title: Functional connectivity between cognitive control regions is sensitive to familial risk for ADHD.
abstract: Familial risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with changes in brain activity related to cognitive control. However, it is not clear whether changes in activation are the primary deficit or whether they are related to impaired communication between regions involved in this ability. We investigated whether (1) functional connectivity between regions involved in cognitive control was affected by familial risk and (2) changes were specific to these regions. Correlational seed analyses were used to investigate temporal covariance between cognitive control and motor regions in two independent samples of typically developing controls, subjects with ADHD and their unaffected siblings. In both samples, correlation coefficients between cognitive control regions were greater for typically developing controls than for subjects with ADHD, with intermediate values for unaffected siblings. Within the motor network, unaffected siblings showed correlations similar to typically developing children. There were no differences in activity between the brain regions involved. These data show that functional connectivity between cognitive control regions is sensitive to familial risk for ADHD. Results suggest that changes in connectivity associated with cognitive control may be suitable as an intermediate phenotype for future studies.
authors.affiliation: Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Neuroimaging Lab, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. m.mulder-7@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: Martijn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Janna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Belle
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Engeland
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Durston
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000150:complications*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen