Dynamic social envirotypes demonstrate adolescent brain dysconnectivity is contextual
- 1Northeastern University London
Abstract
The adolescent social environment and dynamics therein have been linked to divergent brain organization and greater risk of psychopathology later in life, suggesting the neural underpinnings of mental health may depend on social context. To examine this, we leveraged longitudinal ABCD Study data to identify dynamic social envirotypes, or distinct trajectories of social environment change over four years. Dynamic social envirotypes differed in mental health outcomes, changes in mental health, and whole-brain functional connectivity, with each dynamic social envirotype exhibiting a characteristic pattern of brain network organization. Crucially, functional connectivity associations with internalizing and externalizing problems diverged across dynamic social envirotypes, with the highest and lowest social resource envirotypes showing largely opposing associations between connectivity and symptom severity. These findings suggest that dysconnectivity is contextual: there is no single brain connectivity pattern that is universally associated with better mental health. Rather, adolescent brain connectivity relates to mental health in context-specific ways, challenging normative narratives of the neural underpinnings of psychopathology and centering the role of context for understanding and treating mental health.
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BibTeX
@misc{merritt2026dynamic,
title = {{Dynamic social envirotypes demonstrate adolescent brain dysconnectivity is contextual}},
author = {H. Merritt and M. Z. Gonzalez and S. Noble and A. S. Teixeira},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.17.752338},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752338v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Dynamic social envirotypes demonstrate adolescent brain dysconnectivity is contextual
AU - H. Merritt
AU - M. Z. Gonzalez
AU - S. Noble
AU - A. S. Teixeira
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.17.752338
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752338v1
AB - The adolescent social environment and dynamics therein have been linked to divergent brain organization and greater risk of psychopathology later in life, suggesting the neural underpinnings of mental health may depend on social context. To examine this, we leveraged longitudinal ABCD Study data to identify dynamic social envirotypes, or distinct trajectories of social environment change over four years. Dynamic social envirotypes differed in mental health outcomes, changes in mental health, and whole-brain functional connectivity, with each dynamic social envirotype exhibiting a characteristic pattern of brain network organization. Crucially, functional connectivity associations with internalizing and externalizing problems diverged across dynamic social envirotypes, with the highest and lowest social resource envirotypes showing largely opposing associations between connectivity and symptom severity. These findings suggest that dysconnectivity is contextual: there is no single brain connectivity pattern that is universally associated with better mental health. Rather, adolescent brain connectivity relates to mental health in context-specific ways, challenging normative narratives of the neural underpinnings of psychopathology and centering the role of context for understanding and treating mental health.
ER -