TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex differences in atypical fronto-subcortical structural connectivity among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
T2 - Associations with delay discounting
AU - Rosch, Keri S.
AU - Batschelett, Mitchell A.
AU - Crocetti, Deana
AU - Mostofsky, Stewart H.
AU - Seymour, Karen E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/8/24
Y1 - 2023/8/24
N2 - Purpose: Atypical fronto-subcortical neural circuitry has been implicated in the pathophysiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including connections between prefrontal cortical regions involved in top-down cognitive control and subcortical limbic structures (striatum and amygdala) involved in bottom-up reward and emotional processing. The integrity of fronto-subcortical connections may also relate to interindividual variability in delay discounting, or a preference for smaller, immediate over larger, delayed rewards, which is associated with ADHD, with recent evidence of ADHD-related sex differences. Methods: We applied diffusion tensor imaging to compare the integrity of the white matter connections within fronto-subcortical tracts among 187 8–12 year-old children either with ADHD ((n = 106; 29 girls) or typically developing (TD) controls ((n = 81; 28 girls). Analyses focused on diagnostic group differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) within fronto-subcortical circuitry implicated in delay discounting, connecting subregions of the striatum (dorsal executive and ventral limbic areas) and amygdala with prefrontal regions of interest (dorsolateral [dlPFC], orbitofrontal [OFC] and anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]), and associations with two behavioral assessments of delay discounting. Results: Children with ADHD showed reduced FA in tracts connecting OFC with ventral striatum, regardless of sex, whereas reduced FA in the OFC-amygdala and ventral ACC-amygdala tracts were specific to boys with ADHD. Across diagnostic groups and sex, reduced FA in the dorsal ACC-executive striatum tract correlated with greater game time delay discounting. Conclusions: These results suggest a potential neurobiological substrate of heightened delay discounting in children with ADHD and support the need for additional studies including larger sample sizes of girls with ADHD to further elucidate ADHD-related sex differences in these relationships.
AB - Purpose: Atypical fronto-subcortical neural circuitry has been implicated in the pathophysiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including connections between prefrontal cortical regions involved in top-down cognitive control and subcortical limbic structures (striatum and amygdala) involved in bottom-up reward and emotional processing. The integrity of fronto-subcortical connections may also relate to interindividual variability in delay discounting, or a preference for smaller, immediate over larger, delayed rewards, which is associated with ADHD, with recent evidence of ADHD-related sex differences. Methods: We applied diffusion tensor imaging to compare the integrity of the white matter connections within fronto-subcortical tracts among 187 8–12 year-old children either with ADHD ((n = 106; 29 girls) or typically developing (TD) controls ((n = 81; 28 girls). Analyses focused on diagnostic group differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) within fronto-subcortical circuitry implicated in delay discounting, connecting subregions of the striatum (dorsal executive and ventral limbic areas) and amygdala with prefrontal regions of interest (dorsolateral [dlPFC], orbitofrontal [OFC] and anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]), and associations with two behavioral assessments of delay discounting. Results: Children with ADHD showed reduced FA in tracts connecting OFC with ventral striatum, regardless of sex, whereas reduced FA in the OFC-amygdala and ventral ACC-amygdala tracts were specific to boys with ADHD. Across diagnostic groups and sex, reduced FA in the dorsal ACC-executive striatum tract correlated with greater game time delay discounting. Conclusions: These results suggest a potential neurobiological substrate of heightened delay discounting in children with ADHD and support the need for additional studies including larger sample sizes of girls with ADHD to further elucidate ADHD-related sex differences in these relationships.
KW - Amygdala
KW - DTI
KW - Prefrontal
KW - Reward
KW - Striatum
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U2 - 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114525
DO - 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114525
M3 - Article
C2 - 37271314
AN - SCOPUS:85163075241
SN - 0166-4328
VL - 452
JO - Behavioural Brain Research
JF - Behavioural Brain Research
M1 - 114525
ER -