OBJECTIVE:

The present study investigated structural brain differences between adolescents with ADHD and matched control participants.

METHOD:

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) using the DARTEL approach was performed to assess regional gray matter (GM) volumes. Additionally, individual performance on tests of attention was recorded to correlate ADHD related cognitive impairments with regional gray matter abnormalities.

RESULTS:

We found significantly smaller GM volume in subjects with ADHD compared to their matched controls within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the occipital cortex, bilateral hippocampus/amygdala and in widespread cerebellar regions. Further, reductions of the ACC gray matter volume were found to correlate with scores of selective inattention.

CONCLUSION:

These findings underline that structural alterations in a widespread cortico-subcortical network seem to underlie the observable attention problems in patients with ADHD.

结果：我们发现ADHD患者的GM体积，前扣带皮层（ACC），枕叶皮质，双侧海马/杏仁核和广泛小脑区域，明显小于匹配对照组。此外，发现ACC灰质体积的减少与选择性注意力不集中的相关。结论：这些研究结果强调，广泛皮质 - 皮层下网络的结构改变似乎是ADHD患者可观察到的注意力问题的基础。