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Brain Maturation and Subtypes of Conduct Disorder: Interactive Effects on P300 Amplitude and Topography in Male Adolescents

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ABSTRACT

Objective

Adolescents with conduct disorder problems are, on average, at increased risk for a variety of unfortunate adult outcomes, including substance dependence. This study was designed to identify the neurophysiological correlates of different categories of conduct disorder problems as well as the relationship between these correlates and the maturational status of the brain.

Method

The subjects were 94 males, aged 14–19 years, recruited from the community. None were recruited from treatment or juvenile justice programs. The subjects varied in the type and number of conduct problem behaviors exhibited prior to age 15. Groups were operationally defined by the relative number (0 versus ≥1) of DSM-IV conduct disorder diagnostic criteria within each of four categories: rules violations, aggression, deceitfulness/theft, and destructiveness. Age was included as an additional grouping factor. P300 electroencephalographic potentials were recorded while subjects performed a task in which rare auditory stimuli were used to signal a change in stimulus-response mapping during a succeeding set of trials.

Results

Analyses revealed that boys with a history of rules violations failed to exhibit the normal maturational increase in P300 amplitude found in boys without a history of rules violations. Topographic analyses of current source densities suggest that the source of the maturational deficit involved P300 generators within the frontal brain. Parietal generators of P300 matured normally.

Conclusions

The present results are interpreted as reflecting a decrement in frontal brain maturation among boys potentially at risk for substance dependence, antisocial personality disorder, or other forms of adult psychopathology.

Section snippets

METHOD

All procedures and documents associated with this research had undergone prior review and approval by the University of Connecticut Health Center's Institutional Review Board. The research was conducted in compliance with the ethical standards described within the Helsinki Declaration and the Belmont Report.

Background Characteristics

The first stage in the analysis was an examination of the background demographic, alcohol use, and family history characteristics of the study groups. Tests of group equivalence on continuous measures were performed using 2 (severity) by 2 (age) ANOVAs. Group equivalence on categorical measures was determined by Pearson χ2 tests. The results of these analyses are presented in Table 1.

As can be seen in Table 1, the prevalence of paternal alcohol, cocaine, and heroin dependence was approximately

DISCUSSION

One goal of this study was to determine whether the relationship reported previously (Bauer and Hesselbrock, 1999a) between P300, conduct problems, and brain maturation would generalize to an auditory task that placed high demands on response regulation. This goal was met. Adolescents with conduct problems exhibited a dampened, and almost absent, change in P300 amplitude as a function of age.

The second goal—that is, to demonstrate neurophysiological differences among the subtypes of CD—was also

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    This research was supported in part by Public Health Service grants R01DA08598, R01DA05826, P50AA03510, and R01MH61346.

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