ArticleJournal of affective disorders2022
Reduced cortical surface area globally and in reward-related cortex is associated with elevated depressive symptoms in preschoolers.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between polygenic risk for Major Depression and brain structure in a mega-analysis of 50,975 participants across 11 studies.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Establishing a transdiagnostic dimension of early childhood depressive symptoms using the Preschool Feelings Checklist-Scale.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Linking brain structure to stress reactivity: cingulate surface area predicts acute cortisol responses.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Neurostructural Substrates of Hierarchical Dimensions of Internalizing Symptoms in Youth.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Reward positivity and affective functioning in early childhood: evidence from temporospatial principal components analysis.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sustained breastfeeding associations with brain structure and cognition from late childhood to early adolescence.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Dimensions of Depressive Symptoms in Young Children: Factor Analysis of the Preschool Feelings Checklist-Scale.Assessment · 2025Article
- Foetal cortical expansion is associated with neurodevelopmental outcome at 2-years in congenital heart disease: a longitudinal follow-up study.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Preschool Mood Disorders: A Review of the Literature from 2017 to 2024.Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America · 2025Review
- Children's exposure to chemical contaminants: Demographic disparities and associations with the developing basal ganglia.Environmental research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundElevated depressive symptoms in early childhood strongly predict depression onset in youth. Nevertheless, little is known about the neural correlates of these symptoms, information that is key for understanding the early development of depression. As a result, the present study conducted a novel investigation of the association between cortical structure and depressive symptoms in preschoolers.
methodsForty-six preschool age children (M
resultsAfter adjustment for maternal depression, socio-economic status, child age, child sex, and intracranial volume, reduced total cortical surface area and reduced surface area of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex were associated with elevated depressive symptoms. Cortical thickness was not associated with depressive symptoms. LIMITATIONS: The present data are cross-sectional, limiting any causal interpretations.
conclusionsResults suggest that reduced cortical surface area, rather than thickness, is a neural correlate of depressive symptoms in preschoolers. Findings highlight the importance of surface area in reward processing regions (i.e., lateral orbitofrontal cortex) in particular. The present results provide novel insight into early emerging associations between brain structure and features of depression in young children and underscore early childhood as an important developmental period for understanding depression.
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