al., 2013). Our findings extend this work by showing that externalizing is also associated with increased amygdala connectivity at rest, primarily to PFC (see Figure 1). These findings also converge with neuroimaging studies conducted with specific externalizing disorders, which tend to implicate abnormalities in the structure and function of prefrontal regions important for cognitive and behavioral control (e.g., ACC) and subcortical reward and salience systems (amygdala, ventral striatum) (Cardenas et al., 2011; Dom et al., 2005; Nikolova et al., 2016; Yang and Raine, 2009). Unlike much of the previous research, this study linked resting-state functional connectivity in these key regions to genetic variation for externalizing disorders without relying on the selection of a few brain regions of interest. While this more unbiased approach to identifying an externalizing PS-related neural network is a strength of the current study, its exploratory nature highlights the need for replication in an independent sample.
