Adaptive-to-maladaptive gradient of emotion regulation tendencies are embedded in the functional-structural hybrid connectome.

BACKGROUND: Emotion regulation tendencies are well-known transdiagnostic markers of psychopathology, but their neurobiological foundations have mostly been examined within the theoretical framework of cortical-subcortical interactions.

METHODS: We explored the connectome-wide neural correlates of emotion regulation tendencies using functional and diffusion magnetic resonance images of healthy young adults ( N = 99; age 20-30; 28 females). We first tested the importance of considering both the functional and structural connectome through intersubject representational similarity analyses. Then, we employed a canonical correlation analysis between the functional-structural hybrid connectome and 23 emotion regulation strategies. Lastly, we sought to externally validate the results on a transdiagnostic adolescent sample ( N = 93; age 11-19; 34 females).

RESULTS: First, interindividual similarity of emotion regulation profiles was significantly correlated with interindividual similarity of the functional-structural hybrid connectome, more so than either the functional or structural connectome. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that an adaptive-to-maladaptive gradient of emotion regulation tendencies mapped onto a specific configuration of covariance within the functional-structural hybrid connectome, which primarily involved functional connections in the motor network and the visual networks as well as structural connections in the default mode network and the subcortical-cerebellar network. In the transdiagnostic adolescent dataset, stronger functional signatures of the found network were associated with higher general positive affect through more frequent use of adaptive coping strategies.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our study illustrates a gradient of emotion regulation tendencies that is best captured when simultaneously considering the functional and structural connections across the whole brain.