Pharmaco-MEG evidence for attention related hyper-connectivity between auditory and prefrontal cortices in ADHD

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham; John D Franzen; Nichole L Knott; Matthew L White; Martin W Wetzel; Tony W Wilson

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2014.01.002

Pharmaco-MEG evidence for attention related hyper-connectivity between auditory and prefrontal cortices in ADHD

Psychiatry Res. 2014 Mar 30;221(3):240-5. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2014.01.002. Epub 2014 Jan 14.

Authors

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham¹, John D Franzen², Nichole L Knott³, Matthew L White⁴, Martin W Wetzel⁵, Tony W Wilson⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, USA; Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG), University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
² Department of Psychiatry, Bryan Health Medical Center, Lincoln, NE, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
³ Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG), University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁴ Department of Radiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; Mental Health Unit, Lincoln Correctional Center, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Lincoln, NE, USA.
⁶ Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG), University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA. Electronic address: Tony.W.Wilson@gmail.com.

Abstract

The ability to attend to particular stimuli while ignoring others is crucial in goal-directed activities and has been linked with prefrontal cortical regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Both hyper- and hypo-activation in the DLPFC has been reported in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during many different cognitive tasks, but the network-level effects of such aberrant activity remain largely unknown. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we examined functional connectivity between regions of the DLPFC and the modality-specific auditory cortices during an auditory attention task in medicated and un-medicated adults with ADHD, and those without ADHD. Participants completed an attention task in two separate sessions (medicated/un-medicated), and each session consisted of two blocks (attend and no-attend). All MEG data were coregistered to structural MRI, corrected for head motion, and projected into source space. Subsequently, we computed the phase coherence (i.e., functional connectivity) between DLPFC regions and the auditory cortices. We found that un-medicated adults with ADHD exhibited greater phase coherence in the beta (14-30Hz) and gamma frequency (30-56Hz) range in attend and no-attend conditions compared to controls. Stimulant medication attenuated these differences, but did not fully eliminate them. These results suggest that aberrant bottom-up processing may engulf executive resources in ADHD.

Keywords: Beta; Cortex; DLPFC; Gamma; Magnetoencephalography; Stimulants.

Publication types

Comparative Study
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / drug therapy
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / physiopathology*
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / psychology
Attention*
Auditory Cortex / physiopathology*
Brain Mapping
Central Nervous System Stimulants / therapeutic use
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetoencephalography*
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Prefrontal Cortex / physiopathology*

Substances

Central Nervous System Stimulants

Grants and funding

F32 MH078359/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States