Task-Specific Hypoactivation in Prefrontal and Temporoparietal Brain Regions During Motor Inhibition and Task Switching in Medication-Naive Children and Adolescents With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
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OBJECTIVE: A relatively small number of functional imaging studies of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have shown abnormal prefrontal and striatal brain activation during tasks of motor response inhibition. However, the potential confound of previous medication exposure has not yet been addressed, and no functional imaging study exists to date on medication-naive children and adolescents with ADHD. The aim of this study was to investigate the neural substrates of a range of motor and cognitive inhibitory functions in a relatively large group of children and adolescents with ADHD who had never previously been exposed to medication. METHOD: Nineteen boys with ADHD and 27 healthy age- and IQ-matched boys underwent functional MRI to compare brain activation during performance of tasks that assessed motor response inhibition (go/no go task), cognitive interference inhibition (motor Stroop task), and cognitive flexibility (switch task). RESULTS: Boys with ADHD showed decreased activation in the left rostral mesial frontal cortex during the go/no go task and decreased activation in the bilateral prefrontal and temporal lobes and right parietal lobe during the switch task. No significant group differences were observed during motor Stroop task performance. CONCLUSION: Abnormal brain activation was observed in medication-naive children and adolescents with ADHD during tasks involving motor inhibition and task switching, suggesting that hypoactivation in this patient group is unrelated to long-term stimulant exposure. Furthermore, functional abnormalities are task-specific and extend from frontostriatal to parietal and temporal cortices.
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ADHD is associated with underdevelopment or hypoactivation in right frontal/prefrontal and temporoparietal regions thought to support cross-modality binding in adults.
“as well as evidence of ADHD-related underdevelopment/hypoactivation (Shaw et al., 2007; Smith et al., 2006) in right frontal/prefrontal and temporoparietal regions thought to support cross-modality binding in adults (Prabhakaran et al., 2000; Zhang et al., 2004).”
From Are Episodic Buffer Processes Intact in ADHD? Experimental Evidence and Linkage with Hyperactive Behavior (2018) · cites this paper as Smith et al., 2006
Children with ADHD appear mainly challenged by switch paradigms, not by the ID/ED task.
“However, the discrepancies in cognitive flexibility findings might not be so straight forward because ADHD children seem to be primarily challenged on switch paradigms [70,71] but not on the ID/ED task [29,32,34,35].”
From The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism (2009) · cites this paper as [71]
The EFs that children with ADHD show deficits on are largely related to different brain regions.
“and that these EFs are largely related to different brain regions [25], [26], [27]”
Work in ADHD has found reductions in frontal regions during response inhibition tasks.
“however, work in ADHD has found reductions in frontal regions during response inhibition tasks.57”
From Cognitive inflexibility and frontal–cortical activation in pediatric obsessive–compulsive disorder (2010) · cites this paper as [57]
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- Authors
- Smith, A. B., Taylor, E., Brammer, M., Toone, B., & Rubia, K.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Venue
- American Journal of Psychiatry
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 163
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1044-1051
- ISSN
- 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
- 1535-7228
- OpenAlex
- W2145020179
- Cited by
- 300
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 17.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (053272/Z/98/Z/JRS/JP)
- Medical Research Council
- 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, adolescents, motor inhibition, task switching, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal cortex, hypoactivation, go/no-go task, Stroop task, frontostriatal dysfunction
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Central Nervous System Stimulants, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Child, Cognition Disorders, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motor Skills, Neuropsychological Tests, Parietal Lobe, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Task Performance and Analysis, Temporal Lobe, Prefrontal Cortex
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