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Life Sciences

Covariation of preadult environmental exposures, adult brain imaging phenotypes, and adult personality traits

Published on - Molecular Psychiatry

Authors: Kaizhong Xue, Bo Gao, Feng Chen, Meiyun Wang, Jingliang Cheng, Bing Zhang, Wenzhen Zhu, Shijun Qiu, Zuojun Geng, Xiaochu Zhang, Guangbin Cui, Yongqiang Yu, Quan Zhang, Weihua Liao, Hui Zhang, Xiaojun Xu, Tong Han, Wen Qin, Feng Liu, Meng Liang, Lining Guo, Qiang Xu, Jiayuan Xu, Jilian Fu, Peng Zhang, Wei Li, Dapeng Shi, Caihong Wang, Su Lui, Zhihan Yan, Jing Zhang, Jiance Li, Dawei Wang, Junfang Xian, Kai Xu, Xi-Nian Zuo, Longjiang Zhang, Zhaoxiang Ye, Tobias Banaschewski, Gareth Barker, Arun Bokde, Sylvane Desrivières, Herta Flor, Antoine Grigis, Hugh Garavan, Penny Gowland, Andreas Heinz, Rüdiger Brühl, Jean-Luc Martinot, Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot, Eric Artiges, Frauke Nees, Dimitri Papadopoulos Orfanos, Herve Lemaitre, Luise Poustka, Sarah Hohmann, Nathalie Holz, Juliane Fröhner, Michael Smolka, Nilakshi Vaidya, Henrik Walter, Robert Whelan, Wen Shen, Yanwei Miao, Chunshui Yu

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Exposure to preadult environmental exposures may have long-lasting effects on mental health by affecting the maturation of the brain and personality, two traits that interact throughout the developmental process. However, environment-brain-personality covariation patterns and their mediation relationships remain unclear. In 4297 healthy participants (aged 18-30 years), we combined sparse multiple canonical correlation analysis with independent component analysis to identify the three-way covariation patterns of 59 preadult environmental exposures, 760 adult brain imaging phenotypes, and five personality traits, and found two robust environment-brain-personality covariation models with sex specificity. One model linked greater stress and less support to weaker functional connectivity and activity in the default mode network, stronger activity in subcortical nuclei, greater thickness and volume in the occipital, parietal and temporal cortices, and lower agreeableness, consciousness and extraversion as well as higher neuroticism. The other model linked higher urbanicity and better socioeconomic status to stronger functional connectivity and activity in the sensorimotor network, smaller volume and surface area and weaker functional connectivity and activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, lower white matter integrity, and higher openness to experience. We also conducted mediation analyses to explore the potential bidirectional mediation relationships between adult brain imaging phenotypes and personality traits with the influence of preadult environmental exposures and found both environment-brain-personality and environment-personality-brain pathways. We finally performed moderated mediation analyses to test the potential interactions between macro- and microenvironmental exposures and found that one category of exposure moderated the mediation pathways of another category of exposure. These results improve our understanding of the effects of preadult environmental exposures on the adult brain and personality traits and may facilitate the design of targeted interventions to improve mental health by reducing the impact of adverse environmental exposures.