Biological factors contributing to divergent cortical abnormalities in adolescent and adult psychiatric disorders.

Authors

Shunshun Cui, Chao Tao, Shuang Xu, Xinyan Han, Kelong Li, Yongqiang Yu, Jiajia Zhu

Published in

Translational psychiatry. Jul 09, 2026. Epub Jul 09, 2026.

Abstract

Cortical morphological alteration patterns differ between adolescent and adult psychiatric disorders. However, the biological factors contributing to the divergence are unclear. Cortical thickness (CT) alterations in adolescents and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were derived from the ENIGMA. We examined whether the structural connectome constrains disease-related CT alterations, followed by identifying likely epicenter regions and testing the hub vulnerability hypothesis. Using neurotransmitter, transcriptome, and mitochondria atlases, we furthermore investigated the neurochemical basis, genetic architecture, and molecular energetic landscape related to the CT alterations. Results showed that the structural connectome constrained CT alterations in adult psychiatric disorders rather than their adolescent counterparts. The epicenters were largely consistent in adolescents and adults for ADHD and MDD, while divergent for BD and OCD. The demonstration of CT alterations in adolescent BD, adult BD, and adult OCD as a function of connectome degree centrality was consistent with the hub vulnerability hypothesis. We also found distinct neurotransmitter systems linked to CT alterations in psychiatric adolescents and adults. Transcriptomic contextualization showed that CT alterations in adult ADHD, adult MDD, and adolescent OCD were related to genes involving essential components of the cerebral cortex, signal pathway, and nervous system development, while those in adolescent and adult BD to synapse and catabolic process. Additionally, mitochondrial features were associated with CT alterations in almost all conditions. Our findings may elucidate the biological factors associated with the differential cortical abnormalities between psychiatric adolescents and adults.

PMID:
42425965
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.