Relationship between cognitive abilities and mental health as represented by cognitive abilities at the neural and genetic levels of analysis

Wang, Yue, Anney, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6083-407X and Pat, Narun 2025. Relationship between cognitive abilities and mental health as represented by cognitive abilities at the neural and genetic levels of analysis. eLife 14 , RP105537. 10.7554/elife.105537

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Abstract

Cognitive abilities are closely tied to mental health from early childhood. This study explores how neurobiological units of analysis of cognitive abilities—multimodal neuroimaging and polygenic scores (PGS)—represent this connection. Using data from over 11,000 children (ages 9–10) in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, we applied multivariate models to predict cognitive abilities from mental health, neuroimaging, PGS, and environmental factors. Neuroimaging included 45 MRI-derived features (e.g. task/resting-state fMRI, structural MRI, diffusion imaging). Environmental factors encompassed socio-demographics (e.g. parental income/education), lifestyle (e.g. sleep, extracurricular activities), and developmental adverse events (e.g. parental use of alcohol/tobacco, pregnancy complications). Cognitive abilities were predicted by mental health (r = 0.36), neuroimaging (r = 0.54), PGS (r = 0.25), and environmental factors (r = 0.49). Commonality analyses showed that neuroimaging (66%) and PGS (21%) explained most of the cognitive–mental health link. Environmental factors accounted for 63% of the cognitive–mental health link, with neuroimaging and PGS explaining 58% and 21% of this environmental contribution, respectively. These patterns remained consistent over two years. Findings highlight the importance of neurobiological units of analysis for cognitive abilities in understanding the cognitive–mental health connection and its overlap with environmental factors.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine Research Institutes & Centres > Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health (WCYPMH)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	eLife Sciences Publications
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 November 2025
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2025 14:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182543

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