Gray matter volumetric correlates of attention deficit and hyperactivity traits in emerging adolescents

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated reduction in cortical and subcortical, including basal ganglia (BG), gray matter volumes (GMV) in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental condition that is more prevalent in males than in females. However, the volumetric deficits vary across studies. Whether volumetric reductions are more significant in males than females; to what extent these neural markers are heritable and relate to cognitive dysfunction in ADHD remain unclear. To address these questions, we followed published routines and performed voxel-based morphometry analysis of a data set (n = 11,502; 5,464 girls, 9–10 years) curated from the Adolescent Brain Cognition Development project, a population-based study of typically developing children. Of the sample, 634 and 2,826 were identified as monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins/siblings, respectively. In linear regressions, a cluster in the hypothalamus showed larger GMV, and bilateral caudate and putamen, lateral orbitofrontal and occipital cortex showed smaller GMVs, in correlation with higher ADHD scores in girls and boys combined. When examined separately, boys relative to girls showed more widespread (including BG) and stronger associations between GMV deficits and ADHD scores. ADHD traits and the volumetric correlates demonstrated heritability estimates (a2) between 0.59 and 0.79, replicating prior findings of the genetic basis of ADHD. Further, ADHD traits and the volumetric correlates (except for the hypothalamus) were each negatively and positively correlated with N-back performance. Together, these findings confirm volumetric deficits in children with more prominent ADHD traits. Highly heritable in both girls and boys and potentially more significant in boys than in girls, the structural deficits underlie diminished capacity in working memory and potentially other cognitive deficits in ADHD.

Maternal ART throughout gestation prevents caudate volume reductions in neonates who are HIV exposed but uninfected

“…The caudate, in addition to its primary roles in directed movement and spatial integration, is involved in executive function, memory, procedural and associative learning, and inhibitory control, and is part of the reward system ( Leisman et al, 2014 ). Smaller putamen and basal ganglia in children have been linked with higher ADHD scores ( Li et al, 2022 ), and poorer working memory ( Pangelinan et al, 2011 ), cognition, academic achievement and motor function ( Loh et al, 2020 ). Childhood caudate size has been associated with general cognitive abilities ( Pangelinan et al, 2011 ) and executive function ( Saito et al, 2022 ).…”

Artificial intelligence in adolescents mental health disorder diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment

“…SVM is used as the classifier to perform the binary classification between the two classes of different volumetric measures. Li et al (27) measures the gray matter volumetric (GMV) correlates in adolescents ADHD. Machine learning models are utilized to classify the normal and malignant samples of sMRI.…”

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): From Abnormal Behavior to Impairment in Synaptic Plasticity

“…It is noteworthy that the cross-disorder correlation analysis shows a positive value for differences in cortical thickness and gene expression between ADHD and major depressive disorder (MDD). Recently, a positive correlation between neuroanatomical parameters such as gray matter volume in neocortex and basal ganglia and the individual scores in N-back task (to evaluate working memory) in ADHD adolescents has been reported [ 18 ].…”