Table 1.
Structural magnetic resonance imaging studies of general psychopathology.
| Authors (year) | Sample | Age | N | Psychopathology measure | Modality | Neuroimaging measure of interest | Findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snyder et al. (2017) | Community sample | 6–11 | 254 | p-factor from bifactor model | T1 | GMV | Increased p is associated with reduced prefrontal GMV. No association with limbic regions of interest was observed. |
| Alnaes et al. (2018) | PNC | 8–22 | 883 | general psychopathology score from ICA and PCA | DTI | FA, MD, RD, L1, mode on anisotropy, fibre orientations, connectivity density | Increased general psychopathology is associated with reduced fronto-temporal crossing fibres (including uncinate fasciculus and inferior longitudinal fasciculus) |
| Romer et al. (2018) | DNS | 18–22 | 951 /1200 | p-factor from bifactor model | DTI, T1 | FA, GMV | Increased p is associated with decreased pontine FA and decreased cerebellar and occipital GMV. |
| Moberget et al. (2019) | PNC | 8–23 | 1401 | general psychopathology factor from PCA | T1 | cerebellar independent components | General psychopathology is best predicted by a cerebellar morphological component which shows connectivity with the frontoparietal network. |
| Kaczkurkin et al. (2019) | PNC | 8–22 | 1394 | p-factor from bifactor model | T1 | CT, GMV | Increased p is associated with globally reduced GMV, but no association with cortical thickness was observed. |
| Romer et al. (2019) | Dunedin | 45 | 854 / 860 | p-factor from bifactor model | DTI, T1 | FA, GMV | Increased p is associated with decreased pontine FA and decreased visual association cortex GMV. No association was observed with cerebellar morphology. |
| Hinton et al. (2019) | TTS | 23–31 | 410 | p-factor from bifactor model | DTI | FA, RD, AD | Increased p is associated with increased FA in the corpus callosum body (controlling for internalising and externalising factors). |
| Riem et al. (2019) | EPISCA | 12–20 | 63 | general psychopathology factor from PCA | DTI | FA | Increased general psychopathology is associated with reduced FA in the corpus callosum genu and body (controlling for unresolved-disorganised attachment resulting from trauma). |
| Norbom et al. (2019) | PNC | 8–22 | 1467 | general psychopathology score across ICA components | T1 | GWC | Mean psychopathology is associated with grey/white matter contrast in insula and cingulate cortices and left lateral posterior cortex. |
| Romer et al. (2020) | Dunedin | 45 | 875 | p-factor from bifactor model | T1 | CT, CSA | Increased p is associated with reduced cortical thickness across the neocortex, and is unrelated to cortical surface area. |
| Neumann et al (2020) | GenR | 6–10 | 3030 | General psychopathology score from structural equation model | DTI | FA | General psychopathology is associated with reduced global white matter factor based on FA across all tracts. |
| Vanes et al. (2020) | NSPN | 14–24 | 293 | p-factor from bifactor model | MT | MT saturation | Increased p is associated with slower myelin maturation in the dorsal cingulum and uncinate fasciculus. |
Abbreviations: PNC = Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort. DNS = Duke Neurogenetics Study. TTS = Tennessee Twin Study. EPISCA: Emotional Pathways’ Imaging Study in Clinical Adolescents. GenR = Generation R Study. NSPN = Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network. GMV = Grey matter volume. ICA = independent component analysis. PCA = Principal component analysis. DTI = Diffusion tensor imaging. FA = fractional anisotropy. MD = Mean diffusivity. RD = Radial diffusivity. L1 = principal diffusion tensor imaging eigen value. AD = Axial diffusivity. CT = Cortical thickness. GWC = Grey/white matter contrast. CSA = Cortical surface area. MT = Magnetisation transfer.