Makris Nikos, Biederman Joseph, Valera Eve M, Bush George, Kaiser Jonathan, Kennedy David N, Caviness Verne S, Faraone Stephen V, Seidman Larry J
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.
Cereb Cortex. 2007 Jun;17(6):1364-75. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhl047. Epub 2006 Aug 18.
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.
注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）与影响认知和运动行为的脑网络结构改变有关。针对儿童的容积研究发现皮质、纹状体、胼胝体和小脑区域存在异常。在之前的一项容积研究中，我们发现ADHD成人的总体皮质灰质、前额叶和前扣带回体积明显小于匹配的对照组。厚度和表面积是皮质细胞结构完整性的额外指标。为了扩展我们早期的研究结果并进一步细化结构异常区域，我们对同一组患有ADHD的成人（n = 24）和对照组（n = 18）进行了皮质厚度的结构磁共振成像研究，假设负责注意力和执行功能（EF）的皮质网络将受到最大影响。与健康成人相比，患有ADHD的成人在支持注意力和EF的网络中表现出大脑皮质的选择性变薄。在本研究中，我们发现ADHD患者在一个独特的支持注意力的皮质网络中存在明显的皮质变薄，尤其是在右半球，涉及下顶叶、背外侧前额叶和前扣带回皮质。这是首次证明成人ADHD与调节注意力和EF的皮质网络中较薄的皮质有关。
