ADHD symptom trajectories and brain morphometry: A longitudinal analysis

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms often decrease into adulthood, but the neurobiological underpinnings are not fully understood.
• Altered brain maturation and neural reorganization are implicated in ADHD, yet their relationship with symptom trajectories requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between grey matter development and ADHD symptom trajectories from childhood into adulthood.
• To examine how structural brain changes correlate with the progression or improvement of ADHD symptoms over time.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of longitudinal data from the Dutch NeuroIMAGE cohort, including ADHD symptom scores and structural MRI scans.
• Utilized General Linear Models with permutation-based inference to assess cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between ADHD symptoms and brain morphometry (cortical thickness, surface area, subcortical volumes).

Main Results:

• Cross-sectionally, higher ADHD symptoms correlated with reduced surface area (especially frontal cortex) and smaller volumes (cerebellum, amygdala, hippocampus).
• Longitudinally, symptom improvement was associated with greater reductions in surface area (prefrontal, occipital) and increased cortical thinning.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest a link between ADHD symptom trajectories and structural brain changes.
• Clinical improvement in ADHD behaviors may coincide with ongoing neural refinement during the transition to adulthood.