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Anterior insula hyperactivation in ADHD when faced with distracting negative stimuli
Nora C Vetter1,2, Judith Buse2, Lea L Backhausen2
1Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging Center, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Human Brain Mapping
|March 24, 2018
Summary
Boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show altered brain activity in response to negative emotional distractors. This suggests impaired salience processing contributes to distractibility in ADHD.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with emotion regulation difficulties.
- Previous research on the neurocognitive underpinnings of these difficulties in ADHD is inconclusive.
- Many studies include participants with comorbid conditions, potentially confounding results.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate fronto-limbic activation differences in adolescents with noncomorbid ADHD.
- To specifically examine brain responses to negative emotional distractors during an attention task.
- To clarify the neurobiological basis of emotion regulation deficits in ADHD.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
- 25 boys with noncomorbid ADHD and 25 typically developing (TD) boys participated.
- Participants completed an emotional attention task with positive, negative, and neutral distractors.
Main Results:
- ADHD group exhibited increased activation in the left anterior insula/inferior frontal gyrus compared to TD boys.
- This heightened activation was specific to negative emotional stimuli.
- The affected brain region is part of the emotional processing network.
Conclusions:
- Adolescents with ADHD demonstrate altered processing of negative emotional stimuli.
- This suggests a potential issue with salience attribution of negative emotional information in ADHD.
- These findings may explain increased distractibility in ADHD when encountering negative emotional cues.
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