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Default mode network activity and neuropsychological profile in male children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder

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Abstract

It is known that patients with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Conduct disorder (CD) commonly shows greater symptom severity than those with ADHD alone and worse outcomes. This study researches whether Default mode network (DMN) is altered in adolescents with ADHD + CD, relative to ADHD alone and controls or not. Ten medication-naïve boys with ADHD + CD, ten medication-naïve boys with ADHD and 10-age-matched typically developing (TD) controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans in the resting state and neuropsychological tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop Test TBAG Form (STP), Auditory Verbal learning Test (AVLT), Visual Auditory Digit Span B (VADS B) were applied to all the subjects included. fMRI scans can be used only nine patients in each groups. The findings revealed group differences between cingulate cortex and primary mortor cortex; cingulate cortex and somatosensory association cortex; angular gyrus (AG) and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, in these networks increased activity was observed in participants with ADHD + CD compared with the ADHD. We found that lower resting state (rs)-activity was observed between left AG and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, whereas higher rs-activity connectivity were detected between right AG and somatosensory association cortex in ADHD relative to the ones with ADHD + CD. In neuropsyhcological tasks, ADHD + CD group showed poor performance in WISC-R, WCST, Stroop, AVLT tasks compared to TDs. The ADHD + CD group displayed rs-functional abnormalities in DMN. Our results suggest that abnormalities in the intrinsic activity of resting state networks may contribute to the etiology of CD and poor prognosis of ADHD + CD.

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Acknowledgment

We thank to MR technician Irfan Kiziloz at Erciyes University, Children’s Hospital pediatric radiology department for his help in image acquisition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Kayseri Research and Training Hospital, Emel-Mehmet Tarman Child Hospital, Erkilet, Kayseri, Turkey

    Merve Cikili Uytun

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erciyes University, Faculty of Medicine, Kayseri, Turkey

    Emel Karakaya, Sevgi Ozmen & Esra Demirci

  3. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Surp Birgic Armenian Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Didem Behice Oztop

  4. Faculty of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

    Serife Gengec & Semra Icer

  5. Biomedical Imaging Research Center, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

    Kazım Gumus

  6. Faculty of Medicine, Radiology, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

    Selim Doğanay

  7. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

    Saliha Demirel Ozsoy

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  1. Merve Cikili Uytun
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Correspondence to Merve Cikili Uytun.

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This work was supported by research grants from: Erciyes University Scientific Research Project Comission, Kayseri, Turkey (Project number: TCD-2015-5605).

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All of the authors reported no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the applicable revisions at the time of the investigation. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Uytun, M.C., Karakaya, E., Oztop, D.B. et al. Default mode network activity and neuropsychological profile in male children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder. Brain Imaging and Behavior 11, 1561–1570 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-016-9614-6

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