Identification of Brain Regions with Enhanced Functional Connectivity with the Cerebellum Region in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Abstract

Background: To explore the brain regions with higher functional connectivity with the cerebellum at resting state and the brain functions related to cognitive function in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: Thirty children with ADHD and 33 typically developing children (TDC) were examined using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. Seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis was performed.

Results: Four brain areas with higher FC values were identified in ADHD children. These four areas were the left middle frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, right superior temporal gyrus and left parahippocampal gyrus (P < 0.05). The results of the CPT show that the number of omission errors was significantly higher in the children with ADHD than in the TD group (5.13±5.12 vs 2.18±2.36, P = 0.000). The commission number in the ADHD group was also significantly higher than that of the TD group (4.03±6.56 vs 2.00±2.85, P = 0.002). However, no statistically significant difference was observed in the correct reaction time between the two groups (641.54±146.79 ms vs 584.81±145.82 ms, P = 0.835).

Conclusion: The dysfunction of cerebellar functional connectivity in specific brain regions may be one of the pathological and physiological causes of cognitive impairment of ADHD.

Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; cerebellum; children; functional connectivity; resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Figure 1

Comparison of the functional connectivity values in the ADHD and TDC groups. (P<0.05, after alphasim correction. The red areas indicate the brain regions in which the values of FC were higher in the ADHD group than in the TDC group).