The hypothesis that neurodevelopmental aspects of psychiatric disorders are associated with (or are mediated by) an individual’s divergence from the normal trajectory of brain maturation has obtained increasing empirical support [16]. Most psychiatric disorders emerge during adolescence and young adulthood [17–19], when the greatest amount of age-related cortical thinning occurs relative to other developmental stages [20]. Pleiotropic loci related to multiple psychiatric disorders are located within genes that are expressed in the brain throughout the lifespan and play a prominent role during neurodevelopment [14]. A large-scale study (N=45,615) reported that greater gaps between chronological and brain-predicted age were common in psychiatric and neurological disorders, which is relevant to the genetic pleiotropy underlying normative aging and several psychiatric and neurological disorders [21]. Despite these common biological profiles, it remains unclear if age-related and psychopathology-related cortical changes share a similar spatial pattern.
