title: Laminar thickness alterations in the fronto-parietal cortical mantle of patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
abstract: Although Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was initially regarded as a disorder exclusive to childhood, nowadays its prevalence in adulthood is well established. The development of novel techniques for quantifying the thickness of the cerebral mantle allows the further exploration of the neuroanatomical profiles underlying the child and adult form of the disorder. To examine the cortical mantle in children and adults with ADHD, we applied a vertex-wise analysis of cortical thickness to anatomical brain MRI scans acquired from children with (n = 43) and without ADHD (n = 41), as well as a group of adult neurotypical individuals (n = 31), adult patients with a history of stimulant treatment (n = 31) and medication-naïve adults with ADHD (n = 24). We observed several clusters of reduced laminar cortical thickness in ADHD patients in comparison to neurotypical individuals. These differences were primarily located in the dorsal attention network, including the bilateral inferior and superior parietal cortex and a section of the frontal cortex (centered on the superior frontal and precentral gyrus bilaterally). Further laminar thickness deficits were observed in the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex and medial occipital cortex. The deficits in the cortical surface were especially pronounced in the child sample, while adult patients showed a more typical laminar thickness across the cerebral mantle. These findings show that the neuroanatomical profile of ADHD, especially the childhood form of the disorder, involves robust alterations in the cortical mantle, which are most prominent in brain regions subserving attentional processing.
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Recerca en Neurociència Cognitiva, Departament de Psiquiatria i Medicina Legal, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain. hoekzema@gmail.com
authors.forename: Elseline
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hoekzema
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carmona
authors.forename: J Antoni
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ramos-Quiroga
authors.forename: Vanesa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Richarte Fernández
authors.forename: Marisol
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Picado
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bosch
authors.forename: Juan Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Soliva
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rovira
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vives
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bulbena
authors.forename: Adolf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tobeña
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casas
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vilarroya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D011859:Radiography