Exploring attentive task-based connectivity for screening attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder children: a...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Biomarkers

Background:

• Connectivity impairment is linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pathophysiology.
• Resting-state connectivity is well-studied, but task-related connectivity changes in ADHD remain less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in brain connectivity between baseline and task states in children with ADHD.
• To explore if task-based connectivity can serve as a biomarker for ADHD screening.

Main Methods:

• Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure brain activity in typically developing children and children with ADHD during a visual oddball attention task.
• Connectivity analysis was performed on the fNIRS data to assess intra- and interhemispheric connections.
• Activation and connectivity features were optimized and cross-validated for classifier performance.

Main Results:

• Typically developing children maintained consistent attentive connectivity, while children with ADHD showed enhanced bilateral connectivity during the task, with weaker right intrahemispheric connectivity.
• Connectivity and activation patterns were not always positively correlated; for example, the right middle frontal gyrus showed strong baseline connectivity that increased during the task, despite previous findings of reduced activation.
• A connectivity-based biomarker achieved higher training accuracy (88%) than an activation-based biomarker (76%) for screening.

Conclusions:

• Task-based attentive connectivity effectively differentiates between control and disordered children.
• Connectivity patterns during attention tasks may reflect pathological characteristics of ADHD.
• Task-based connectivity analysis shows promise as a supporting tool for clinical screening of ADHD.