Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Megalographia in Children with Cerebellar Lesions and in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

  • Published:
The Cerebellum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Structural changes of the cerebellum have been reported in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in several studies. The cerebellum is a structure essential for motor coordination and motor learning. Beside behavioral deficits, children with ADHD often show slight motor abnormalities. In the present study, handwriting was examined in both children with ADHD and children with cerebellar lesions. By writing the same sentence several times, letter height increased in the ADHD and cerebellar groups but not in controls. Comparable disorders of handwriting in cerebellar and ADHD children support previous studies, which suggest a contribution of cerebellar dysfunction to motor abnormalities in ADHD. However, an involvement of non-cerebellar dysfunctions in ADHD cannot be excluded.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Andreasen NC, Flashman L, Flaum M, Arndt S, Swayze 2nd V, O'Leary DS, et al. Regional brain abnormalities in schizophrenia measured with magnetic resonance imaging. J Am Med Assoc. 1994;272:1763–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Andreasen NC, O'Leary DS, Cizadlo T, Arndt S, Rezai K, Ponto LL, et al. Schizophrenia and cognitive dysmetria: a positron-emission tomography study of dysfunctional prefrontal-thalamic-cerebellar circuitry. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1996;93:9985–90.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Palmen SJMC, van Engeland H, Hof PR, Schmitz C. Neuropathological findings in autism. Brain. 2004;127:2572–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Nicolson RI, Fawcett AJ, Dean P. Developmental dyslexia: the cerebellar deficit hypothesis. Trends Neurosci. 2001;24:508–11.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Castellanos FX, Lee PP, Sharp W, Jeffries NO, Greenstein DK, Clasen LS, et al. Developmental trajectories of brain volume abnormalities in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. JAMA. 2002;288:1740–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Berquin PC, Giedd JN, Jacobsen LK, Hamburger SD, Krain AL, Rapoport JL, et al. Cerebellum in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a morphometric MRI study. Neurology. 1988;50:1087–93.

    Google Scholar 

  7. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, text revision (DSM-IV-TR). 4th ed. Washington: American Psychiatric Press Inc; 2000.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. Karatekin C, Markiewicz SW, Siegel MA. A preliminary study of motor problems in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Percept Mot Skills. 2003;97:1267–80.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Tervo RC, Azuma S, Fogas B, Fiechtner H. Children with ADHD and motor dysfunction compared with children with ADHD only. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2002;44:383–90.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Frings M, Gaertner K, Buderath P, Christiansen H, Schoch B, Gerwig M, et al. Timing of conditioned eyeblink responses is impaired in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Exp Brain Res. 2010;201:167–76.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Buderath P, Gaertner K, Frings M, Christiansen H, Schoch B, Konczak J, et al. Postural and gait performance in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder. Gait Posture. 2009;29:249–54.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Bing R. Über einige bemerkenswerte Begleiterscheinungen der “extrapyramidalen Rigidität”(Akathisie-Mikrographie-Kinesia paradoxa). Schweiz Med Wsch. 1923;53:167–71.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Petitpierre M. Über den Antagonismus zwischen der “parkinsonistischen” Mikrographie und der cerebellaren Megalographie. Schweiz Arch Neurol Psychiatr. 1925;17:270–82.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Holmes G. The symptoms of acute cerebellar injuries due to gunshot injuries. Brain. 1917;40:461–535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Thomas A. La fonction cérébelleuse. Paris: Doin et fils; 1911.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Racine MB, Majnemer A, Shevell M, Snider L. Handwriting performance in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). J Child Neurol. 2008;23:399–406.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Tucha O, Lange KW. Handwriting and attention in children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Mot Control. 2004;8:461–71.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Lange KW, Tucha L, Walitza S, Gerlach M, Linder M, Tucha O. Interaction of attention and graphomotor functions in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. J Neural Transm Suppl. 2007;72:249–59.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Adi-Japha E, Landau YE, Frenkel L, Teicher M, Gross-Tsur V, Shalev RS. ADHD and dysgraphia: underlying mechanisms. Cortex. 2007;43:700–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Trouillas P, Takayanagi T, Hallett M, Currier RD, Subramony SH, Wessel K, et al. International cooperative rating scale for pharmacological assessment of the cerebellar syndrome. J Neurol Sci. 1997;145:205–11.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Conners CK. Conners' rating scales—revised CRS-R. North Tonawanda: MHS; 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Phillips JG, Bradshaw JL, Chiu E, Bradshaw JA. Characteristics of handwriting of patients with Huntington's disease. Mov Disord. 1994;9:521–30.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Beversdorf DQ, Anderson JM, Manning SE, Anderson SL, Nordgren RE, Felopulos GJ, et al. Brief report: macrographia in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2001;31:97–101.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by an institutional research grant from the University of Duisburg-Essen (IFORES-program D/107-20180 and D/107-20170).

Conflicts of interest

The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest. The authors have no financial disclosures.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, 45122, Essen, Germany

    Markus Frings, Kristina Gaertner, Paul Buderath, Marcus Gerwig, Christoph Hein-Kropp & Dagmar Timmann

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, 45122, Essen, Germany

    Hanna Christiansen & Johannes Hebebrand

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstraße 55, 45122, Essen, Germany

    Beate Schoch

Authors
  1. Markus Frings
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kristina Gaertner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paul Buderath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hanna Christiansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Marcus Gerwig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Christoph Hein-Kropp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Beate Schoch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Johannes Hebebrand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Dagmar Timmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Frings.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Frings, M., Gaertner, K., Buderath, P. et al. Megalographia in Children with Cerebellar Lesions and in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Cerebellum 9, 429–432 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-010-0180-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-010-0180-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation