Methylphenidate Normalizes Fronto-Striatal Underactivation During Interference Inhibition in Medication-Naïve Boys with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Open Access
- 30 March 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Neuropsychopharmacology
- Vol. 36 (8) , 1575-1586
- https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2011.30
Abstract
Youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have deficits in interference inhibition, which can be improved with the indirect catecholamine agonist methylphenidate (MPH). Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate the effects of a single dose of MPH on brain activation during interference inhibition in medication-naïve ADHD boys. Medication-naïve boys with ADHD were scanned twice, in a randomized, double-blind design, under either a single clinical dose of MPH or placebo, while performing a Simon task that measures interference inhibition and controls for the oddball effect of low-frequency appearance of incongruent trials. Brain activation was compared within patients under either drug condition. To test for potential normalization effects of MPH, brain activation in ADHD patients under either drug condition was compared with that of healthy age-matched comparison boys. During incongruent trials compared with congruent–oddball trials, boys with ADHD under placebo relative to controls showed reduced brain activation in typical areas of interference inhibition, including right inferior prefrontal cortex, left striatum and thalamus, mid-cingulate/supplementary motor area, and left superior temporal lobe. MPH relative to placebo upregulated brain activation in right inferior prefrontal and premotor cortices. Under the MPH condition, patients relative to controls no longer showed the reduced activation in right inferior prefrontal and striato-thalamic regions. Effect size comparison, furthermore, showed that these normalization effects were significant. MPH significantly normalized the fronto-striatal underfunctioning in ADHD patients relative to controls during interference inhibition, but did not affect medial frontal or temporal dysfunction. MPH therefore appears to have a region-specific upregulation effect on fronto-striatal activation.Keywords
This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersPsychiatry Research, 2011
- Prevalence and Treatment of Mental Disorders Among US Children in the 2001–2004 NHANESPediatrics, 2010
- Stimulant Drug Response in the Predominantly Inattentive and Combined Subtypes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity DisorderJournal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 2009
- An fMRI Study of the Effects of Psychostimulants on Default-Mode Processing During Stroop Task Performance in Youths With ADHDAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 2009
- Plasma and brain concentrations of oral therapeutic doses of methylphenidate and their impact on brain monoamine content in miceNeuropharmacology, 2009
- Impulsiveness as a timing disturbance: neurocognitive abnormalities in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder during temporal processes and normalization with methylphenidatePhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2009
- Psychostimulant Treatment and the Developing Cortex in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 2009
- Methylphenidate improves response inhibition but not reflection–impulsivity in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)Psychopharmacology, 2008
- Error-specific medial cortical and subcortical activity during the stop signal task: A functional magnetic resonance imaging studyNeuroscience, 2008
- The neurobiological profile of girls with ADHDDevelopmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 2008