Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on August 18, 2006
Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(6):1364-1375; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl047
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/6/1364    most recent
bhl047v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (8)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Makris, N.
Right arrow Articles by Seidman, L. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Makris, N.
Right arrow Articles by Seidman, L. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Cortical Thinning of the Attention and Executive Function Networks in Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Nikos Makris1,2, Joseph Biederman3,4, Eve M. Valera3,4, George Bush2,4, Jonathan Kaiser1,2, David N. Kennedy1,2, Verne S. Caviness1,2, Stephen V. Faraone5 and Larry J. Seidman2,4,6

1 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, 2 Health Sciences & Technology Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02129, USA, 3 Clinical and Research Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02129, USA, 4 Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129, USA, 5 Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience & Physiology, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA, 6 Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts Mental Health Center Public Psychiatry Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Address correspondence to Nikos Makris, MD, PhD, Center for Morphometric Analysis, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. Email: nikos{at}cma.mgh.harvard.edu.

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.

Key Words: ADHD • attention • cerebral cortex • cortical thickness • executive function


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 BrainHome page
J. Dubois, M. Benders, C. Borradori-Tolsa, A. Cachia, F. Lazeyras, R. Ha-Vinh Leuchter, S. V. Sizonenko, S. K. Warfield, J. F. Mangin, and P. S. Huppi
Primary cortical folding in the human newborn: an early marker of later functional development
Brain, August 1, 2008; 131(8): 2028 - 2041.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
N. Makris, S. L. Buka, J. Biederman, G. M. Papadimitriou, S. M. Hodge, E. M. Valera, A. B. Brown, G. Bush, M. C. Monuteaux, V. S. Caviness, et al.
Attention and Executive Systems Abnormalities in Adults with Childhood ADHD: A DT-MRI Study of Connections
Cereb Cortex, May 1, 2008; 18(5): 1210 - 1220.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Arch Gen PsychiatryHome page
G. Bush, T. J. Spencer, J. Holmes, L. M. Shin, E. M. Valera, L. J. Seidman, N. Makris, C. Surman, M. Aleardi, E. Mick, et al.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Methylphenidate and Placebo in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder During the Multi-Source Interference Task
Arch Gen Psychiatry, January 1, 2008; 65(1): 102 - 114.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.