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Frequency-specific abnormalities in regional homogeneity among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a resting-state fMRI study

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  • Life & Medical Sciences
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Science Bulletin

Abstract

Although many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated the neurophysiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the existing studies have not yielded consistent findings. This may be related to the different properties of different frequency bands. To investigate the frequency-specific regional homogeneity (ReHo) of spontaneous neural activities in ADHD, the current study used resting-state fMRI to explore the ReHo properties of five frequency bands, slow-5 (0.01–0.027 Hz), slow-4 (0.027–0.073 Hz), slow-3 (0.073–0.198 Hz), slow-2 (0.198–0.25 Hz) and the extra-low frequency (0–0.01 Hz), in 30 drug-naive boys with ADHD and 30 healthy controls. Compared with controls, the ADHD group showed decreased ReHo in the default mode network (DMN) including the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, middle frontal gyrus and angular gyrus. ADHD patients also showed increased ReHo in the posterior cerebellum. Significant interactions between frequency band and group were observed predominantly in the dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices, orbital frontal cortex, supplementary motor area, inferior occipital gyrus, thalamus and anterior cerebellum. In particular, we found that the between-group difference in the extra-low frequency band (0–0.01 Hz) seemed to be greater than that in the other frequency bands for most brain regions. The findings suggest that ADHD children display widespread abnormalities in regional brain activity, particularly in the DMN and attention network, and these abnormalities show frequency specificity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Development Program of China (2014CB846104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81371496, 30970802, 81101014) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11- 0013). Dr. Zang is partly supported by the “Qian Jiang Distinguished Professor” Program.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University Sixth Hospital/Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, 100191, China

    Xiaoyan Yu, Qingjiu Cao, Li An, Peng Wang, Yufeng Wang & Li Sun

  2. Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Xiaoyan Yu, Qingjiu Cao, Li An, Peng Wang, Yufeng Wang & Li Sun

  3. Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China

    Binke Yuan & Yufeng Zang

  4. Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, 311121, China

    Binke Yuan & Yufeng Zang

  5. Academic Child Psychiatry Unit, Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, 3052, Australia

    Alasdair Vance

  6. Developmental Imaging, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3052, Australia

    Timothy J. Silk

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  1. Xiaoyan Yu
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SPECIAL TOPIC Human Functional Connectomics: Focus on Brain Development

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Yu, X., Yuan, B., Cao, Q. et al. Frequency-specific abnormalities in regional homogeneity among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a resting-state fMRI study. Sci. Bull. 61, 682–692 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0823-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0823-y

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