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Implication of right frontostriatal circuitry in response inhibition and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
B J Casey1, F X Castellanos, J N Giedd
1Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Insights
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show impaired response inhibition, linked to structural differences in right-sided frontostriatal brain regions like the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by deficits in response inhibition.
- Frontostriatal circuitry, including the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia, is implicated in ADHD pathophysiology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between specific frontostriatal structures and response inhibition deficits in children with ADHD.
- To correlate behavioral performance on response inhibition tasks with neuroanatomical measures of frontostriatal circuitry.
Main Methods:
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess frontostriatal structures in children with ADHD and normal controls.
- Participants completed three response inhibition tasks, and performance was correlated with MRI-derived anatomical measures.
Main Results:
- Children with ADHD exhibited significant deficits in response inhibition across all tasks compared to controls.
- Task performance correlated with abnormal anatomical measures in the prefrontal cortex, caudate, and globus pallidus, but not the putamen.
- Correlations between task performance and frontostriatal structures were predominantly observed in the right hemisphere.
Conclusions:
- The right prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in suppressing responses to irrelevant stimuli in ADHD.
- The basal ganglia appear to be involved in the execution of behavioral responses, contributing to response inhibition deficits in ADHD.
Objective:
To examine the relation between specific frontostriatal structures (prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia) and response inhibition deficits observed in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Method:
Children with ADHD and age-matched normal controls were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tested on three response inhibition tasks. Behavioral performance was correlated with MRI-based anatomical measures of frontostriatal circuitry (prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia) implicated in ADHD.
Results:
First, significant differences in performance by children with ADHD and normal volunteers were observed on all three response inhibition tasks. Second, performance on these tasks correlated only with those anatomical measures of frontostriatal circuitry observed to be abnormal in children with ADHD (e.g., the region of the prefrontal cortex, caudate, and globus pallidus, but not the putamen) in the authors' previous study. Third, significant correlations between task performance and anatomical measures of the prefrontal cortex and caudate nuclei were predominantly in the right hemisphere, supporting a role of right frontostriatal circuitry in response inhibition and ADHD.
Conclusion:
The data suggest a role of the right prefrontal cortex in suppressing responses to salient, but otherwise irrelevant events while the basal ganglia appear to be involved in executing these behavioral responses.