Orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder revealed by reversal and extinction tasks

Abstract

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been considered a mental illness in which the frontal lobe is dysfunctional. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) controls emotional and motivational behaviors which are impaired in ADHD. Patients with OFC damage have shown impaired performance in reversal and extinction tasks in a simple go/no-go paradigm. We assigned ADHD subjects the two tasks to examine a hypothesized dysfunction of OFC. ADHD subjects indeed showed a performance deficit in the tasks, supporting OFC dysfunction in ADHD. Furthermore, a discriminat analysis using the task performance variables correctly classified 89.7% of the participants among ADHD patients and normal controls.