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Children with ADHD have noticeably different brain function when they are at rest than children who do not have the neurological disorder, according to a national study published this week.
Scans of thousands of children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder highlighted a key difference: The National Institutes of Health study in the American Journal of Psychiatry They found that young people with ADHD had more wiring, or networks of nerve cells, in their brains, making it harder for their brains to send clear signals about a task like following instructions or sitting still.
The findings are based on evidence that may make it easier for experts to explain how a child’s brain circuits correlate with ADHD symptoms that teachers or parents may see. Essentially, researchers discovered that children with ADHD have hyperconnected wires that can make it difficult for their brains to transmit a given signal.
“These are brain regions that we know are important for controlling impulsive behaviors and controlling attention,” said Luke Norman, a staff scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health and author of the study, told USA TODAY. “These networks appear to be ineffective in ADHD.”
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Previous studies on the brain function of people with ADHD have involved smaller groups, typically fewer than 100 participants. None have accumulated definitive evidence to identify the parts of the brain affected by ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a person having difficulty paying attention and sitting still.
The NIH study used thousands of brain scans of children with ADHD traits from six different data sets. Outside experts said this larger sample size helps understand how the brains work in people with ADHD, although the results were relatively small because the people were at rest during the MRIs and were not active.
The study does not explore how to diagnose ADHD. This is usually done through assessments that include input from doctors, teachers, and parents. Instead, the findings help identify specific signals in the brain that are involved in people with the disorder, said Lauren Friedman, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State Universitywho was not affiliated with the study.
About 6 million American children between the ages of 3 and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, meaning that young people facing these challenges represent just under 10% of children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research suggests that genetics play a role in a child’s development of ADHD, as well as other factors, such as premature birth, low birth weight, lead poisoning, brain injuries, and lifetime alcohol or tobacco use. the pregnancy.
The study also analyzed scans of more than 8,000 children who were, on average, less than 11 years old. Nearly 1,700 of the children were diagnosed with ADHD and more than 6,700 did not have the disorder. All of the children were lying in an MRI machine, with their eyes open, while an image of their brain was taken.
Among children with ADHD, the researchers found that the frontal cortex of their brains, the area that controls attention and manages unwanted behaviors, had greater wiring linked to structures centered deeper in the brain, which deal with processing information. information. This part of the brain is where learning occurs. It is also where a person creates movement and experiences emotions. Children with ADHD had more connections between these two parts of the brain, but that didn’t mean the signals came more easily. Instead, hyperconnected wiring led to what the study called “disrupted connectivity.”
Norman, the NIH researcher, said the images build on previous research. For example, when children with ADHD played games that require attention and impulse control, their brain scans showed that they had difficulty making neural connections to complete the tasks. The study seems to affirm the same results, even when the person is at rest.
The findings only capture a small portion of the brain activity of people with ADHD. More research is needed on children with ADHD doing different activities and on children with the disorder as they get older, Norman said. The researchers noted that the study does not reflect children in the U.S. population. More than 15 percent of the children with ADHD in the study came from households with incomes over $200,000, and about two-thirds of those diagnosed with ADHD were boys.
Sarah Karalunas, associate professor of psychology at Purdue UniversityHe said the study helps establish a pattern of brain differences for children with ADHD who may be working harder than their peers to control their emotions and attention.
For his next study, Norman plans to look at how children practice skills that use these brain connections. The goal, he said, is to work to find treatments that change how the brain works.