Distinct structural brain network properties in children with familial versus non-familial attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Rahman Baboli, Meng Cao, Elizabeth Martin, Jeffrey M. Halperin, Kai Wu, Xiaobo Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most prevalent, inheritable, and heterogeneous childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorders. Children with a hereditary background of ADHD have heightened risk of having ADHD and persistent impairment symptoms into adulthood. These facts suggest distinct familial-specific neuropathological substrates in ADHD that may exist in anatomical components subserving attention and cognitive control processing pathways during development. The objective of this study is to investigate the topological properties of the gray matter (GM) structural brain networks in children with familial ADHD (ADHD-F), non-familial ADHD (ADHD-NF), as well as matched controls. A total of 452 participants were involved, including 132, 165 and 155 in groups of ADHD-F, ADHD-NF and typically developed children, respectively. The GM structural brain network was constructed for each group using graph theoretical techniques with cortical and subcortical structures as nodes and correlations between volume of each pair of the nodes within each group as edges, while controlled for confounding factors using regression analysis. Relative to controls, children in both ADHD-F and ADHD-NF groups showed significantly higher nodal global and nodal local efficiencies in the left caudal middle frontal gyrus. Compared to controls and ADHD-NF, children with ADHD-F showed distinct structural network topological patterns associated with right precuneus (significantly higher nodal global efficiency and significantly higher nodal strength), left paracentral gyrus (significantly higher nodal strength and trend toward significantly higher nodal local efficiency) and left putamen (significantly higher nodal global efficiency and trend toward significantly higher nodal local efficiency). Our results for the first time in the field provide evidence of familial-specific structural brain network alterations in ADHD, that may contribute to distinct clinical/behavioral symptomology and developmental trajectories in children with ADHD-F.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalCortex
Volume179
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Keywords

  • ABCD dataset
  • Familial ADHD
  • Neuroanatomy
  • Non-familial ADHD
  • Structural brain network

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