Right parietal dysfunction in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type: a functional MRI study

Abstract

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD-CT) is associated with spatial working memory deficits. These deficits are known to be subserved by dysfunction of neural circuits involving right prefrontal, striatal and parietal brain regions. This study determines whether decreased right prefrontal, striatal and parietal activation with a mental rotation task shown in adolescents with ADHD-CT is also evident in children with ADHD-CT. A crosssectional study of 12 pre-pubertal, right-handed, 8-12-year-old boys with ADHD-CT and 12 prepubertal, right-handed, performance IQ-matched, 8-12-year-old healthy boys, recruited from local primary schools, was completed. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a mental rotation task that requires spatial working memory. The two groups did not differ in their accuracy or response times for the mental rotation task. The ADHD-CT group showed significantly less activation in right parieto-occipital areas (cuneus and precuneus, BA 19), the right inferior parietal lobe (BA 40) and the right caudate nucleus. Our findings with a child cohort confirm previous reports of right striatal-parietal dysfunction in adolescents with ADHD-CT. This dysfunction suggests a widespread maturational deficit that may be developmental stage independent.

Inter-hemispherical asymmetry in default-mode functional connectivity and BAIAP2 gene are associated with anger expression in ADHD adults

“…Based on previous reports of abnormal laterality of the ADHD brain (Dennis and Thompson, 2013;Shang et al, 2013;Cao et al, 2014;Hale et al, 2014Hale et al, , 2015Keune et al, 2015;Silk et al, 2015), we could postulate that the asymmetric expression of neurodevelopmental genes might be at the origin of structural and functional changes in this disorder. However, these changes are not clear yet, as both a dysfunctional activity of the right hemisphere (Vance et al, 2007;Smith et al, 2008;Chamberlain et al, 2009;Bush, 2011) and the opposite (Cao et al, 2014;Hale et al, 2014Hale et al, , 2015 have been reported in literature. Moreover, the reflections of these unilateral activation deficits on functional connectivity are not trivial and require dedicated analyses focused on network properties (Dennis and Thompson, 2013;Cao et al, 2014).…”

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Attention Networks

“…Vance et al (2007) also recently reported lower right caudate in ADHD during a mental rotation task. Lower resting putamen blood flow was reported in ADHD (Teicher et al, 2000) by a study that used T2 relaxometry, which is an indirect MRI measure of steady-state regional blood flow that pre-dates the more recent use of ASL techniques.…”

“…Tamm et al (2006) reported ADHD subjects performing a visual oddball task showed significantly less activation of parietal cortical areas, including the superior parietal gyrus and multiple areas of inferior parietal lobe, along with the lower precuneus and thalamus activation. Vance et al (2007) reported that ADHD subjects performing a spatial working memory-dependent mental rotation task displayed significantly less inferior parietal lobe activation, in addition to lower parieto-occipital and caudate activation. In another study, children with ADHD showed less activation than controls in multiple areas of the parietal cortex, DLPFC, and putamen.…”

Frontoparietal function in young people with dysthymic disorder (DSM-5: Persistent depressive disorder) during spatial working memory

“…Mental Rotation: Participants performed a mental rotation task slightly modified from an earlier version of the task (Silk et al, 2005;Vance et al, 2007). …”