Recent advances in structural and functional brain imaging studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The field of neuroimaging of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is now 30 years old. This brief selective review highlights the increasing sophistication of recent structural and functional neuroimaging studies of ADHD. In volumetric studies, investigators are examining extra-frontal, as well as frontal-striatal circuits and beginning to differentiate the potential effects of medication exposure. Functional MRI studies are focusing on familial/genetic influences and enrolling medication naïve, as well as medicated children with ADHD. A promising trend is the application of resting state approaches to mapping functional connectivity, which provides unexpectedly detailed information about interregional relationships while bypassing potentially confounding issues related to task performance. These developments allow us to conclude that neuroimaging studies of ADHD will increasingly inform our understanding of the neuronal substrates of ADHD.