Age-related volumetric change of limbic structures and subclinical anxious/depressed symptomatology in typically developing children and adolescents.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the extent to which subclinical variation in anxious/depressed psychopathology is associated with volume and age-related volumetric change of limbic structures in a longitudinal sample of healthy youths. METHODS: Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyze longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging data (up to 3 data points per subject, collected at 2 year-intervals) in 371 typically developing youths, from 4 to 18 years of age (196 females; 723 MRIs). Volumetric measures were obtained using a validated segmentation method. The best-fit model (cubic, quadratic, or first-order linear) was determined for the effect of age on amygdalar and hippocampal volume (adjust..