Manual morphometry of hippocampus and amygdala in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Kathrin Nickel1, Ludger Tebartz van Elst1, Evgeniy Perlov2
1Section for Experimental Neuropsychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Hauptstr. 5, 79104 Freiburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Previous studies have pointed to the involvement of limbic structures in the genesis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present researchers manually segmented magnetic resonance images of 30 individuals with ADHD and 30 individually matched controls, focusing on amygdala and hippocampus volumes. Neither hippocampus nor amygdala volume differed significantly between individuals with and without ADHD. However, ADHD patients with higher hyperactivity scores had significantly smaller left amygdala volumes. This finding suggests that limbic alterations are significant in hyperactive symptoms in the pathophysiology of ADHD.
