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Differential patterns of striatal activation in young children with and without ADHD
Sarah Durston1, Nim T Tottenham, Kathleen M Thomas
1Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York 10021, USA.
Background:
Cognitive control, defined as the ability to suppress inappropriate thoughts and actions, is compromised in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examines the neural basis of this deficit.
Methods:
We used a paradigm that incorporates a parametric manipulation within a go/nogo task, so that the number of go trials preceding a nogo trial is varied to tax the neural systems underlying cognitive control with increasing levels of interference.
Results:
Using this paradigm in combination with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we show that children without ADHD have increased susceptibility to interference with increasing numbers of go trials preceding a nogo trial, but children with ADHD have difficulty even with a single go trial preceding a nogo trial. In addition, children with ADHD do not activate frontostriatal regions in the same manner as normally developing children, but rather rely on a more diffuse network of regions, including more posterior and dorsolateral prefrontal regions.
Conclusions:
Normal immature cognition may be characterized as being susceptible to interference and supported by the maturation of frontostriatal circuitry. ADHD children show a slightly different cognitive profile at 6 to 10 years of age that is paralleled by a relative lack of or delay in the maturation of ventral frontostriatal circuitry.