# Linking psychometric and multimodal neural measures of socioemotional functioning to early antisocial behavior and environmental risk

> **NIH NIH R21** · RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES · 2022 · $249,027

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Youth that engage in antisocial behavior (i.e., behaviors that violate social norms and the rights of others)
exact a costly psychological and financial toll on their families, peers, and community. While non-compliance
and antisocial behavior are leading causes of treatment referral, conduct disorder (CD) is acutely understudied,
resulting in treatments that have limited efficacy and generalizability. Research on the mechanistic processes
that uniquely contribute to antisocial behavior are needed to inform our understanding of etiology, risk and
protective factors, and provide targets for prevention and treatment.
 Socioemotional functioning (SEF)--the ability to appropriately orient to, process, and respond to emotional
cues--is a collection of psychological processes that distinguishes antisocial behavior from other externalizing
disorders. While SEF processes can promote prosocial emotions (e.g., empathy) and behavior (e.g., rule
conformity), SEF dysfunction contributes to a callous-unemotional and aggressive personality style, making it
easier to hurt others. Known neurobiological correlates implicate structural, functional, and connectomic
deficits in regions of the brain involved in emotional response. However, much of the small research literature
on SEF has been limited by linking psychometric measures that target extreme deficits in SEF to brain
responses in small, clinically referred samples using extreme group designs, which have failed to replicate in
representative samples.
 In this highly innovative project, using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD)
study and ABCD-Social Development (ABCD-SD) sub-study, we will first improve the measurement of SEF
using advanced statistical methods to develop a dimensional index psychometric of SEF and then evaluate this
index for measurement bias related to race and/or sex, examining how bias may impact associations with
criterion variables. We will also use a multivariate network neuroscience approach to distill key components
across multimodal (structural, resting state, functional) neuroimaging data to produce a reliable neural index of
SEF. Using these new psychometric and neural indices of SEF we will examine associations with delinquency,
comorbid psychopathology, and social functioning, as well as the interplay with known environmental risk and
protective factors (e.g., parent-child relationship, victimization) for antisocial behavior. Consistent with NIMH
Strategic Objective 2.2, (to “identify clinically useful biomarkers and behavioral indicators that predict change
across the trajectory of illness”), completion of this project will yield reliable and unbiased psychometric and
multimodal neural indicators of early SEF in a large, diverse sample, which can be used to determine individual
risk factors for antisocial behavior both cross-sectionally and in future waves of data collection.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10369344
- **Project number:** 1R21MH126130-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah Brislin
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $249,027
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10369344

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10369344, Linking psychometric and multimodal neural measures of socioemotional functioning to early antisocial behavior and environmental risk (1R21MH126130-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10369344. Licensed CC0.

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