Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This project aimed to identify abnormalities in brain regions underlying cognitive control, including differences in activation within these regions and differences in connectivity between these regions, in participants with ADHD versus healthy controls.The Multi-Source Interference Task (MSIT) has been particularly effective for studying both response inhibition and attention control in neuroimaging by implementing both 'congruent' and contrasting 'incongruent' task conditions (Bush & Shin, 2006;Bush et al., 2003).The present study used the MSIT in conjunction with fMRI neuroimaging to examine the possible neural connectivity variations of regions specifically activated during the incongruent tasks between ADHD and healthy participants.We expected hypoactivation in cognitive control regions including the anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor cortex, and superior parietal cortex in ADHD participants, which would be consistent with typical clinical ADHD symptoms such as diminished attention regulation and response inhibition.The ultimate goals of the connectivity analysis were to help map the brain's cognitive control network and elucidate underlying causes of ADHD.The results, demonstrating hyperactivation of cognitive control regions and increased region coupling in ADHD participants, support a compensatory hypothesis for ADHD participants' functional interconnectivity that invites interesting speculation and directions for future studies.
Author: William S. Stone
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W116111702