Disrupted Resting Frontal-Parietal Attention Network Topology Is Associated With a Clinical Measure in Children With

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Yanpei Wang1,2,3, Fuxiang Tao1,2, Chenyi Zuo3

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Frontiers in Psychiatry
|June 4, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show altered brain network organization in the frontal-parietal attention network. This decentralized network topology correlates with ADHD symptom severity and may serve as a marker for disease progression.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Medical Imaging

Background:

  • Resting-state functional connectivity alterations are known in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
  • The precise spatial organization of these brain network changes in ADHD remains unclear.
  • Understanding network topology is crucial for identifying biomarkers and disease progression markers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the spatial organization and topology of the frontal-parietal attention network in children with ADHD.
  • To correlate network topology characteristics with clinical measures of ADHD symptom severity and disease progression.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 119 children with ADHD and 69 controls.
  • Employed graph analysis and minimum spanning tree construction to characterize frontal-parietal network topology.
  • Assessed metrics including clustering coefficient, shortest path length, diameter, leaf number, tree hierarchy, kappa, and nodal eccentricity.

Main Results:

  • While clustering coefficient and path length were similar, children with ADHD exhibited greater diameter, lower leaf number, tree hierarchy, and kappa in the frontal-parietal attention network.
  • Significant alterations in nodal eccentricity were observed in prefrontal and occipital cortex regions in children with ADHD.
  • These topological changes, particularly decreased leaf number and hierarchy, correlated significantly with ADHD symptom scores.

Conclusions:

  • The frontal-parietal attention network in children with ADHD tends towards a more decentralized, line-like topology compared to the centralized, star-like topology in controls.
  • This shift towards a more random network organization is associated with impaired global efficiency and network decentralization.
  • These findings suggest that altered network topology in ADHD is clinically relevant and may serve as a potential biomarker for disease progression.

Keywords:
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorderfrontal–parietal attention networkminimum spanning treeresting connectivitysmall world

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