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. 2012;7(2):e31273.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031273. Epub 2012 Feb 10.

Current self-reported symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are associated with total brain volume in healthy adults

Martine Hoogman  1 , Mark Rijpkema, Luc Janss, Han Brunner, Guillen Fernandez, Jan Buitelaar, Barbara Franke, Alejandro Arias-Vásquez
Affiliations

Current self-reported symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are associated with total brain volume in healthy adults

Martine Hoogman et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Background: Reduced total brain volume is a consistent finding in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In order to get a better understanding of the neurobiology of ADHD, we take the first step in studying the dimensionality of current self-reported adult ADHD symptoms, by looking at its relation with total brain volume.

Methodology/principal findings: In a sample of 652 highly educated adults, the association between total brain volume, assessed with magnetic resonance imaging, and current number of self-reported ADHD symptoms was studied. The results showed an association between these self-reported ADHD symptoms and total brain volume. Post-hoc analysis revealed that the symptom domain of inattention had the strongest association with total brain volume. In addition, the threshold for impairment coincides with the threshold for brain volume reduction.

Conclusions/significance: This finding improves our understanding of the biological substrates of self-reported ADHD symptoms, and suggests total brain volume as a target intermediate phenotype for future gene-finding in ADHD.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts. For the past 3 years, Jan Buitelaar has been a consultant to/member of advisory board of and/or speaker for Janssen Cilag BV, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myer Squibb, Organon/Shering Plough, UCB, Shire, Medice and Servier. He is not an employee of any of these companies. He is not a stock shareholder of any of these companies. He has no other financial or material support, including expert testimony, patents, royalties. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Distribution of total brain volume (TBV) and adult self-reported ADHD symptoms in a healthy sample (n = 652).
(a) TBV is associated with the total number of self-reported ADHD symptoms. Of the two ADHD symptom domains, mainly the attentive domain contributes to TBV: (b) inattentive symptoms (β = −.09, p nominal = .007, p empirical = .013), and (c) hyperactive/impulsive symptoms (β = −.06, p nominal = .064, p emperical = .123). (d) Total brain volume across groups based on the number of self-reported ADHD symptoms. The group with 3 or less self-reported symptoms differed from the intermediate group and from the group with a number of ADHD symptoms corresponding to the ADHD diagnosis (≥6 in either of the two domains). *Total brain volume was adjusted for age, gender and field strength.
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