title: Megalographia in children with cerebellar lesions and in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
abstract: Structural changes of the cerebellum have been reported in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in several studies. The cerebellum is a structure essential for motor coordination and motor learning. Beside behavioral deficits, children with ADHD often show slight motor abnormalities. In the present study, handwriting was examined in both children with ADHD and children with cerebellar lesions. By writing the same sentence several times, letter height increased in the ADHD and cerebellar groups but not in controls. Comparable disorders of handwriting in cerebellar and ADHD children support previous studies, which suggest a contribution of cerebellar dysfunction to motor abnormalities in ADHD. However, an involvement of non-cerebellar dysfunctions in ADHD cannot be excluded.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, 45122 Essen, Germany. markus.frings@uni-duisburg-essen.de
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frings
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gaertner
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buderath
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Christiansen
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerwig
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hein-Kropp
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schoch
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hebebrand
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Timmann
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male