Dissociable attentional and affective circuits in medication-naïve children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Open accessAbstract
Current neurocognitive models of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suggest that neural circuits involving both attentional and affective processing make independent contributions to the phenomenology of the disorder. However, a clear dissociation of attentional and affective circuits and their behavioral correlates has yet to be shown in medication-naïve children with ADHD. Using resting-state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) in a cohort of medication naïve children with (N=22) and without (N=20) ADHD, we demonstrate that children with ADHD have reduced connectivity in two neural circuits: one underlying executive attention (EA) and the other emotional regulation (ER). We also demonstrate a double dissociation between these two neural circuits and their behavioral correlates such that reduced connectivity in the EA circuit correlates with executive attention deficits but not with emotional lability, while on the other hand, reduced connectivity in the ER circuit correlates with emotional lability but not with executive attention deficits. These findings suggest potential avenues for future research such as examining treatment effects on these two neural circuits as well as the potential prognostic and developmental significance of disturbances in one circuit vs the other.
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Recent neuropsychological studies have found demonstrable, consistent impairments in sustained focus difficult to demonstrate in ADHD, at least in the laboratory setting.
“The central role of an attentional deficit in ADHD has been questioned by recent neuropsychological studies [21, 26] in which demonstrable, consistent impairments in sustained focus have been difficult to demonstrate, at least in the laboratory setting.”
From Using Stimulants to Treat ADHD-Related Emotional Lability (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
The Introduction (page unavailable) supports questioning a single attentional explanation of ADHD: it describes a dual-pathway model involving attention and motivation. But it says neuropsychological tasks have demonstrated executive-attention deficits, not that consistent impairments in sustained focus have been difficult to demonstrate in the laboratory. The Discussion likewise reports an association between brain connectivity and executive-attention deficits. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEmpirical support for the dyscontrol hypothesis is somewhat lacking.
“Empirical support for the dyscontrol hypothesis, however, is somewhat lacking.”
From Using Stimulants to Treat ADHD-Related Emotional Lability (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
Most children with ADHD do not manifest impairment on any given executive function measure.
“As Nigg and colleagues [21] have pointed out, most children with ADHD do not manifest impairment on any given executive function measure.”
From Using Stimulants to Treat ADHD-Related Emotional Lability (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
The Methods (§2.4) describe one executive-attention measure, and the Results (§3.4) report its association with brain connectivity. Neither passage states how many children with ADHD show impairment on any given executive-function measure. Searches for the claimed majority and for percentages of impaired children found no passage addressing that point; the References list names a work coauthored by Nigg but does not report the claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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- Authors
- Posner, J., Rauh, V., Gruber, A., Gat, I., Wang, Z., & Peterson, B. S.
- Affiliations
- New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Posner, Jonathan
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-07
- Volume
- 213
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-30
- ISSN
- 0925-4927 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3717483
- OpenAlex
- W1966716858
- Cited by
- 94
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 5.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Shire
- U.S. Public Health Service (K-02-74677)
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH091249)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA027100)
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES015579)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, resting-state functional connectivity, executive attention, emotion regulation, emotional lability, double dissociation, neural circuits
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Attention, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Basal Ganglia, Brain, Child, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Pathways, Case-Control Studies, Prefrontal Cortex, Functional Neuroimaging
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