title: Cortical thinning of the attention and executive function networks in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
abstract: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with structural alterations in brain networks influencing cognitive and motor behaviors. Volumetric studies in children identify abnormalities in cortical, striatal, callosal, and cerebellar regions. In a prior volumetric study, we found that ADHD adults had significantly smaller overall cortical gray matter, prefrontal, and anterior cingulate volumes than matched controls. Thickness and surface area are additional indicators of integrity of cytoarchitecture in the cortex. To expand upon our earlier results and further refine the regions of structural abnormality, we carried out a structural magnetic resonance imaging study of cortical thickness in the same sample of adults with ADHD (n = 24) and controls (n = 18), hypothesizing that the cortical networks underlying attention and executive function (EF) would be most affected. Compared with healthy adults, adults with ADHD showed selective thinning of cerebral cortex in the networks that subserve attention and EF. In the present study, we found significant cortical thinning in ADHD in a distinct cortical network supporting attention especially in the right hemisphere involving the inferior parietal lobule, the dorsolateral prefrontal, and the anterior cingulate cortices. This is the first documentation that ADHD in adults is associated with thinner cortex in the cortical networks that modulate attention and EF.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Radiology Services, Center for Morphometric Analysis, Health Sciences & Technology Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129, USA. nikos@cma.mgh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Makris
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Biederman
authors.forename: Eve M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Valera
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: Verne S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Caviness
authors.forename: Stephen V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Faraone
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Seidman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology