QUANTITATIVE BRAIN MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING IN ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Background: Anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of atten tion-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been limited by small samples or measurement of single brain regions. Since the neuropsychol ogical deficits in ADHD implicate a network linking basal ganglia and frontal regions, 12 subcortical and cortical regions and their symmetr ies were measured to determine if these structures best distinguished ADHD. Method: Anatomic brain MRIs for 57 boys with ADHD and 55 healthy matched controls, aged 5 to 18 years, were obtained using a 1.5-T sca nner with contiguous 2-mm sections. Volumetric measures of the cerebru m, caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, amygdala, hippocampus, t emporal lobe, cerebellum; a measure of prefrontal cortex; and related right-left asymmetries were examined along with midsagittal area measu res of the cerebellum and corpus callosum. Interrater reliabilities we re .82 or greater for all MRI measures. Conclusion: This first compreh ensive morphometric analysis is consistent with hypothesized dysfuncti on of right-sided prefrontal-striatal systems in ADHD.