salience processing. Specifically, youth with elevated CU traits showed persistent DMN hypoconnectivity and a later-emerging but accelerated age-related segregation of DMN-SN connectivity during adolescence. This pattern may reflect delayed yet ultimately exaggerated differentiation of socioaffective networks, highlighting adolescence as a developmental window for interventions targeting socioemotional functioning.