Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31273. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031273. Epub 2012 Feb 10.
Reduced total brain volume is a consistent finding in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In order to get a better understanding of the neurobiology of ADHD, we take the first step in studying the dimensionality of current self-reported adult ADHD symptoms, by looking at its relation with total brain volume.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a sample of 652 highly educated adults, the association between total brain volume, assessed with magnetic resonance imaging, and current number of self-reported ADHD symptoms was studied. The results showed an association between these self-reported ADHD symptoms and total brain volume. Post-hoc analysis revealed that the symptom domain of inattention had the strongest association with total brain volume. In addition, the threshold for impairment coincides with the threshold for brain volume reduction.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This finding improves our understanding of the biological substrates of self-reported ADHD symptoms, and suggests total brain volume as a target intermediate phenotype for future gene-finding in ADHD.
在患有注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）的儿童中，总脑容量减少是一个一致的发现。为了更好地了解 ADHD 的神经生物学，我们通过研究其与总脑容量的关系，首次研究当前自我报告的成人 ADHD 症状的维度。
方法/主要发现：在 652 名受过高等教育的成年人样本中，研究了总脑容量（通过磁共振成像评估）与当前自我报告的 ADHD 症状数量之间的关系。结果表明，这些自我报告的 ADHD 症状与总脑容量之间存在关联。事后分析显示，注意力不集中症状域与总脑容量的关联最强。此外，损伤阈值与脑容量减少的阈值重合。
结论/意义：这一发现提高了我们对自我报告的 ADHD 症状的生物学基础的理解，并提示总脑容量作为 ADHD 未来基因发现的目标中间表型。
