scholarly journals Brain structure mediates the association between socioeconomic status and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Machlin ◽  
Katie A. McLaughlin ◽  
Margaret A. Sheridan
2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (1) ◽  
pp. 641-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria K. Mackes ◽  
Dennis Golm ◽  
Sagari Sarkar ◽  
Robert Kumsta ◽  
Michael Rutter ◽  
...  

Early childhood deprivation is associated with higher rates of neurodevelopmental and mental disorders in adulthood. The impact of childhood deprivation on the adult brain and the extent to which structural changes underpin these effects are currently unknown. To investigate these questions, we utilized MRI data collected from young adults who were exposed to severe deprivation in early childhood in the Romanian orphanages of the Ceaușescu era and then, subsequently adopted by UK families; 67 Romanian adoptees (with between 3 and 41 mo of deprivation) were compared with 21 nondeprived UK adoptees. Romanian adoptees had substantially smaller total brain volumes (TBVs) than nondeprived adoptees (8.6% reduction), and TBV was strongly negatively associated with deprivation duration. This effect persisted after covarying for potential environmental and genetic confounds. In whole-brain analyses, deprived adoptees showed lower right inferior frontal surface area and volume but greater right inferior temporal lobe thickness, surface area, and volume than the nondeprived adoptees. Right medial prefrontal volume and surface area were positively associated with deprivation duration. No deprivation-related effects were observed in limbic regions. Global reductions in TBV statistically mediated the observed relationship between institutionalization and both lower intelligence quotient (IQ) and higher levels of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. The deprivation-related increase in right inferior temporal volume seemed to be compensatory, as it was associated with lower levels of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. We provide compelling evidence that time-limited severe deprivation in the first years of life is related to alterations in adult brain structure, despite extended enrichment in adoptive homes in the intervening years.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gülsüm Akdeniz

Objective. Complexity analysis of functional brain structure data represents a new multidisciplinary approach to examining complex, living structures. I aimed to construct a connectivity map of visual brain activities using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and to characterize the level of complexity of functional brain activity using these connectivity data. Methods. A total of 25 healthy controls and 20 patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) participated. fMRI preprocessing analysis was performed that included head motion correction, temporal filtering, and spatial smoothing process. Brain entropy (BEN) was calculated using the Shannon entropy equation. Results. My findings demonstrated that patients exhibited reduced brain complexity in visual brain areas compared to controls. The mean entropy value of the ADHD group was 0.56±0.14, compared to 0.64±0.11 in the control group. Conclusion. My study adds an important novel result to the growing literature pertaining to abnormal visual processing in ADHD that my ADHD patients had lower BEN values, indicating more-regular functional brain structure and abnormal visual information processing.


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