Local functional connectivity suggests functional immaturity in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder Articles uri icon

authors

  • MARCOS VIDAL, LUIS
  • MARTINEZ GARCIA, MAGDALENA TERESA
  • PETRUS, CLARA
  • GARCIA GARCIA, DAVID
  • MARTINEZ, KENIA
  • JANSSEN, JOOST
  • VILARROYA, ÓSCAR
  • CASTELLANOS, FRANCISCO X.
  • DESCO MENENDEZ, MANUEL
  • SEPULCRE, JORGE
  • CARMONA CAÑABATE, SUSANA

publication date

  • February 2018

start page

  • 2442

end page

  • 2454

issue

  • 6

volume

  • 39

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1065-9471

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1097-0193

abstract

  • Previous studies have associated Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with a matura-tional lag of brain functional networks. Functional connectivity of the human brain changes fromprimarily local to more distant connectivity patterns during typical development. Under thematurational lag hypothesis, we expect children with ADHD to exhibit increased local connectivityand decreased distant connectivity compared with neurotypically developing (ND) children. Weapplied a graph-theory method to compute local and distant connectivity levels and cross-sectionally compared them in a sample of 120 children with ADHD and 120 age-matched ND chil-dren (age range 5 7–17 years). In addition, we measured if potential group differences in local anddistant connectivity were stable across the age range considered. Finally, we assessed the clinicalrelevance of observed group differences by correlating the connectivity levels and ADHD symp-toms severity separately for each group. Children with ADHD exhibited more local connectivitythan age-matched ND children in multiple brain regions, mainly overlapping with default mode, ronto-parietal and ventral attentional functional networks (p < .05- threshold free-clusterenhancement–family-wise error). We detected an atypical developmental pattern of local connec-tivity in somatomotor regions, that is, decreases with age in ND children, and increases with age inchildren with ADHD. Furthermore, local connectivity within somatomotor areas correlated posi-tively with clinical severity of ADHD symptoms, both in ADHD and ND children. Results suggestan immature functional state of multiple brain networks in children with ADHD. Whereas theADHD diagnosis is associated with the integrity of the system comprising the fronto-parietal,default mode and ventral attentional networks, the severity of clinical symptoms is related to atypi-cal functional connectivity within somatomotor areas. Additionally, our findings are in line with theview of ADHD as a disorder of deviated maturational trajectories, mainly affecting somatomotorareas, rather than delays that normalize with age.

subjects

  • Biology and Biomedicine

keywords

  • adhd; brain networks; functional connectivity; fmri; neurodevelopment; resting state