Dataset Information

Neural substrates of impaired sensorimotor timing in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

ABSTRACT: Timing abilities are critical to the successful management of everyday activities and personal safety, and timing abnormalities have been argued to be fundamental to impulsiveness, a core symptom of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Despite substantial evidence of timing deficits in ADHD youth, only two studies have explicitly examined timing in ADHD adults and only at the suprasecond time scale. Also, the neural substrates of these deficits are largely unknown for both youth and adults with ADHD. The present study examined subsecond sensorimotor timing and its neural substrates in ADHD adults.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined paced and unpaced finger tapping in a sample of 20 unmedicated adults with ADHD and 19 control subjects comparable on age, sex, and estimated IQ. The blood oxygenation level-dependent contrast response was used to estimate task-related neural activity.Behavioral data showed no between-group differences in mean tapping rates but greater within-subject variability in tap-to-tap intervals for ADHD adults relative to control subjects. Importantly, ADHD adults had greater clock rather than motor variability, consistent with a central timing locus for the atypical movements. The imaging results demonstrated that, relative to control subjects, ADHD adults showed less activity in a number of regions associated with sensorimotor timing, including prefrontal and precentral gyri, basal ganglia, cerebellum, inferior parietal lobule, superior temporal gyri, and insula.Our findings show that subsecond timing abnormalities in ADHD youth persist into adulthood and suggest that abnormalities in the temporal structure of behavior observed in ADHD adults result from atypical function of corticocerebellar and corticostriatal timing systems.

SUBMITTER: Valera EM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2917236 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Neural substrates of impaired sensorimotor timing in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Valera Eve M EM Spencer Rebecca M C RM Zeffiro Thomas A TA Makris Nikos N Spencer Thomas J TJ Faraone Stephen V SV Biederman Joseph J Seidman Larry J LJ

Biological psychiatry 20100801 4

<h4>Background</h4>Timing abilities are critical to the successful management of everyday activities and personal safety, and timing abnormalities have been argued to be fundamental to impulsiveness, a core symptom of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Despite substantial evidence of timing deficits in ADHD youth, only two studies have explicitly examined timing in ADHD adults and only at the suprasecond time scale. Also, the neural substrates of these deficits are largely unknown ...[more]

PMID: 20619827

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Project description:OBJECTIVE:Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), characterized by severe irritability, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are highly comorbid. This is the first study to characterize neural and behavioral similarities and differences in attentional functioning across these disorders. METHOD:Twenty-seven healthy volunteers, 31 patients with DMDD, and 25 patients with ADHD (8 to 18 years old) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging attention task. Group differences in intra-subject variability in reaction time (RT) were examined. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging analytic approach precisely quantified trial-wise associations between RT and brain activity. RESULTS:Group differences manifested in the relation between RT and brain activity (all regions: p < .01, F > 2.54, partial eta-squared [?p2] > 0.06). Patients with DMDD showed specific alterations in the right paracentral lobule, superior parietal lobule, fusiform gyrus, and cerebellar culmen. In contrast, patients with DMDD and those with ADHD exhibited blunted compensatory increases in activity on long RT trials. In addition, youth with DMDD exhibited increased activity in the postcentral gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, and cerebellar tonsil and declive (all regions: p < .05, F > 2.46, ?p2 > 0.06). Groups in the imaging sample did not differ significantly in intra-subject variability in RT (F2,79 = 2.664, p = .076, ?p2 = 0.063), although intra-subject variability in RT was significantly increased in youth with DMDD and ADHD when including those not meeting strict motion and accuracy criteria for imaging analysis (F2,96 = 4.283, p = .017, ?p2 = 0.083). CONCLUSION:Patients with DMDD exhibited specific alterations in the relation between pre-stimulus brain activity and RT. Patients with DMDD and those with ADHD exhibited similar blunting of compensatory neural activity in frontal, parietal, and other regions. In addition, patients with DMDD showed increased RT variability compared with healthy youth. This work is the first to identify common and unique behavioral and neural signatures of DMDD and ADHD.

Dataset Information

Neural substrates of impaired sensorimotor timing in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Publications

Neural substrates of impaired sensorimotor timing in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

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