Frontal-striatal-parietal activation in children with ADHD, combined type: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

注意力缺陷多动障碍，混合型（ADHD-CT）是一种常见的神经精神疾病，对受影响儿童的教育和社会发展以及以后的生活有严重的后果。尽管在病因学研究和治疗策略研究方面投入了大量资金，但对ADHD-CT仍然知之甚少，并且经常被视为治疗悲观主义。了解ADHD-CT的神经生物学基础对于开发更具体和更有针对性的药物和/或心理治疗以及最终获得ADHD-CT儿童的最佳临床结果至关重要。我们之前已经检查了患有ADHD-CT的青春期男孩的额叶-纹状体-顶叶脑网络的功能，表明大脑系统功能障碍对于控制视觉空间注意力很重要。在这个项目中，我们的目的是检查这些变化是否也发生在青春期前的8-12岁的男孩ADHD-CT的额叶-纹状体-顶叶脑功能。这一点很重要，主要有两个原因：首先，在以前的ADHD-CT脑成像研究中检查的青少年和年轻人，包括我们自己的，并不能真正代表这种疾病的核心，因为ADHD-CT的患病率在8至12岁之间达到高峰。其次，通过比较青春期前ADHD-CT和健康对照儿童，我们可以确定我们之前确定的脑功能变化是否代表发育阶段独立的脑功能障碍，这是ADHD-CT的特征。

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, combined type (ADHD-CT) is a common neuropsychiatric disorder that has serious consequences for affected children's educational and social development and success in later life. Despite a large investment in research investigating aetiology and therapeutic strategies that arise from these aetiological investigations, ADHD-CT remains poorly understood and it is often viewed with therapeutic pessimism. Understanding the neurobiological basis of ADHD-CT is of tremendous importance for the development of more specific and targeted medication and-or psychological treatments and, ultimately, to obtain the best clinical outcome for individual children with ADHD-CT. We have previously examined the function of frontal-striatal-parietal brain networks in adolescent boys with ADHD-CT, showing dysfunction of brain systems important for the control of visuospatial attention. In this project, we aim to examine whether these changes in frontal-striatal-parietal brain function also occur in pre-pubertal 8-12 year-old boys with ADHD-CT. This is important for two major reasons: Firstly, adolescents and young adults examined in previous brain imaging studies of ADHD-CT, including our own, are not truly representative of the core of the disorder, as ADHD-CT has its peak prevalence from 8 to 12 years of age. Secondly, by now comparing pre-pubertal ADHD-CT and healthy control children we can determine whether the changes in brain function we have previously identified represent developmental stage independent brain dysfunction that is characteristic of ADHD-CT.