Frontiers in Neuroscience (Jun 2022)

Dissociation in Neural Correlates of Hyperactive/Impulsive vs. Inattentive Symptoms in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

  • Yu Luo,
  • Yu Luo,
  • Jack H. Adamek,
  • Deana Crocetti,
  • Stewart H. Mostofsky,
  • Stewart H. Mostofsky,
  • Stewart H. Mostofsky,
  • Joshua B. Ewen,
  • Joshua B. Ewen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.893239
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16

Abstract

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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders characterized in current diagnostic criteria by two dominant symptoms, inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Here, we show that task-related alpha (8–12 Hz) interhemispheric connectivity changes, as assessed during a unimanual finger-tapping task, is correlated with inattentive symptom severity (r = 0.55, p = 0.01) but not with severity of hyperactive/impulsive symptoms. Prior published analyses of the same dataset have already show that alpha event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the hemisphere contralateral to unimanual tapping is related to hyperactive/impulsive symptom severity (r = 0.43, p = 0.04) but not to inattentive symptom severity. Our findings demonstrate a neurobiological dissociation in ADHD symptom severity, with implications for understanding the structure of endophenotypes in the disorder as well as for biomarker development.

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