Cited by 245Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

Brain alterations in children/adolescents with ADHD revisited: a neuroimaging meta-analysis of 96 structural and functional studies

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Samea, Fateme, Soluki, Solmaz, Nejati, Vahid, Zarei, Mojtaba, Cortese, Samuele, Eickhoff, Simon B., Tahmasian, Masoud, Eickhoff, Claudia R.·2019·Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Abstract

The findings of neuroimaging studies in children/adolescents with ADHD, and even those of previous meta-analyses, are divergent. Here, Activation Likelihood Estimation meta-analysis, following the current best-practice guidelines, was conducted. We searched multiple databases and traced the references up to June 2018. Then, we extracted the reported coordinates reflecting group comparison between ADHD and healthy subjects from 96 eligible studies, containing 1914 unique participants. The analysis of pooled structural and functional, sub-analyses restricted to modality, and in-/decreased contrast did not yield any significant findings. However, further sub-analyses in the task-fMRI experiments (neutral stimuli only) led to aberrant activity in the left pallidum/putamen and decreased activity (male subjects only) in the left inferior frontal gyrus. The overall findings indicate a lack of regional convergence in children/adolescents with ADHD, which might be due to heterogeneous clinical populations, various experimental design, preprocessing, statistical procedures in individual publications. Our results highlight the need for further high-powered investigations, but may also indicate ADHD pathophysiology might rest in network interactions rather than just regional abnormality.

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  • A large fMRI meta-analysis found no convergence except aberrant basal ganglia function for neutral tasks and inferior frontal under-function in males only.

    “Another meta-analysis including 130 fMRI studies with 1,914 participants found no convergence except for aberrant function in basal ganglia for neutral fMRI tasks and inferior frontal under-function in males only (Samea et al., 2019).”

    From The World Federation of ADHD International Consensus Statement: 208 Evidence-based conclusions about the disorder (2021) · cites this paper as Samea et al., 2019

    The Results report 96 studies (68 task-fMRI, 6 resting-state fMRI and 22 structural), yielding 130 individual experiments across 1,914 unique subjects—not 130 fMRI studies. The Conclusion supports the reported lack of general convergence and the two subgroup findings: left pallidum/putamen dysfunction with neutral-stimulus tasks and decreased left inferior frontal activity in males. (LLM, conf=0.91)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Lancet Psychiatry, 2017. Subcortical Brain Volume Differences in Participants with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adults: A Cross-Sectional Mega-Analysis 4. pp. 310– 319. 10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30049-4. Epub 2017 Feb 16. 28219628 PMC5933934 · DOI · Paper page

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Authors
Samea, F., Soluki, S., Nejati, V., Zarei, M., Cortese, S., Eickhoff, S. B., Tahmasian, M., & Eickhoff, C. R.
Affiliations
  • Shahid Beheshti University (IR)
  • University of Nottingham (GB)
  • Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE)
Corresponding author
Tahmasian, Masoud
Venue
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-05
Volume
100
Pages
1-8
ISSN
0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2915428382
Cited by
245
References
55
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 5 · 2012: 1
FWCI
4.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
  • JuSER (Forschungszentrum Jülich) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Shahid Beheshti University
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (EI 816/11-1)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH074457)
  • Helmholtz Portfolio Theme "Supercomputing and Modeling for the Human Brain"
  • European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research
  • Innovation Programme (785907)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, children and adolescents, brain changes, structural neuroimaging, functional neuroimaging, inferior frontal gyrus, sex differences, regional convergence, network interaction, ADHD pathophysiology
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Brain, Brain Mapping, Child, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Likelihood Functions

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