Altered Uncinate Fasciculus Microstructure in Childhood Anxiety Disorders in Boys But Not Girls

A collection of 3 brain maps. Each brain map is a 3D array of values representing properties of the brain at different locations.

### Collection description

<p>Anxiety disorders are common, can result in life-long suffering, and frequently begin prior to adolescence. Research has demonstrated that adults have alterations in the pathways that connect emotion related brain regions. Since anxiety disorders often develop early in life it is important to understand if changes in these pathways are already present in childhood. Furthermore, we set out to investigate if there are sex differences in the relation between these pathways and anxiety disorders. To address these questions, we measured white matter integrity in unmedicated boys and girls with anxiety disorders. Results indicated that children with anxiety disorders indeed have significant reductions in the integrity of this pathways, and this effect was only specific to boys. Demonstrating that these effects are present early in life, are not related to medication usage, and are sex specific. Building on these findings, future research has the potential to create a better understanding of the neural alterations in anxiety disorders and begin to develop better sex specific, early life treatment targets.</p>

本数据集汇聚了三份脑图谱。每份脑图谱均以三维数值数组的形式呈现，用以描述大脑在不同位置的属性。

### 集合描述

焦虑症普遍存在，可能导致终身痛苦，且常在青春期之前开始。研究表明，成年人在连接情绪相关脑区的通路中存在改变。鉴于焦虑症往往在生命早期发展，了解这些通路的变化是否在儿童时期就已经存在显得尤为重要。此外，我们旨在探究这些通路与焦虑症之间是否存在性别差异。为解答这些问题，我们对未服用药物的焦虑症男孩和女孩的白质完整性进行了测量。结果显示，焦虑症儿童的确存在该通路完整性的显著下降，且这种影响仅限于男孩。这表明这些影响在生命早期就已经存在，与药物使用无关，且具有性别特异性。基于这些发现，未来的研究有望更深入地理解焦虑症中的神经变化，并开始开发针对特定性别、生命早期治疗的目标。